2023 ALA Annual Membership Meeting and Council I

Membership Meeting

Little did I know that this meeting was the first official hybrid membership meeting, but not long after the meeting started I was informed it was, largely by our first item on the agenda, the Resolution on Maintaining Equitable In-Person Participation for All at ALA Membership Meetings. This came from the requirement for members to pre-register in order to be able to vote on the morning's actionable items. The creator of the resolution thought that it was "crazy" and left out those who hadn't finalized their plans for the conference. Various councilors shared their agreement, especially a select few who come in-person but didn't register to get their voting credentials. I believe that it was probably because Councilors usually have their credentials automatically emailed to them a few days prior to ALA Council meetings and thought the same would happen here. I also agreed with the resolution, especially because people have up to 48 hours before the start of a meeting (council members get daily emails of updated agendas due to new resolutions being proposed) to add to the agenda, so it's very possible to get last minute parties that are interested and they should have the right to give their vote as much as everyone else. The motion was later passed a few hours later at Council I.

President Pelayo Lozada stated that the resolution, which called for on-site registration, would require a bylaws change and would take additional time and cost that would need to be considered. In the past, in-person voting was conducted using hand raises and voting slips. I personally don't see why we can't do something in the middle, but that's just me. There was a vote and the motion carries. Now it's figuring out the logistics which, thankfully, is not my job.

ALA Executive Director's Report

Executive Director Tracie D. Hall shared some things happening in the association to look forward to. The American Library Association will be receiving an award from the Barbara Bush Foundation for their works on adult literacy, which will be accepted in October by then-president Emily Drabinski.

In response to the continued fight against censorship, ALA will be bringing back the programs "Lawyers for Libraries" and "Law for Librarians." These were first introduced in 2003 as training institutes for legal issues affecting libraries, privacy and censorship. With the unprecedented legislation being thrown at our organizations and positions, this couldn't come at a better time. Finally, there will be an Intellectual Freedom Congress will take place January 2024. This will bring intellectual freedom leaders from across the country together at the Library of Congress. It's a shame that you have to be invited because I would love to be there.

Council I

Now, onto business. The first ALA Council started later that day with a review of actions by the ALA Executive Board since LibLearn X in January, the most notable being to proceed with forming the 150 anniversary fundraising committee. It's hard to believe that is just 3 years away, again in Chicago. With a big milestone like that, I will definitely be there. A separate report was given on Council's Actions on items voted on during the January conference, including the resolution of the code of conduct. For more details about those action items, you can either look at the official ALA Recap or check out my LLX2023 blog posts.

The Committee on Diversity presented a resolution to review and approve the 2023 edition of the ALA Standards for Library Services for the Incarcerated and Detained. The changes include an explicit acknowledgement of systemic racism in the standards preface and an increased bibliography of organizations with resources and professional development opportunities for librarians who work with the incarcerated and detained. This was passed unanimously.

For those who may be interested in running for positions in ALA governance, the nominating committee, will be doing a lot less soliciting and recruiting future ALA Councilors-at-Large. The new bylaws changes will be bringing the number down so over the next three years, only 18 candidates will be on the ballot for 12 positions instead of the past listing of 50 names.

One change sparking online debate in the ALA Council Listserv is the recent executive board appointments. Two new seats were created under the ALA Bylaws. which ruffled some feathers as we were told after the fact instead of going through a nomination and voting process during Annual. President Pelayo-Lozada presented the appointment FAQs which showed that this is to even out term years. The discussion of candidates were based on who had skill sets that fit a certain need or requirement on the Executive Board. I think some are still displeased that everything happened during a closed board session, but appreciate the clarification. Honestly, it's hard to be mad at Lessa. She's just too likable.

A resolution was subsequently passed which called on the Policy Manual Revision Working Group to review the process for vacancy appointments to the Executive Board and to recommend a possible overturn of Executive Board actions by Council or ALA Membership. Those updates will be presented at LibLearnX 2024.

Finally, the other listserv thread that got a lot of response was the resolution to reaffim ALA's position on the Freedom to Read. So many people responded with their support and wanting their signatures on the document it was overwhelming my inbox. The resolution passed in a landslide.

Council I ended with registration numbers at 15,486 with 9,289 paid registrants (I'm assuming the rest are invited guests, scholarship/grant recipients, vendors, and exhibitors?) which exceeded the projected number for the beginning of conference. Also one of the new editors of made a call for writers for the Intellectual Freedom Round Table as they are looking for people to share their unique experiences. If you have a story to tell, visit the Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy website for more information.

On that note, I must say after 3 years, it is a shock to have a council meeting end not only on time, but nearly an hour early. This must be what staying on track feels like.