According to LITA Blogger Aaron Dobbs, ALA Council just approved placing the $30 dues increase on the ballot. Here’s why I’m asking you to join me in supporting the dues increase:
- The Washington Office. The rest of ALA could vanish, and I’d get my bang for the buck out of these intrepid freedom fighters.
- Just having an Office for Intellectual Freedom is pretty damn cool. What they do every year–the campaigns, the advocacy–is even cooler.
- Because I know what it’s like to be flat-funded, and it hurts. Flat-funding is negative funding.
- Because I’ve had cost of living increases in the last decade (not last year, but most years), and ALA staff deserve them too.
- ALA Techsource. This seems self-serving, since I write for the Techsource blog, but really, this is one of the best new publishing efforts to come out of ALA in a decade.
- Because when the bibliorati groused about the hideous new ALA website, ALA gave their IT department more power and resources and agreed to fund a new CMS, which was selected through a process that would make most libraries proud.
- Because some of us think of ALA as backward, but in 1995, when I told Leonard Kniffel American Libraries needed a column on the Internet, he agreed (and hired me to write it!). They were “at the plate” long before anyone else was.
- Because some library associations charge far more and give you far less. Far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, less. Catch-me-at-the-bar-at-midnight-next-time-you’re-at-ALA-and-I’ll-bend-your-ear less.
- Because ALA is the Mother Ship for LITA, providing services and support LITA couldn’t swing on its own for $60 a year, and I don’t know where I would learn about emerging technologies without LITA.
- Because for the equivalent of three lattes the first year, six the second, and nine the last, I can continue to take care of an organization that fights its battles with such humor and style.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Coming home - 2012
- My day - 2007
- Pensees du Webcred - 2005
- Public Library Internet Connectivity Survey - 2005
- Webcred and Librarians: A Bit of Google Juice - 2005
- Garrison Keillor Mocks Patriot Act - 2004
- Nat Hentoff Responds to Library Journal - 2004
Bookmark to:
OK, I vote for the increase. In many places, $30 is a night out at a nice restaurant. (Not here in Shanghai, but this is Asia.) I do agree. We get so much for our money and in the current political era we can’t be cutting back on the group keeping an eye open for us.
Difficult to believe since cost was one of the things that kept me off the dues roster in the past, but if I could join ALA, I would vote for the increase for exactly the reasons you mention. It’s too bad a few boneheaded moves obscure a lot of the great work they do.
Wow, I’d like to go out for dinner for $30 in Palo Alto. That might cover breakfast in a diner. 🙂
Re boneheaded moves, most big organizations make them. But Jenny, are you referring to recent boneheadedness by a division? If so, ALA was poorly represented by their decision, but a division–particularly THAT division–is just an ALA sub-unit. Its decisions do reflect poorly on ALA as a whole, sadly enough.
But the big thing is that it’s not much to ask and if we don’t get it, we’re going to have trouble with 1-10 above. I don’t want to hear ANYONE complain about the website if this dues increase doesn’t pass.
“Jenny, are you referring to recent boneheadedness by a division?”
Come on… don’t be coy… TELL US which division!
-Ruth
I agree that the ALA dues increase is worth-its-weight…especially since they continue to subsidize memberships for students, first year-ers, low income, etc. I only wish that more of the divisions would follow suit. Most offer some discount for student members, but LITA & ALCTS, to name the two divisions I have an interest in joining, have pretty hefty dues in their own right(s) and no discounts for those new librarians who are still trying to find their footing in this profession. I’m renewing my ALA membership but will have to forego (for now) joining the divisions that represent my core professional interests.
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