Dear ALA Council, As a former ALA Councilor I’d be very appreciative if someone forwarded my comments to the list. I know through various sources, including talk on the Council list, that Council is considering a resolution to require that ALA’s discussion lists be open. Personally, I see no harm and only good from this […]
Friday, January 11, 2008 Arrive 11:30 a.m. 1:30 – 4:30 pm, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Grand Ballroom, Salon E-F – OCLC Symposium: New Leadership for New Challenges 5-8 p.m. LITA Happy Hour Cebu,123 Chestnut Street [depart 5:45] 6-8 PUBLIB Happy Hour 8 – Dinner with friends Saturday, January 12, 2008 (At some point on Saturday or […]
Four or five years back I attended a “meeting” at an ALA conference where by the time my friend and I showed up, five minutes after start time, the meeting had been adjourned. The members had met online and made decisions, and the face-to-face meeting was the nominal show-time to validate what they had done. […]
A collection of ALA policy applicable to issues related to virtual membership. ALA Policy 6.3.2 Policy Functions As noted in the ALA Constitution, Article VI, and the Bylaws, Article VII, three bodies — Council, the divisions, and the membership — have authority to determine and act for ALA in matters of policy. ALA Policy 4.5 […]
In terms of changing ALA, particularly in the area of virtual participation, I am personally committed to working along multiple tracks: Supporting others who want to work inside the belly of the beast: that would include my strong, hearty endorsement of ALA Council candidates Aaron Dobbs and Chris Harris Participating as a member of the […]
Earlier I observed that in one part of its policy manual ALA attempted to redefine “meeting” in order to include some virtual functions, but that the definition was too literal. (Incidentally, there is a truism floating around that it takes “two votes of Council” to change policy. No, that’s only true for changes to the […]
For some time I’ve observed that ALA’s rules about virtual members box us into face-to-face meetings for the “work of the association”: Virtual members of committees or task forces have the right to attend meetings, participate in debate, and make motions. Virtual members are not counted in determining the quorum nor do they have the […]
I wanted to do a lavish long post on this, but I’m whaling away at my workshop material for this coming Friday, as I really need to finish getting it together today and tomorrow, so that on Monday another person from MPOW and I can drive to Atlanta for a NISO meeting on NCIP, which […]
So I’m on the ALA Task Force on electronic member participation, and one of our tasks is to survey the members about e-participation. I volunteered to spearhead the task, and a few other folks are chipping in. You can see the really early it-could-go-in-entirely-different-directions rough draft. What questions should we ask? What do you wish […]
“I don’t know which is the greater task: to decentralise a top-heavy civilization or to prevent an ancient civilization from becoming centralised and top-heavy. In both cases the core of the problem is to discover what constitutes a good civilization, then proclaim it to the people and help them to erect it.” Over on Pattern […]