JoAnn Mondowney

 
Rick Schweiterman

ALA Executive Board,
2001 Annual Conference

The ALA Executive Board began the first of its three meetings at Annual Conference in San Francisco, June 15, 18, and 20, with a discussion of how the Association’s policies and procedures can be adapted to keep up with the members’ ability to participate in an electronic environment.

“The important issue is how technology is going to shape the future of our Association,” board member Sally Reed said. Digital participation has already begun to transform the nature of meetings and to affect the way issues are discussed (EBD#12.30). A key question is: If you can use technology to have a committee meeting, will we need to change the open-meeting policy?

“How do we have deliberative discourse in this environment? That is the question,” added President Nancy Kranich.

Emily Sheketoff, director of ALA’s Washington Office, said, “We are already moving toward the electronic office, trying as much as possible to get away from paper and making information and issue briefs at these and other meetings available electronically.” She updated the board on various issues (EBD#12.46), including the Tauzin/Dingle bill on broadband. The House Judiciary Committee considered the legislation, she said, “and this version of the bill could have a long-term negative impact on the e-rate.”

The board received instructions on how to use its new password-protected Web page and agreed to make electronic participation a discussion topic for its fall retreat. Then came an update by telephone on the Association’s lawsuit challenging the Children’s Internet Protection Act (EBD#12.43-44) from ALA attorney Theresa Chmara of Jenner and Block, who advised that to qualify for year-four e-rate funds, libraries need not certify that they are compliant “but that they are taking the necessary actions to evaluate their options.”

The board approved an operating budget of $50,119,348 for FY 2002 (EBD# 3.4-3.4.3, #12.43-44), with a general-fund ceiling of $26,774,978, a division budgetary ceiling of $18,325,460, round tables at $681,096, the plant fund at $120,000, grants and awards at $3,555,174, and a capital budget of $1,741,870. ALA’s first budget to hit the $50-million mark passed with little debate, with the exception of 5.4 additions to the table of authorized positions (EBD#3.4.2), which several board members were reluctant to approve. Treasurer Liz Bishoff recommended approval of all the positions but urged that the board take a closer look at the issue of how staff is added or reallocated.

Board member Ken Haycock agreed, observing that the Association has increased its staff by 50% in 10 years. He moved that consideration of three of the positions, which were not expected to be filled until later in the fiscal year, be delayed until the board’s fall meeting.

Board member Martín Gómez raised the question of how the Spectrum Institute will be funded for the next two years, suggesting a one-time mini-campaign from ALA’s divisions and sponsoring libraries and organizations to raise $150,000. The board decided that the issue needed more review (EBD#12.37).

Endowment Trustee Rick Schweiterman reported briefly (EBD#13.2), saying that the stock market is in a tentative state and the board needed to remember that “the investment strategy that this body adopted at Midwinter is a long-term strategy.” He urged restraint in the use of endowment money to fund initiatives.

Third session, minus president-elect

As he had warned at various times during the conference, President-elect Maurice Freedman did not join the Executive Board for its third meeting, because he refused to enter the Marriott, in protest of the board’s decision not to pull out in support of the boycott.

Newly inaugurated President John W. Berry took the gavel from Nancy Kranich, who will serve on the board another year as immediate past president. New board members Patty Wong and Kent Oliver (replacing Gómez and Reed) took their seats. Freedman’s absence was noted, and the conflict-of-interest statement that all new board members sign will be relayed to him.

Budget Analysis and Review Committee (EBD#3.1.2) chair JoAnn Mondowney said the committee had worked with the Coretta Scott King Awards Task Force to help it handle the financial responsibility for canceling the Awards Breakfast, scheduled for the Marriott. BARC recommended the “coupon” that appeared in the Monday issue of Cognotes, the conference newspaper, suggesting that ticket holders donate the ticket cost instead of requesting a refund.

The Marriott protest aside, Deidre Ross, director of Conference Services, reported that part of the reason for the record-breaking numbers in San Francisco was the unusually large number of exhibit personnel. “We made the trade show top 200,” she noted.

Both Ross and Senior Associate Executive Director Mary Ghikas maintained that the conference “track” system was well received, despite complaints about the way it was presented in the conference program book. “People could not find anything in the program,” Ross admitted, but one division, said Ghikas, “is so enthusiastic about the tracks that they want everything they do shoved into those tracks.”

Reporting for the board’s Finance and Audit Subcommittee (EBD#4.13), Bishoff noted that ALA needs to try to figure out why this year’s Scholarship Bash, featuring Three Dog Night, was so poorly attended.

President Kranich showed a videotape of a new public-service announcement created by ABC television and featuring Meredith Vieira of The View. Kranich said she had some concerns about details in the tape and that ABC was open to feedback. To general agreement, Camila Alire lauded the spot and advised, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth; I’m delighted that a national network is willing to give libraries some PSA time.” The tape was produced independently and not in partnership with ALA’s “@ your library” campaign (EBD#12.47).

Young Adult Library Services Association President Mary Arnold and YALSA Executive Director Julie Walker made a surprise appearance before the board to draw attention to the timing of a potential campaign corporate partnership that conflicts with the division’s Teen Read Week. Arnold complained that the YALSA executive board had not been informed about the project until it was a fait accompli. Executive Director William Gordon explained that “we don’t have a deal” yet and committed the Development Office and the Public Information Office to working with the division on closing the deal to everyone’s satisfaction.

Action roundup

Among its other actions, the board:

• Approved Pittsburgh as the site of the 2005 conference of ALA’s American Association of School Librarians (EBD#12.48). An unplanned convention-center closure there had resulted in the 2001 conference being relocated to Indianapolis.
• Reviewed questions presented by Susan K. Martin for the External Accreditation Task Force (EBD#8.5.1). They were subsequently used to stimulate discussion at the Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session over the possibility of establishing an independent board for the accreditation of library and information studies programs.
• Received what James Neal called “a penultimate report” (EBD#8.11) on the Second Congress on Professional Education, held last November, leading to a discussion of whether ALA should have an office for continuing-education development.
• Heard from Immediate Past President Sarah Ann Long, completing her three years of service on the board, that a USAID grant of $300,000 will permit librarians in all 50 states to receive training by the end of the year in the library’s role in building sustainable communities.
• Identified a need for better clarification of the roles of ALA president and executive director, and broached the possibility of a “fully paid presidency.”

Other board members present were Alice Calabrese, Barbara Stripling, Julie Cummins, and Molly Raphael.