ALA Executive Board,
Fall 1999 Meeting
ALA Executive Board Management Votes to Dissolve Fund
The Fund for America’s Libraries has been gasping for breath almost since it first inhaled, so the decision of the ALA Executive Board to dissolve the fund and return Association fundraising to a development office came as no surprise at the board’s fall meeting in Chicago, November 5–7. Executive Director William Gordon presented a detailed proposal on the fund’s fate, enlisting Joan Ress Reeves, cochair of the fund board, who concurred by phone with his recommendations. Although Reeves had been reluctant to see the fund dissolved, she finally agreed with President Sarah Ann Long’s assessment that it was in the best interests of ALA.
Gordon’s plan (Executive Office Document-1999-VI) states that the fund has struggled since its creation in 1995 as a separate 501(c)3 at the hand of then–Executive Director Elizabeth Martinez “to achieve positive name recognition with the ALA membership, to reach its targeted fundraising goals, and to establish an organizational structure that would enable it to develop to its fullest potential.” It has been stymied in these efforts, and with the departure of its director, Walter Hansen, in September (AL, Oct., p. 7) and of its associate/acting director Stuart Whitwell in October, the writing was on the wall.
The transfer of the fund to an ALA development office will be implemented “as quickly as possible,” said Gordon. A new development officer, reporting to the executive director, will be hired, and the fund board will meet to formalize the Executive Board’s action.
Onward with public awareness
While the fund was taking its last breath, new initiatives were coming alive, including a national public-awareness campaign being hatched in cooperation with a public relations firm. Jennifer Sosin of the Washington office of BSMG Worldwide presented the board with an outline of a “public education campaign” that ALA Associate Executive Director for Communications Peggy Barber is overseeing. To be announced at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in January, the campaign will be rolled out at Annual Conference in July.
The public relations effort is one way the board is embracing its role as a planning body. Taking it a step further, James Neal facilitated a follow-up session to the board’s October planning retreat (EBD#1.8, #1.9), during which the board agreed that public awareness, continuing education, and equitable access were goals that should be brought forward at Midwinter as part of a package of objectives and strategies aimed at taking ALA to 2005 (EBD#12.10). As a means of unifying the Association’s public message, the board decided that future ALA presidents should work within the established theme of the media campaign. Vice-president/President-elect Nancy Kranich announced (EBD#7.1) that her presidential year will center on advocacy, information literacy, public policy, and assistance to countries with emerging democracies.
Noteworthy along financial lines was the announcement that the ALA Endowment Trustees (EBD#13.1-2) have achieved their goal (set three years ago) of growing the endowment to $10 million by 2000. The board also stamped approval on the FY2000 budget, totaling $42,940,059 (EBD#4.4), and voted to exclude mutual funds from the Association’s long-term investment portfolio because they are not conducive to active growth management (EBD#13.0).
Filtering on the local level
Immediate Past President Ann Symons reported (EBD#1.10) on a recent meeting of Chief Officers of State Library Agencies in Indianapolis, where she took heat over ALA’s position against filtering software in public libraries. Their perception, she said, is that “ALA needs to be more helpful.” While the majority of the officers supported ALA’s intellectual-freedom policies, Symons reported, some thought they needed to change.
Liz Bishoff suggested that ALA try to make COSLA “a full partner” in solving the problem. The final report of the Web Links Task Force (EBD#8.0, #8.1) offers a set of operating practices for ALA divisions providing linked Web bibliographies such as 700+ Great Sites and suggests a request-for-reconsideration form to be employed when complaints arise over external links on the ALA Web site. In other actions the board:
- Approved skeleton schedules for the 2001 Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference (EBD#1.7), which will schedule meetings along tracks to make it easier for attendees to find their way through the programs. The final schedules will also feature more Tuesday morning programs and Membership Meetings scheduled at prime (but not no-conflict) times.
- Discussed the difficulty the Nominating Committee was having in convincing ALA members to run for office (EBD#10.0) and the need to ratchet down the time and money costs of campaigning and holding office.
- Called for a technology plan aimed at “a digital association,” recommended establishment of a standing ALA Web Site Advisory Committee and development of a set of practices related to the ALA site, and encouraged ALA’s Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies to continue promoting Web accessibility (EBD#12.5.1).
- Approved the appointment of a 15-member steering committee and expenditure of up to $25,000 to plan a second Congress on Professional Education, this one focusing on continuing education (EBD#1.3, #5.0, #8.2). ALA Senior Associate Executive Director Mary Ghikas reported that the task forces created after the first congress (AL, Aug., p. 6) are moving swiftly, especially those devoted to preparing a list of core professional values and to exploring the possibility of moving accreditation responsibility from ALA to a separate body supported by various library organizations (EBD#8.2).
- Accepted a proposal from Nancy Kranich to “grandfather” the annual James Madison Award, given by ALA’s moribund Coalition on Government Information, into the regular ALA awards program, with responsibility for its administration resting with the Washington Office (EBD#1.5).
- Approved Pittsburgh as the site for the October 1–7, 2001, conference of ALA’s American Association of School Librarians (EBD#12.1), and Seattle for the Public Library Association’s February 24-28 conference in 2004 (EBD#12.6). a Concluded an investigation into the use of ALA’s name by units of the Association with a document (EBD#1.6) that will guide staff liaisons with regard to their responsibility for orienting round tables and committees to policies governing such use.
Other board members present were Alice Calabrese, Julie Cummins, Bruce Daniels, Martin Gomez, Robert Newlen, and Sally Reed.
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