Council Composition and Charge

Charge

The Council is the governing body of ALA. It delegates to the divisions of the Association authority to plan and carry out programs and activities with policy established by Council. Only personal members of the Association may serve on Council. Two meetings are required each year, one at the annual conference of the Association and one not less than three months prior to annual conference. (See Bylaw Article IV.) Council determines all policies of the Association and its decisions are binding unless set aside by a majority vote by mail in which one-fourth of the members of the Association have voted.  Such vote by mail shall be held upon petition of one percent of the personal members as certified by the Executive Director of the Association. (See Constitution Article VI.)

Composition

Officers and Members: The officers of the Association and the Executive Board, including the immediate past president and treasurer, are members of the Council as provided in Bylaw Article III, Sec. 6(c) and IV, Sec. 2(e).  The officers of Council are the president, the president-elect and the executive director.

 

There shall be 100 councilors at large who are elected by the Association membership as provided in Bylaw Article III, Sec. 1(c) and Bylaw Article IV, Sec. 2(e).

Each division of the Association is entitled to one councilor to be elected by members of the divisions as provided in Bylaw Article IV, Sec. 2(c). Each state, provincial, and territorial chapter is entitled to one councilor to be elected by members of the chapter as provided by Bylaw Article IV, Sec. 2(b).  Chapter representation is through state chapters unless chapters in a region choose to take representation through that regional chapter.  In such case, the regional chapter shall elect one representative from each state or provincial chapter within that regional association.  There is no current regional chapter representation. Round tables with personal membership equal to or greater than one percent of ALA’s total personal membership shall be entitled to elect one councilor each, and the remaining round tables jointly shall be entitled to one councilor to be elected for a term of three years by the members of the respective round tables.   The membership of the round tables, for purposes of this section, shall be fixed as of August 31st of each year.  A councilor elected under this Article shall continue to serve without prejudice to any change that might occur in the size of the membership of their round table as provided in Bylaw Article IV, Sec. 2(d).