CLA Weblog Submissions
Do you have information that would be of interest to the library community? Please send your weblog submissions to the CLA office at lfisher@cla-net.org.
From the President
The Executive Committee met on January 23 at the San Leandro Public Library. As many of you know, one item on the agenda was the proposal for reorganization of CLA. A few of you have e-mailed me, wanting to know what happened? what are we doing next?
One of the first things that happened was a discussion about whether or not the idea of organization seems to have merit and if CLA should even continue to have this discussion. Based on the general positive comments and the Executive Committee's thoughts about the potential for improving the organization, we agreed that we should continue to work on this idea.
Next, the group considered the comments that were made by members, both on the blog and via e-mail. There were good, concrete ideas in these comments that we decided needed a little more organization and consideration. A small subgroup of the Executive Committee will organize the comments into the subject areas that they seems to address. Then, they will look at the ideas and see if they seem to fit into the proposal, making adjustments where they make sense. At the same time, CLA staff will look at the Bylaws, to determine if and where we would need to make Bylaws changes to meet the needs of a reorganization. While doing this, CLA will also clean up the Bylaws, which hasn't happened in a while. Some of the changes proposed would require a vote of the membership, and my goal is to include any proposed changes in the next election in July.
The Executive Committee and Assembly will meet again in April, around Legislative Day. By then, a more complete proposal should be ready for the Assembly to discuss. They will vote on whether or not to implement the proposal and send the appropriate pieces to a Bylaws vote. Implementation of any of these changes would take about a year or so, and will require the help of the committees, the sections, and the round tables.
So that's what happened, and the process that this will take next. I did receive e-mail from the Public Library Association today. They, too, have been looking at their organization, and are moving forward on changes to their Bylaws which will reorganize their association to be more responsive, more flexible, for their members. It's a great goal, and exactly what we have had in mind all along, too.
Posted by Monique le Conge, 2008 CLA President on February 1, 2008 5:15 PM | Permalink