Vermont Chapter Councilor Report – ALA LibLearnX 2023

Posted on by jessamyn
screenshot from Council meeting showing the pets of... maybe the ALA president?
All documents for this meeting can be found here.
Attendee report: 2653 attendees at LLX, 1711 are reg members (i.e. not vendors, corporate members, free attendees)

 
Friday January 27

ALA Bylaws Convention, Special Council Session 1-5pm

This meeting was specifically set up in order to finalize work on revising the ALA Bylaws. There were 12 articles that did not have amendments suggested and we zipped through them. On the articles that did have amendments, they concerned with various things.

– Article V –  Makeup of the Executive Board in the absence of Council, what representation was the optimal makeup and who votes for them. (I voted for the original Forward Together suggestion)
– Article VI – Does Council maintain policy-making power or are they advisory? And how many people should be on a new Council? (I voted for the original Forward Together suggestion)
– Article VII – About how much of ALA’s business should also be available virtually. (I voted yes to more virtual meetings)
– Article VIII – About adding the Intellectual Freedom Committee to the standing committees of ALA (I voted yes to adding them)
– Article XIII – About auditing and who gets the reports from the audit (I voted for the original Forward Together suggestion)
– Article XV – About the role of the Policy Monitoring Committee (vote took place after I had to leave the meeting and I did not vote)

The overall bylaws changes were voted in and there will be a new work group formed to work on changes to the policy manual.
Saturday January 28
APA & ALA Council Meeting 3-6:30pm
ALA-APA (Allied Professional Association) gave their report which can be found here. https://bit.ly/ALA-APA
– We met the six Executive Board candidates.
– Council voted whether to approve an extended timeline for a simplification of membership dues, to approve dues adjustments (general price hike but with reduced fees still in effect and free membership for international members), and to try to standardize Round Table dues. There was lengthy discussion.
– Resolution on continuing virtual access to ALA Membership Meetings passes
– Revision of Core Competencies of Librarianship passes (more social justice inclusion, more reference to “library workers” not just librarians)
– Resolution on establishing a policy monitoring oversight for Exec Board (referred to COO)
– Changing function of Code of Conduct Committee and changing the charge of the IT Advisory Committee
Sunday Saturday January 29
ALA Council Meeting 1:30-4:45pm
Memorial tributes
  • Terrilyn Chun
  • Deanna Bowling Marcum
  • Dr. Roberto C. Delgadillo
  • Menahem Schmelzer
  • Barratt Wilkins
  • Betty Lee Sung
  • David Philip Norris
Reports
Intellectual Freedom Committee put out a six-page report which is well worth reading and can be read here: https://bit.ly/ALAIFC
Report of the Committee on Legislation and the work done by the Public Policy & Advocacy Office at ALA. Longer report can be read here: https://bit.ly/ALACOL
Report of the Committee on Diversity which has a new subcommittee on condemning/ending white supremacy and fascism. Longer report: https://bit.ly/ALACOD
Report on the Policy Monitoring Committee. Longer report: https://bit.ly/ALAPMC Action items.
  • do we use the DEI scorecard within the policy manual (passed. I voted for this but with reservations since it primarily centers BIPOC issues which are very important but only one part of DEI ideals)
  • do we add more to the policy manual about support for school librarians (passed, I voted yes)
  • do we apologize to historical wrongs done to black school librarians and move forward working towards more EDI? (passed, I voted yes)

Report of Budget Objectives/Programmatic Priorities (approved budget)

Freedom to Read Foundation report – they strongly encourage chapters to join the Freedom to Read Foundation and I would suggest that we do this as well as possible make a donation to the Merritt Fund. https://www.oif.ala.org/the-merritt-fund/
 
Affiliates
Voted to approve affiliate status for the organization Literacy Nation https://www.literacynation.com/ (passed, I spoke to this motion and voted yes)
 

Resolutions (all are available in full at the document link above)

– Resolution on Human Rights and Freedom of Speech and Expression in Iran (passed – I voted yes)
– Resolution on Revising the Code of Conduct to Include Online Activity (discussion – got referred to the Committee on Professional Ethics – I voted against referral)
– Resolution to establish policy monitoring oversight for the Executive Board (referred to COO)

Additional Business
Discussion of whether the dissolution of Core (which used to be LLAMA, LITA, ASCLA and ALCTS) happened legitimately because of Parliamentary questions. (voted to refer to other places)