We need your help as we plan for the future

Information Outlook, July, 2005 by Pam Rollo

This year's annual conference theme was "we're talking impact," and this year the association and our division planners delivered the goods. This conference delivered more than 5,200 attendees to Toronto with an accompanying snap of excitement.

What made this conference better? I think the answer lies in the convergence of talent, experience and passion that all the players brought to this meeting. Everyone seemed charged and "in charge."

This year the conference received great local coverage thanks to our association team and our members--from the "welcome SLA signs" seen at Canadian customs and immigration to the knowing wave through that U.S. citizens received from their own customs officers when they heard we had "attended that SLA library conference." The conference was covered in major Toronto newspapers and, thanks to Michele Melady, our member at CBC, we enjoyed radio coverage during drive time on Wednesday morning, June 8. Juanita Richardson, chair of the Conference Planning Committee, secured from the Mayor of Toronto a proclamation naming the week of June 6 Special Libraries Week.

Those attending the conference and voting at the business meeting made it possible for all those who can't attend to vote on association initiatives electronically in the future. Based on the positive vote to change the bylaws, members will now be able to be heard electronically in making decisions affecting their lives in the association. This is a big step for inclusiveness and access. In addition, members also passed an amendment to the bylaws that enables the alignment of the fiscal and program years. This change will provide leadership with an opportunity to manage and match reporting and budgeting more effectively. Most of our chapters and divisions have already made decisions about the new terms of officers, either shortening an interim officer's term of office to six months or lengthening the term to 18 months. The target date for complete execution is January 2007.

For those of you who couldn't join us at conference this year, much of the action was captured in our first conference blog and may of our colleagues were official bloggers capturing activity through photos and narration. The blog is still open for readers to review and comment. See it at www.sla.org/conferenceblog. (Note to self: Remember to conduct oneself appropriately at open houses as bloggers may be lurking ready to capture copy at future events.)

This obvious confidence was contagious in my opportunities to speak with members. This year our Association executives and I want to collect enough information to enable us to define and craft our message to employers, the information industry, and the community at large, communicating our values and our value. We will do this through a series of task forces, which will probably demand the talents of at least a 100 of our members (most of whom I am still looking to volunteer) to help shape our future. While you will certainly see more in-depth coverage about these task forces, they are as follows:

The Allies and Partners Task Force, which will work in conjunction with this year's Professional Value task force. This group will profile other members of the information industry who share our professional values thus creating potential partners and members of our association.

The Contributing to Executive Growth Task Force, which will identify those skills necessary to our members to become senior executives, thought leaders, and policy makers within their organizations.

The New Visions Task Force, which will complement the executive growth group and concentrate on what the association should do to recruit and retain those members who are new to the profession and the association, thereby enabling SLA to confront the future challenges of the profession with confidence and to provide for leadership succession.

The Recognition Task Force, which will investigate the opportunities for acknowledging the work and success of our members and those we admire more frequently and at different stages throughout their careers.

The Research Now Task Force, which will call for and facilitate research going on among our members. This process speaks to our initiative of communicating our value. The task force will look for new ways to fund and publish research quickly through matching our corporate and academic members in research partnerships.

The Chapter Model Project, which will investigate chapters with large geographically dispersed members to provide management/membership styles that chapters can try on as we attempt to make chapters overall more fun to participate in and easier to manage.

These task forces will, as part of their charge, look to who we are and what we value. They will examine the conditions and issues that will influence future trends and present future challenges. We can communicate our value once we have a clear sense of it and confidence in the way we can tell it.

What I recognized this year and particularly at this conference is that we are on our way to becoming a modern association, one that is professional, confident, and with its eye on the big picture. We are recruiting, to both association staff and the Leadership, people who are experienced and passionate about their professions.