In the interest of transparency, I’m posting my Tennessee Chapter Councilor report to the Tennessee Library Association Board of Directors here as well as via the Tennessee Library Association listserv.

As the newly elected Tennessee Chapter Councilor, I attended my first (ever!) ALA MidWinter conference in Seattle last month.  I have included below a list of links to the various documents and information that are involved in Council.  There’s even an audio recording of each Council meeting if anyone is interested in hearing the actual discussions! 🙂

• Council Actions http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/council/council_actions
• Council Agendas http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/council/council_agendas
• Council Documents http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/council/council_documents
• Council Recordings http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/council/councilaudio/index.cfm

ALA’s Council meets three times at each conference.  The bulk of this conference’s work pertained to the proposed dues increase.  The related documents will hopefully be available through the ALA Council sites soon, but the language that was approved is below.

RESOLVED

Beginning in September 2013 and continuing annually through September 2017, personal member dues will be reviewed by the ALA Executive Board, which may approve a dues adjustment not to exceed the percentage change in the national average Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the previous calendar year, rounded to the nearest dollar.  Any increase beyond the above provision proposed by the Executive Board will require approval by a vote of Council and a mail vote of ALA personal members.

This provision shall be formally evaluated by the Executive Board and Council in 2016 with input from ALA personal members.  Any subsequent dues adjustment will require approval by a vote of the ALA Executive Board, Council and a mail vote of ALA personal members.

Please let me know if you have questions or concerns about this resolution.

Other Council actions at this conference included the election of new members of the Executive Board and the passing of a resolution to change “School Library Media Specialist” to “School Librarians” in the ALA policy manual (section B.9.2.2).

Also passed by Council were a number of memorial resolutions honoring Alice Holly Scott, Leo Dillon, Clara Stanton Jones, Phyllis Brodnax Heroy, Aaron Swartz, Joseph Branin, Harris Clark McClaskey, Barbara Ann Schmitt Webb, Genevieve “Kay” Bishop, and William (Bill) DeJohn.  A Tribute Resolution dedicated to the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Caldecott Medal was also passed by the Council.

I have also passed along information received through the various ALA listservs to the TLA listserv.

If there are questions about the information here, any of the emails that I have sent to the listserv, or about ALA and Council in general, please let me know!  I can be reached via email at tla.alacouncilor@gmail.com.