WE WANT YOU! Participate in the SLA Strategic Vision Project
SLA President Cindy Romaine has tasked members of the Board of Directors with developing a strategic roadmap for the association. The “Strategic Vision Project” has as its goal to provide direction and a strategic vision for SLA through 2014. The Board has been divided into three topic-related sub-groups:
- Skills & Membership Sub-Group: What skills do association current and future members need, and how best can we assist them in acquiring these? How can we build and retain association membership?
- Collaboration & Community Sub-Group: Are there other associations, groups, and projects with which SLA can collaborate to achieve a new goal, which we could not create individually?
- Alignment & Services Sub-Group: How can we incorporate the SLA Alignment Project research and strategies into association and member performance? What services can the association provide to facilitate this?
So, we would like to pick your collective and individual brains. What advice and/or suggestions do you have on these themes? Kindly post here—or contact any or all Board members. The Board will continue discussing this at its June meetings in Philadelphia.
Thanks!
Ann Sweeney, Ulla de Stricker, & Sara Tompson
Over the past 18 years, Ann Sweeney has served the European Union Delegation as Librarian, Webmaster, and now Senior Information & Communication Officer: Electronic Publications. Ann’s 40+ years’ career as a librarian spans positions at the Columbia University Graduate Business Library, the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the Port Authority of NY & NJ, the National Academy of Sciences, and public libraries.
Ann is active in SLA: having held multiple leadership positions over the years including Social Science Division past Chair, and current International Relations Section Chair. She received the 2006 Member Achievement Award, the DSOC 2009 Gale Group Murray Wortzel Award, and has organized the Annual Conference’s International Reception for more than a decade. Outside of SLA, she provided guidance on EU materials for the American Society of International Law’s Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) Editorial Review Group, and is a frequent speaker at TRB, the World Bank/IMF Joint Library, Georgetown University Law Library, and similar venues.
Ulla de Stricker is an Information and Knowledge Management Consultant helping clients address challenges and opportunities of discovering and capturing information objects and protecting and leveraging organizational memory. She is a well known speaker at professional events and frequent contributor to the professional literature. Her website www.destricker.com provides additional information and access to her KM blog.
Sara Tompson is serving as a Director on the SLA Board from 2011-2013. She is a member of the SLA Finance Committee, and the Board liaison to all the California chapters, the Rio Grande, NM chapter, the SciTech Division, the Research & Development Committee and the Professional Development Council. Currently finishing up a three year administrative appointment as a Library Associate Dean at the University of Southern California, Tompson will become the USC Libraries Head of Instruction and Orientation on July 1, 2011. In her spare time she is an instrument rated private pilot, and enjoys flying her husband and friends around beautiful California.
To build and retain membership, there needs to be some sort of stewardship for new members. When a new member joins a chapter or division, the employees of SLA who process that member need to send that person’s name to the membership committees of the respective chapter or division. Those membership committees then need to make it a priority to reach out to the new members and let them know what upcoming events there are in the SLA and how to participate. I feel like there is a lot spent on marketing the SLA to prospective members, but not a lot spent on reaching out and welcoming new members.
We need to look at how other associations are thriving in this economic environment and learn from them. Then, we need to make some tough decisions of what works best for SLA and its members so that we are sustainable both as an association and as a profession.
Additionally, while professional development is a high priority for our members, the model of pre-conference continuing education courses is not working well. ClickU low cost webinars such as the one Rebecca Jones recently did cost just $49 for members. The Illinois Chapter recently hosted a guest speaker and the cost to attend that webinar was $10. These low cost webinars often sell out and are just what our members need at a cost they can afford. And the SLA Europe Chapter provides valuable free continuing education podcasts in 15-minute segments that cover timely topics for our members. SLA needs to provide a way for our units to be able to easily present virtual professional development and to make those presentations available to all members.