Saturday, March 19, 2011

Post #501 - ALA Elections 2011

Wow....I have done 500 posts since July 2005.

ALA Ballots are out. In past years, some colleagues would ask my advice on voting choices. Here are mine for this year.

First, for ALA President, I am voting for Maureen Sullivan.

For ALA Council this is the year we will elect 34 Councilors. There is one vacancy, so the person who is 35th highest in votes will fill out a 2 year term. I commend:
  • Diedre (Dee) Conkling
  • Martin L. Garnar
  • Charles E. Kratz*
  • Diane R. Chen*
  • Linda Mielke
  • Matthew P. Ciszek
  • John Carl Sandstrom
  • Jenny Emanuel
  • JP Porcaro
  • J.Douglas (Doug) Archer
  • Kate Kosturski
  • Shirley Ann Bruursema
  • Roberto Carlos Delgadillo
  • Pamela C. Sieving
  • Andrew K. Pace
  • Margaret L. Kirkpatrick
  • Em Claire Knowles*
  • John DeSantis
  • Bobbi L. Newman
  • Bill Turner
  • Patricia A. Wand
  • Eric David Suess
  • Mike L. Marlin
  • Barbara K. Stripling*
  • James K. Teliha
  • Toni Negro
  • Ed Garcia
*These folks are all former members of the ALA Executive Board, and bring a great deal of experience to the association.

Others on the list are folks who have served on Council, and whose work and opinions I respect. There are yet others who are newer to the profession, have started working their way up, and deserve the opportunity to participate in the governance of ALA. [This latter group includes: Bobbi L. Newman, Jenny Emanuel, Andrew K. Pace, JP Porcaro, and Kate Kosturski.]

I want to specifically note that Shirley Ann Bruursema is a Trustee, a group under-represented on Council, and she has served well as the ALTA/ALTAFF Division Councilor. I also want to note that Mike L. Marlin is a well-spoken advocate for special users of libraries, especially those with vision issues.

So...those are my recommendations.

3 comments:

  1. Michael, I realize that this question doesn't really have anything to do with your post ;) but would you happen to know approximately what percentage of ALA members typically vote in the elections?

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  2. It has been consistently less than 25% of personal members. For 2010, it was of 55,330 eligible voters, 11,069 (20.01%) had voted. And for 2009, it was of 56,069 eligible voters, 13,125 (23.41%) had voted.

    It usually takes just over 2,000 votes to be elected to ALA Council, if that is what you want to know.

    [My not so secret source? Mary Ghikas posting on the ALA Council list. Here is a link to that post: http://lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/alacoun/2010-04/msg00059.html

    For this election there are 52,895 eligible voters. As of earlier this week, just under 10% had voted.]

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  3. Michael, thanks! I'm working on a post encouraging people to vote and I wanted to throw in that stat. :D

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