ALA 101 - Introduction

Most of what I am going to say in this series of posts is drawn from two sources: The ALA Handbook of Organization and my personal experience.

So what is my experience that I think I know so much? I have been active in three divisions: RUSA (and its predecessor RASD), ASCLA, and PLA. I have served on one or two PLA committees (not chairing any). I have served on the section board for ASCLA, co-chaired a pre-conference and ran for President (but lost by 4 votes). I have served on several RUSA/RASD committees.

For the past 10 years I have been a member of ALA's Council. I was the Connecticut Chapter Councilor from 1996 - 2003. I have been on the ALA Executive Board since.

I have chaired and been a member of the ALA Membership Committee. I have been chair and served on the Special Presidential Task Force on Membership Meetings (now called the Committee on Membership Meetings), and served on the second Core Values Task Force.

I am envisioning six seven parts (after this) to this series: Overall ALA Structure and Governance Overview; Divisions; Round Tables; Offices; Committees; Buildings and Finances; Overall ALA Structure and Governance. If I receive substantive enough questions, I will expand the series. I will happily take questions either as comments to specific posts, or as private emails.

On with the show!

[revised 3/8/2006; strikethrough for deletion; bold & italic for addition.]