President’s Message

By , February 22, 2012 10:15 am

by Crystal Sherman Norton

Have you read the Velvet Chainsaw Report?  (“Observations & Recommendations, American Association of Law Libraries” / Velvet Chainsaw Consulting).   The nickname of the Report alone piqued my interest – picture it – a velvet chainsaw, cutting and carving oh so softly!  The Report came out in October 2011 and I’ve just gotten around to downloading it thanks to my involvement with the Seattle 2013 Local Arrangements Committee.   I’ve been reading it during my ferry commute this past week, digesting a little bit at a time.  It’s really fascinating!

If you’ve ever attended an AALL Annual Meeting & Conference, or ever intend to, you should read this Report in its entirety.  It is an analysis of AALL’s AM&C start to finish, including comments as to what’s working, what isn’t working, and specific recommendations for change, beginning with the whole process of submitting program ideas.  The Report is backed-up with some very interesting attachments, such as “Defining education, information & learning” and “Three types of adult learners”. Ok that might sound a bit dry, but it’s really not, IMHO.  The Report is well-done, thorough, and honest.  Check it out here:

http://www.aallnet.org/Documents/Leadership-Governance/Committees/vcc-report.pdf

The Velvet Chainsaw Report made me think forward to the AALL AM&C that’s coming to Seattle in 2013.  Many changes in programming will most likely be in place or just being implemented for the Seattle meeting.  Looking at the Program for Boston 2012, I see some of the suggestions made in the Report already in place.  I for one am glad the Report is apparently being taken very seriously by AALL HQ.

Speaking of the 2013 Seattle conference, the Local Arrangements Committee, co-chaired by Tina Ching of Seattle University School of Law and Rita Dermody of the Public Law Library of King County, is already hard at work.  Tina and Rita have appointed LAC Subcommittee Chairs (your Pres. included), who are in turn recruiting volunteers to help them with their duties and assignments for each subcommittee.  Subcommittees include Publicity, Volunteers (yes, we’ll need volunteers to coordinate all the volunteers), Registration, Family Activities, Exhibits, Hospitality, Restaurant Guide, Excursions, Website, and Library Tours.  Give some thought to how you would like to be involved July 2013.  We’ll need lots of Seattle area librarians to help us pull off the best annual meeting ever.  As the saying goes, “If everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot”.

Another opportunity!  The LLOPS Nominations and Elections Committee is recruiting candidates to run for the offices of Secretary and Vice President/President Elect.  If you are interested in either position, please contact Karen Helde, Committee Chair.  And remember that your next President, Jennifer Hill, is going to be looking for LLOPS members to serve on the various LLOPS Committees in the near future.  Please volunteer when Jennifer puts out the call.

Our legendary Spring Professional Development Program is fast approaching. March 14 will be here before you know it. There are LLOPS grants available to cover the registration fee (includes lunch) in case your employer has turned down your request to attend due to lack of funds. See the Grants Committee page for more information. Do it now; deadlines loom.

That’s it for now. I hope to see you at a LLOPS meeting sometime soon.

 

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