Archive

ACRL Chapters Council Report

Chapters Council Elections

Lois Cherepon welcomed attendees and thanked them for their participation in Council activities during the past year. Lynne King, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, then presided over the election of new officers. Evelyn Minick from the Delaware Valley chapter was voted in as the new Vice-Chair, and ALAO's own Sherri Edwards was elected Secretary of Chapters Council. Congratulations, Sherri!

ACRL Governing Board

ACRL President Maureen Sullivan reported on the status of strategic planning for the organization. After broad input and a retreat to discuss the issues raised, board members developed a working draft that is now being circulated and discussed. The final draft will be ready for the midwinter meeting and will then be posted on the website for member reaction. Sullivan encouraged comments from individual members. She noted that an important set of goals had to do with member learning and development, and that Chapter level activities are an important part of achieving these professional development objectives. Sullivan also reported on the effort to establish a board member liaison to Chapters Council with a formal arrangement expected soon. Finally she strongly encouraged chapters to apply for Initiative Fund grants, an excellent way for chapters to provide programs to benefit their members.

ACRL Legislative Network

Lee Wisel, Network Coordinator, reported that all 42 chapters were represented and that the Network had been busy with tracking and responding to developments with copyright and government information. She also noted that ALA's National Legislative Day is scheduled for May 1-2, 2000 and that chapters are encouraged to support in any way they can attendance at this important event. She announced that Pat Walker (who will certainly have her hands full) will replace her as Network Coordinator!

ACRL Staff Report

Melissa Cast, ACRL staff liaison to chapters, reminded chapter officers that reimbursement requests needed to be accompanied by a one-page chapter report and original receipts, and submitted to ACRL by August 15. Chapters should remember to notify ACRL when URLs changed for chapter websites. Also, Mary Ellen K.Davis, editor of C&RL News, would be happy to include announcements of chapter events in the newsletter.

Other Council Business

In other business, attendees discussed a possible Council program offering at the ACRL National Conference in Denver in 2001. Barbara Jenkins, ACRL Board member, will lead a work group to develop a proposal for a "best practices sampler" sessions where attendees could get ideas for chapter programs. Lois Cherepon noted that a group of past Council officers will review and suggest revisions of Council guidelines. Jill Holman, Chapter Topics editor, reported that discussion was continuing about the advisability of a web-only newsletter and that a decision would be attempted at the midwinter meeting. Holman also noted that she would complete her term with the August issue and those interested in the editor's job should contact Lynne King. The website for Chapters Topics is: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~holman/ct/

Mini-Workshops

Two mini-workshops concluded the midwinter meeting of Chapters Council. Lois Cherepon and Lynne King facilitated a workshop on chapter incorporation for those chapters who need to meet that ACRL requirement, while Larry Hardesty, incoming ACRL President, led a very lively workshop to develop ideas for attracting new librarians to academic librarianship, one of his priorities during his leadership term.