Responses to election questions:

What are your skills and experience in strategic planning and leadership?

Over the past 15 years I have held senior leadership positions in library administration and have worked on a number of strategic projects which have ranged from building projects through to service enhancements, staff development and policy development.

Evidence of my leadership skills can be demonstrated by my ability to manage large and complex projects through significant change and to successful completion. These projects illustrate that I lead and manage with confidence, and have been able to offer direction and guidance to a diverse client base inclusive of staff, executive management, board members, company directors, Councillors and the public.

Some work examples of strategic planning and leadership include

• ALIA Board of Directors 2006 -;
• ALIA representative on the Public Libraries Australia (PLA) Board of Directors 2008 – 2011;
• Chair Marketing Committee, CLICK06 ALIA National Biennial Conference;
• Member, ALIA Public Libraries Advisory Committee;
• Library Manager of 5 libraries, 2 museums and other heritage sites, 90 employees, an operational budget of $4 million and a capital works program of $20 million;
• Design, fit out and service development of the new City of Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre which will open in May 2009, housing a library, museum, conference facilities, café and retail tenancies, theatrette and meeting rooms. It is a $20 million project designed to bring cultural services to the outer metropolitan services of the northern suburbs of Perth WA and is a collaborative project between the State Government and the City of Wanneroo;
• Review of ALIA Advisory Groups and Representatives as Chair, Governance Standing Committee, ALIA;
• Implementation of a new library management system at the City of Wanneroo;
• Project Manager, Supplier Assisted Services, State Library of Western Australia, a project on behalf of the State Library of Western Australia to research the feasibility of this procurement model for WA public libraries;
• Design, fit out and project management of the Cambridge Library Building which was a joint use facility including both library and convention centre;
• WA Representative for WA @ your library campaign and developed financial model for this to work across the state;
• Chair, Resonate Committee to celebrate WA public libraries 50th birthday;
• Project Manager Dorling Kindersley Media Resource Centre to develop and implement a new customer service framework for the Resource Centre’s picture collection to 4 international sites.

With all situations and tasks involving strategic planning and leadership, the goals are the same; to work with the key stakeholders in order to develop outcomes that meet everyone’s needs and expectations. The key ingredients to my success have been communication and consultation as well as a clear vision of what I am trying to achieve not only for myself but the whole team.

What are your skills and experience in financial management?

Financial management of the Board is complex and carries great responsibility for a Director. Directors must be confident that financial management systems are compliant with accounting standards in accordance with the Corporations Act 2001 and this requires a good understanding of financial reports, systems, procedures, processes and policies that are in place.

As a senior manager in Local Government for many years, I have had considerable exposure to financial management and have a reputation for responsible fiscal management both in my current and previous management positions as well as a member of a Board, where this role is vitally important.

In addition, I have recently completed my Master of Business Administration (2006) which has given me a strong understanding of economics, financial management, strategic cost management and decision analysis, all of which allow me to successfully lead the financial management of my service unit as well as contribute to the operations of the Board.

Some work examples include: -

• Project management of capital works programs valuing $20 million and $6 million respectively to date;
• Operational budget management ranging from $1 – $4 million;
• Cost benefit analysis and activity based costing assessments for various projects including supplier assisted services model and the cost of digitising the 2 million pictures kept as hard copy at Dorling Kindersley;
• Tender development, assessment and management for a variety of projects including buildings, IT systems and artwork projects;
• Facility and asset management of numerous sites including heritage sites, libraries (including 1 mobile library), trails and lime kilns;
• 5 year budget, capital and workforce planning; and
• Management of the Disposal of Assets and Defect Liability Periods for buildings

What other skills do you bring as a potential Board Member?

As a current member of the ALIA Board of Directors I bring a strong knowledge and understanding of the responsibilities, issues, challenges, strengths and opportunities facing the ALIA Board and the Association as a whole. I have worked particularly closely with the Executive Director and ALIA President in the area of the Association’s governance and therefore, I am well positioned to make a solid, meaningful contribution to the Board in this critical area of its management.

I also offer strong people skills, as I believe strongly in the value of consultation and communication. This can be demonstrated by my encouragement of participation, being clear about my own values as a member of ALIA, making myself accessible through emails, presentations, functions and committees, ensuring regular communication and feedback, consensus decision making and having a genuine willingness to consider all ideas. The bottom line is that I am there to represent ALIA members; to do that people must know how to find me and know that I am approachable and willing to represent them at the Board Level.

Lastly I would like to mention my passion and commitment both for the profession and the role of libraries in the community. The profession is undoubtedly facing challenges on many fronts and if I were not a staunch and articulate advocate for our ‘brand’, again I would not be representing the Association adequately. My belief in libraries and librarianship can be seen through marketing activities with which I have been involved over the years.

These include:

• Chair, Marketing Committee for the ALIA biennial conference 2006 which involved marketing of the conference across Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia, taking on responsibility for branding, website promotion, signage, ongoing promotion through electronic communication and professional journal articles as well as running an Australian wide ‘pictures in libraries’ project;
• Public Libraries Representative and Steering Committee member, 2004 @ your library marketing campaign. The key responsibility of this role was to attract over $40,000 in funds from local governments to be able to proceed with the campaign. This target was achieved as was a 75% participation rate from WA public libraries;
• Chair, Resonate with Libraries Promotions campaign 2004 which was a community day to promote and celebrate the 50th anniversary of public libraries in WA. It was the first such program for WA public libraries and was successful as a collaborative project and in attracting an impressive list of readers on the day; and
• Chair of the Public Libraries Marketing Committee (WA) which involves chairing, minuting and leading the group in a number of marketing activities for the promotion of public libraries and their value to the community in WA.

What specific issues interest you, or that you are hoping to address during your times as a Board Member?

The marketing and advocacy of our profession is the issue that most interests me, followed closely by ensuring good governance of the Association.

ALIA works very hard to obtain a voice in the political landscape and achieves a great deal. However, I would like to see this improve further in two areas.

Firstly that there is a more coordinated and strategic rollout of some of ALIA’s great national programmes (e.g. @ your library, simultaneous story time etc) so they are much more effective in the media and have a much stronger presence in communities and across all library sectors.

Secondly, that ALIA is more effectively positioned for advocacy opportunities when they emerge. The 20:20 summit is a good example as while ALIA is preparing a response to this initiative from the Federal Government and it will be excellent, the exercise highlights that we could always have a stronger and more responsive framework to be ‘ready to fly’. There is more to be done in this area and I think there would be value to creating either a Standing Committee for the area of Advocacy or an Advisory Committee reporting to the Board. In a climate of financial constraint, advocacy becomes an extremely critical strategy.

I also mentioned Governance as an area of particular interest. To me governance refers to the processes and frameworks that involve decisions important to the future of the Association. Governance is how those decisions are taken, monitored and assessed.

As the current Chair of the Governance Standing Committee, I see good governance as an essential and enduring component of the Australian Library and Information Association. Whilst I have been in the Chair role the Governance Standing Committee has completed a review of Advisory Groups, launched Board Room bound to address succession planning for the Board as well as ensure a greater understanding of the Board’s role with the membership, reviewed election campaign guidelines (still underway) undertaken two board self assessment surveys and developed a Board Code of Conduct, which has now been endorsed.

Additional links
http://michellebrennand.blogspot.com/