 home > governance > nac > 2002 > Tasmanian regional report |
|||
The ALIA National Policy Congress 2002: TasmaniaReport from the meeting of ALIA groups in Tasmania held on 2 October, State Library of Tasmania, 12:00pm to 2:00pm.The convenors of the two groups based in Tasmania attended Jane Coatman (Convenor, ALIA Tasmania Group) and Rebecca Evans (Convenor, TALIATecs). Jane Jeppson, executive officer, ALIA Tasmania Group also attended. Input to the meeting was sought from members of both groups prior to the meeting. The meeting discussed the distributed papers and would like to present this report of the discussions. ALIA: Making the differenceThe meeting endorsed the essence of the strategic program, in particular the statements in the section Looking to the future. However, a key point raised by members is that ALIA needs to ensure that the relevance of the professional association to individuals is clearly identified and demonstrated. It is felt that many current members and potential new members are questioning the role ALIA has in relation to their individual position in the workplace and industry and are struggling to identify the tangible benefits that come from being an ALIA member. Members first
Communication The National Policy Congress appears to have shifted from being a forum for members to raise matters, to a forum for comment on issues identified by the Board of Directors. The group structure may have isolated members who were used to the section/branch council model and are now finding it hard to identify with the group(s) geographically available to them, yet dont wish to form another group.
Local presence officers How does this initiative relate to support for members in rural and remote areas?
Membership growth There is a need to attract people in the library industry (many of them in senior positions and many with long-standing involvement in the industry) who have never joined ALIA this will help in areas where the number of new entrants into the industry is low. Membership growth is linked to the identification of ALIA as providing tangible benefits to members currently non-members are happy to attend ALIA events and pay a higher price for individual events, yet do not become members. There is no perceived incentive to join. Retention of membership is a related issue, especially if lapsed members feel they have access to the ALIA benefits they require without renewing. There is anecdotal evidence that people join for 1 year for a specific purpose e.g. conference attendance and then dont renew.
Success measures Need strategies to help local groups encourage growth in membership. Groups need to have increased financial autonomy to encourage them to run more active programs. ExcellenceAs the findings and reports of both LISEKA and the ALIA Research Initiative project are not yet publicly available, it is difficult to comment on the initiatives and success measures, except to say that we agree in principle. ALIA needs to take the lead role in the REAP program with interaction with other key industry bodies. CPD activities and career-long education are critical to the professional growth of those working in the library and information industry, but as the Tasmanian submission to LISEKA noted, there must be equitable access to, and recognition of, courses delivered in rural and regional areas. There is potential for members active in CPD to have this reflected in membership status. The meeting noted the need for changes in education for librarians to meet changing industry standards, in a similar way to the ways in which library technician courses have developed with continual upgrading of content. CredibilityThis is a very broad area and may need to be more specifically defined to be achievable. ALIA needs to be active in all levels of government where issues involving libraries and the library and information industry are concerned. Groups are not equipped to take on this role at a local level. The strategic marketing plan is very important and needs to have realistic objectives. The lobbying event for parliamentarians and staff needs to be based on a contemporary issue of importance to libraries and to the community e.g. bandwidth and equity of access to communications. It must be an event that demonstrates ALIA's role as a leader in the library and information industry and not just a feel-good 'libraries are a good thing' approach. The development of members-only services is critical to identifying the benefits of ALIA membership. As well as the National Coalition for Information Literacy Advocacy, there are other key issues where ALIA needs to take a lead role. Adding valueThe proposed initiatives are very ambitious for a 2 year timeframe. The meeting agreed with the need to increase the range of member-only services and to target specific member categories. The marketing campaign aimed at new students needs to be broadened to include those students who have not yet made their career choice, to showcase the library and information industry as an exciting career prospect. Promotional material to support this must be developed and available for local groups to use. Does ALIA need to be involved in purchasing agreements where arrangements have already been made by institutional co-operatives e.g. CASL? ALIA's role may be better spent in negotiating consortial purchasing agreements for those libraries with no identifiable industry group to negotiate on their behalf. The work ALIA does to benefit certain sectors of institutional members should be transferable to other categories where appropriate and needs to be in consultation with the key industry bodies in that sector e.g. Public Libraries Australia, CASL for issues related to public libraries. The CPD initiative should be developed in keeping with the recommendations of LISEKA. The success measures are realistic but may be governed by the development of other initiatives such as the strategic marketing plan. Investment in the futureThis strategic focus concentrates on the internal organisation aspects of ALIA and needs to be developed in conjunction with the development of other areas such as increasing the membership base and making the profession attractive to potential employees. The evaluation of the Board of Directors needs to be a transparent process where possible and involve input from members. Information agendaThere does need to be an information agenda for the library industry to ensure that the industry can present a unified approach to government and other funding bodies. ALIA needs to take the lead in lobbying government on all issues relating to libraries and the library profession and to do this requires the support and input of other key industry organisations, such as those represented at the Peak Bodies Forum. ALIA should take this leadership role as an impartial cross-sectoral professional association representing its members across the industry. The content and direction of this agenda will need to be defined through discussion with key players the points raised at the Peak Bodies Forum and the emerging themes listed in Neil McLeans paper Information futures: Professional issues are a good place to start. The action plan for the information agenda needs to be flexible enough to respond to situations with immediate or short-term timeframes as well as establishing a strategic program of long-term issues for action. Defining the primary issues for ALIA can be viewed in two ways primary issues for ALIA as an organisation and issues for the industry on which ALIA can take a lead role in determining the strategic approach, in consultation with other key bodies. The issues related to ALIA as an organisation are to:
The issues of current significance on which ALIA can take a lead role in determining the position of the industry with a view to lobbying government are:
Jane Coatman
Rebecca Evans |
back
|
