Group communications with members and non-members of ALIA

Discussion paper for the ALIA 2004 National Policy Congress

Georgina Dale - manager, member services and groups liaison

Background

At the National NPC meeting in September 2003, the issue of access to ALIA group newsletters was raised. Concern was expressed by a couple of groups that group newsletters are accessible through the members-only area of the website and not the public area. The ensuing discussion highlighted the ways that groups can communicate with members and non-members using their group pages on the ALIA website. There were two key outcomes of the discussion. The first was to encourage groups to look at different ways to use their group pages on the ALIA website in order to make information available. Secondly the delegates decided that access to group newsletters should remain within the members-only area of the website and that this policy would be revisited at the 2004 NPC.

Group communication

Since the 2003 National Policy Congress, ALIA has conducted a review of member engagement and participation in ALIA. Some of the findings, relevant to this paper, are:

• Groups vary in the communication mechanisms that they use. Groups do not all use the groups area of the ALIA website to the same degree to communicate their activities and achievements. Where members are now able to update their membership details, renew membership and join groups online they cannot reliably find up-to-date information about the groups in which they may be interested through the website. One of the group submissions suggested that groups need to operate more effectively in the virtual world and to make better use of electronic communications and the website.
• About 20 groups produce regular newsletters (most are electronic) and many, but not all, groups have an e-list linked to their group. Not all groups use the groups area of the ALIA website to inform members about their group and its activities. For example, for 20 groups (one third of groups), the only information that is less than one year old on the website is the link to their office-bearers
• Groups are required to provide reports on activities to the Board of Directors and these reports are added to the groups area of the website. For 14 groups, there are no reports on the website and the most recent reports from a further 16 groups are their July-December 2002 reports. This means that members may not have ready access to current information about the activities of many ALIA groups through the website.

The Board endorsed the following recommendation from the Review of member engagement and participation:

• That groups be encouraged to use the ALIA website as a core part of their communications to the ALIA membership as a whole.

Alternative methods for group communication

There are a number of ways for groups to communicate with members and non-members of ALIA. These include:

• Add group events to the events pages on the website using an easily-accessible web form. Within two to three days, your group event will be listed on the website with links to more information and a registration form (if required). The events web pages are all available in the publicly-accessible part of the website. If the online event form is completed prior to the 18th of the month, then the listing will appear in the next issue of inCite.
• Groups can detail their purpose and goals on their publicly-accessible page and highlight any upcoming activities in an easily-updated part of that page. The link to office-bearers contact details is also available in this publicly-accessible page.
• Group activities can be promoted through group e-lists - group discussions and participation can also be promoted this way.
• Group are encouraged to submit articles to appear in inCite about their activities. These articles may appear individually or be included in the Celebrating success column (established using the Celebrating success stories from the 2003 NPC).

Group newsletters

About 20 of the 60 ALIA groups produce newsletters, and most of these in an electronic format. The few produced in hardcopy are 'cost-recovered' by charging subscription fees, obtaining sponsorship or advertising, or by running group activities at sufficient surplus to cover the cost of producing the newsletter. These options available to any group who wants to provide hardcopy newsletters.

ALIA resources devoted to groups

The membership of ALIA groups is a distinct members-only benefit. In recognition of this, ALIA devotes extensive resources including the volunteer work of members, paid staff and other resources that are devoted groups. For further details about the resources devoted to ALIA groups please refer to the Review of member engagement and participation in ALIA summary report.

Questions

1. How can we encourage groups to make better use of the ALIA website in order to communicate their purpose and activities to members and non-members of ALIA?

2. With the wide number of options available for groups to communicate with members and non-members should group newsletters be made freely-available to non-members of ALIA?