Report of the Tasmanian Regional NPC Meeting

2 September 2004

Roll

Emeline Haight, Pat Bomford, Fiona Preston, Chris Horswill, Julia Gross, Rebecca Evans, Sue Burrill, Helen Crosby, Richard Dearden, Linda Luther, Jane Coatman, Katherine Lewis, Terri Maher, Chris Seaman (facilitator), Jane Jeppson (ALIA local liaison officer), Roxanne Missingham (ALIA director)

Election of one delegate to attend Canberra NPC

Chris Seaman

Celebrating success

TALIATecs: TALIATecs decided that 2004 would be 'The year of the library tour'. Regular meetings have been held in a different library each time enabling members to tour the host library and meet its staff. Library technicians do not always have the opportunity to visit libraries outside the ones that they work in so this has been a very useful and successful way of providing opportunities for library technicians to see other libraries. TALIATecs hosted a breakfast at Banjo's Restaurant in Hobart to celebrate National Library Technician Day this year, which was attended by over thirty library technicians.

ALIA Tasmania: A very successful state-wide Information Literacy Conference was held in Launceston on 9 July. More than 100 delegates attended representing all sectors of the library and information sciences industry in Tasmania and all regional areas, including the south, north and north-west. The conference was organised by ALIA Tasmania Group members with financial sponsorship from the University of Tasmania Library, the State Library of Tasmania and the State Library and Archives Trust, and with venue sponsorship from TAFE Tasmania. The two keynote speakers, Judith Peacock (QUT) and Christine McKenzie (Yarra Plenty), had broad appeal. Three streams of concurrent sessions involving local presenters were offered covering public libraries, special libraries and education libraries. The state-wide conference was the third in a series that has been organised by ALIA Tasmania members in the last five years. The timing for the conference fitted in well with the Tasmanian Government's recently launched Informing Tasmanians strategy.

New Graduates: A Tasmanian regional forum of the National New Graduates Group was established this year. All graduating students from last year's inaugural GradDip InfoMgt program offered by the University of Tasmania have joined ALIA - this is a wonderful result for ALIA and the New Graduates. The New Graduates have been very active in organising activities designed to bring together recent new graduates and current students. Library tours and informal 'get-togethers' have been organised to provide opportunities for mutual support, share ideas and experiences, and offer 'tips and tricks' for students to get through the course.

Enhancing the involvement and engagement of members in ALIA

Strengths of groups

Local energy and enthusiasm is harnessed by Groups.
Personal members can make contributions to ALIA through participation in Groups.
The contributions of institutions to Groups make groups stronger.

Effectiveness of groups compared with other Association structures and activities

Groups can provide local information sharing forums, CPD activities and conferences and do these really well but the Association is better placed to deliver or facilitate formal training. e.g. electronic purchasing seminars, Kinetica seminars, etc.
The meeting recommended that mentoring is an activity that should be co-ordinated Association wide with the support of groups, rather than by groups, and should be driven by local liaison officers.
The appointment of local liaison officers is seen as a very important initiative. Local liaison officers offer continuity for members locally, which is really important because groups change. They also facilitate cross-group co-ordination. The meeting considered that there is tremendous scope to further develop the evolving roles of local liaison officers. Institutions in particular are interested in progressing issues through local liaison officers.
In Tasmania, the local liaison officer has been an important conduit between ALIA and the development of the GradDip InfoMgt course at the University of Tasmania and has ensured the institutions involvement. The local liaison officer represents ALIA on the Industry Reference Groups for the University of Tasmania's GradDip InfoMgt course and the library and information science program offered by TAFE Tasmania. Members fully-support the local liaison officer's role as the link between local educational institutions and the Association.
Members are concerned about how well members fit into the Association if they are not members of a Group. For example, how do you find out what's going on or how do you respond to issues if you're not part of a group? The meeting suggested that perhaps members should automatically be part of a regional/state-wide group and be given the option to opt out rather than opt in. It is possible that many members may believe that they are automatically members of their regional/state-wide group and are not aware that they are not unless they have ticked the box on their application or renewal form!
The convenors of state-wide Groups need to be able to travel to promote their groups and need to be funded to do this. The meeting did not consider it to be the role of the local liaison officer to promote a particular group's activities; rather it was the meeting's view that this is the role of the convenor. Local liaison officers should be responsible for broad promotion of ALIA not group specific promotion.
Many members have felt more comfortable with the old ways of doing things and haven't necessarily looked at new approaches.
Many members do not understand that the new group structure is not about waiting for others to do something for you and do not understand that they can self-nominate to form a group.
Members need to know and be given options about how to organise an event with out being a group.
ALIA group committees need more training. Local liaison officers can provide this but the meeting suggested that in addition stronger structures are required to support groups' planning. The meeting suggested that a structured planning day for all groups in a state/geographic area could be co-ordinated by ALIA National Office with an 'outside' person (e.g. an ALIA director) in attendance to give the meeting status.

Succession planning and encouraging involvement
The focus on students and new graduates is the strategy for renewal and refreshment that has been established in Tasmania!

In Tasmania ALIA groups and the local liaison Officer have made it a priority to establish close links with the students in the GradDip InfoMgt Program offered by the University of Tasmania and encourage them to join ALIA and participate in ALIA activities. Graduates of the program have attested to the value of the ALIA support given to them as students and this is what has encouraged them to join ALIA and become active New Graduates. As previously mentioned all of the 2003 graduates from the University of Tasmania's GradDip InfoMgt program have joined ALIA.
The New Graduates as well as making use of the New Graduate forums available to them want to have close links and involvement with other ALIA groups - they won't always be new graduates - and they want opportunities to participate in broad professional activities as well as 'new grad' activities. In this way they can learn the ropes from more senior ALIA members.
Mentoring programs are also a carrot for new graduates and provide an opportunity for us to induct them into the Association. Many who enter the Association through participation in mentoring programs may go on to become active members and seek committee positions in the future.
Active committee members and active members in general need to be 'rested' to prevent burnout. After a period of 'time-out' they often feel re-energised and ready to contribute again but they can't be expected to sustain high levels of continuous contribution. Recognition of the contributions of members is really important to ensure they feel valued.
The National Library Technician's delegate to the meeting expressed concern about Library Technician membership levels dropping in 'off conference' years and suggested that it is a challenge to sustain members' interest in ALIA in those 'off' years. One suggestion from the meeting was that a thematic approach could be adopted in 'off conference' years.

ALIA 2005-2006 draft plan

Sharing the vision
The meeting supported all initiatives and success measures.

Item 1. A lobbying and advocacy program focused on ensuring and enhancing access to information. Members expect ALIA at the national level to take the lead role in lobbying for the library and information science industry and the Board needs to work with peak bodies such as CASL and CAUL. The Board needs to communicate well what it is doing in this area or members may not be aware of what is happening. National issues with state significance also need to be earmarked for lobbying at the local level.

Item 3. Research and report on changing demographics and trends in the employment sector.. Members endorsed this as an excellent initiative but were not sure that it is in the right place in the plan.

Skilling members for the future
The meeting supported all inititiatives and success measures.

Item 5. A comprehensive continuing professional development (CPD) program. Strategies to involve regional and remote members need to be developed. In Tasmania, the two main institutions (the State Library of Tasmania and the University of Tasmania) employ the majority of members. It is too expensive for these institutions to send large numbers to formal CPD training and the uptake of training provided by formal providers is low in Tasmania as a result. Therefore partnerships between ALIA and the State Library of Tasmania and the University of Tasmania are seen as very important in terms of facilitating members' access to CPD opportunities. Also, opportunities for training outside of the training provided by formal providers are needed.

Item 6. Promoting library and information services as a career. Members expect ALIA National Office to undertake research and foster discussions encouraging people to enter the profession and sell the library profession as exciting. The meeting strongly endorsed the need for a careers promotion kit comprising print materials for use at Careers Expos, University and TAFE Open Days, School Careers Evenings, etc which target people at the point that they are making their career choices.

Promoting innovation
The meeting supported all inititiatives and success measures.

Communicating well
The meeting supported all initiatives and success measures. However, the meeting noted that under the previous Branch Council structure Branch Councils used to receive regular monthly 'information' packages from ALIA National Office, which provided an opportunity for consultation with members about ALIA initiatives and changes to policies and statements. This regular communication has ceased since the introduction of the new group structure, and while NPC provides an opportunity for members to have input into policy initiatives this now only happens once a year, which is not often enough.

Professional practice
Discussion of this item was deferred to ensure delegates had sufficient time to discuss Item 7. Group communications with members and non-members; Item 8. Questions on notice; and Item 9. Questions without notice. The meeting facilitator asked delegates to e-mail comments to Jane Jeppson, Local liaison officer by Tuesday 7 September 2004 for incorporation in the meeting report or forward comments direct to ALIA National Office.

Group communications with members and non-members
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?

The meeting considered that the website requires a 'go to' approach from members and what is often needed is a 'push out' approach to communication. Members shouldn't have to wait to go on to the website to find out what's happening or what's new. More use of RSS news feed could be encouraged.
The ALIA hosted e-lists for Tasmanian groups aren't active because no one has expressed interest in using them. For local information members prefer other communication methods such as Taslib-link (the Tasmanian e-list for library workers, students and other interested people) and/or the e-mail list maintained by the local liaison officer.
Password-protected members-only access is a disincentive to use the ALIA website.
The update screen for membership information is really annoying and members report losing the screen they are looking for as very frustrating.
The ALIA website is looking tired and traditional and needs livening up.
'What's new' on the ALIA website should be really eye-catching and attention-grabbing.
Members need ALIAnet training because they find it difficult to use and don't have a good understanding of what information is available on the website.
A multiplicity of communication methods need to be made use of - print, web-based, inCite, letters, etc and there should be more-targeted communication to different types and categories of members. There should not be a 'one message for all' approach to communication.

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?

The meeting endorsed group newsletters being made freely available outside the members-only section of the ALIA website. This is because group newsletters are seen as promotional and marketing tools and it is important that non-members can access them. If non-members have access to newsletters and are able to learn about the activities that groups provide and are involved in they may be encouraged to join ALIA. Furthermore, there should be options for group newsletters to be available in a range of formats, including PDF.
The meeting recommended that journals, substantial publications, sensitive information and financial information should stay within the members-only section of the website.
The meeting also recommended that ALIA journals be available on the APAIS and EBSCO full-text services.

Questions on Notice

1. I am concerned about the funding for professional learning events in Tasmania for a number of reasons. Tasmania is a small place and the major employers are the State Library of Tasmania and the University of Tasmania. The State Library is part of the Department of Education, which also employs school, college and TAFE librarians. All of the Department of Education libraries and some government libraries are connected by the same library and information management system called TAlibrary and information science. So we are a small state with good relationships between the various networks. Why then if we want to organise a professional learning event do we have to go into a profit sharing arrangement if we want to get any assistance from ALIA? As the State Library and the University Library put up the money for the event, then pay for their staff to attend, any profit made would be at our own expense. This seems like a strange arrangement indeed. The intention of professional learning surely is to encourage as many people to be involved for the least amount of money so that library and information workers from all organisations are able to attend. At best it should be cost recovery. I am very concerned that as an individual member of ALIA (continuously since I was a library student in 1987) I am not getting the same access to ALIA membership benefits, particularly professional learning as my counterparts in the rest of Australia. I really don't think that ALIA's one-size-fits-all funding policy serves the best interests of regional areas. Bridget Hutton

A: The ALIA Board of Directors shares the concern of members in regional and remote Australia about equitable access to CPD activities. Therefore ALIA provides for a number of different ways in which CPD events can be organised and supported. In the ALIA group budget guidelines, written to support group office-bearers in organising group activities, the Board encourages ALIA groups to offer CPD activities to these members '- expenses associated with venue hire and presenters for CPD activities may be exempted from the break-even requirement where the member base is too small for registration fees to reasonably cover costs.' (ALIA group budget guidelines: CPD activities in remote and regional Australia [http://www.alia.org.au/members-only/governance/obg/budget.guidelines.html]). While ALIA groups are encouraged to run events on a break-even basis, as per the ALIA group budget guidelines, the Board of Directors has for some years agreed to subsidise the overall budget in Tasmania given the relatively small number of library and information services personnel, this has included the costs of flying in speakers and the long-standing provision of local administrative assistance. While most group events fall into the scope of the ALIA group budget guidelines this is not always the case and sometimes ALIA will look at different models for the delivery of activities. One alternative is a partnership arrangement with other peak bodies. For a partnership arrangement to be viable it is important that all parties come together to discuss and agree on the purpose and desired outcomes of a proposed event, what each partner will contribute to running the event and what they expect to get from the partnership. These partnerships are designed to be low risk to all parties while maximising outcomes. The purpose of these partnerships is to deliver quality CPD events of benefit to ALIA members, and others working in the sector - and whereas all parties may desire a break-even result they are not formed for the sole purpose of making a profit. ALIA National Office further supports groups organising CPD activities by providing, on request: web registration forms, processing of registrations, booking venues; paying deposits for catering, venues etc; and booking speaker travel and accommodation at discounted rates. To summarise - the ALIA Board of Directors recognises the need to have a flexible funding policy for ALIA groups and to support CPD activities and provides the following models for funding group CPD activities:

the standard break-even requirement
support to regional and remote members where expenses for venue and speaker flights may be exempted from the break-even requirement
groups may seek sponsorship to offset the costs for registrants
options to work in partnership with other organisations to deliver CPD activities.

Answered by: Georgina Dale, manager, member services and groups liaison, ALIA National Office

2. This year, the State Library, University, TAFE, School and Special Libraries got together to organise a very successful state-wide conference. More than 100 librarians from all sectors and across the state attended. ALIA Tas Branch members were the initiators of this event and made up the organising group for the conference. UTAS, State Library and TAFE were sponsors of the event, paying the costs of two interstate speakers and the venue. Enquiries of the ALIA National Office resulted in a very definite 'no' to any contribution from ALIA. However, subsequent enquires found that indeed funding arrangements could have been made, but that ALIA Tas Branch did not ask the right questions. This experience puts into doubt the advice that groups receive from ALIA, and the degree of effort that groups have to make in order to get support from ALIA National Office. The conference should have been an opportunity for ALIA to promote its role in Tasmania. However, because of the lack of support from ALIA National Office, the ALIA logo very nearly did not make it onto the Conference documentation. As 2004 co-ordinator, this was a significant personal blow and has led to my decision not to continue in this role beyond 2004. My questions are: a. How do we know if we are asking the right questions when seeking ALIA NO support? b. How do we know whether we should accept an initial response, or whether we follow this up with higher authority? Richard Dearden

The ALIA group budget guidelinesALIA group budget guidelines is devoted to providing information for groups organising CPD events. There is information about the need to provide ALIA National Office with a detailed budget breakdown about 2 months prior to the event being held, the support available to the group to run the event, there is guidance for registration fees, presenter gifts/payments and the Board's support for events held in regional and remote Australia. These are, of course, guidelines and cannot hope to cover every eventuality groups may encounter in organising events. It would be expected that a group planning an activity that may be beyond the scope of the ALIA group budget guidelines, would contact either their ALIA local liaison officer or ALIA National Office to discuss the full scope of the activity. They can do this at any time but at the very latest when preparing the group's budget for the activity two or three months prior to the activity being held. It is only by seeing the budget and discussing the activity fully with the group can ALIA National Office or the ALIA local liaison officer understand what the group is planning to achieve. There are no right or wrong questions to ask ALIA National Office. Groups simply need to provide a budget breakdown for an event along with any other information needed to provide a complete picture of what the group wants to achieve to ALIA National Office. If the proposed activity falls outside the ALIA group budget guidelines, then ALIA National Office staff will work with the group, and other key stakeholders if appropriate, to develop a model for the event that will suit all parties.

Answered by
Georgina Dale, manager, member services and groups liaison, ALIA National Office

Discussion
Richard Dearden, ALIA Tasmania's Group representative felt that the answers provided were bureaucratic and exemplified the problems encountered by the Group when seeking this funding. He stated that the Group has followed the Group budget guidelines. The Group accepts that the Group budget guidelines exist to ensure procedures are followed but it is difficult for Groups to project specific funding needs so far in advance when submitting an annual budget, and Groups would like flexible options and realistic assistance from ALIA National Office when seeking funding for specific larger events. Roxanne Missingham agreed that poor communication had resulted in a misunderstanding about how local activities can be provided in this instance. She assured the meeting that the Board values the contributions of members and institutions and stated that she believes the heart of ALIA is the activities held locally. The ALIA Board wants local activities and has allocated $40 000 to groups to run activities in the last year. She affirmed that there are guidelines that need to be followed and the Board needs to have a plan and a budget for each activity. The Board looks forward to working with ALIA groups, personal members and institutional members in Tasmania in the future to deliver local activities using a model that is acceptable to all parties.

Questions without notice

None

Any other comments from the meeting?

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