Report of Australian Library and Information Association National Policy Congress

Introduction

I had the privilege to attend the NPC meeting in Canberra on the 19-20 November 2004. I was first elected by my group Western Australia Library Technician group (WALT) to attend the ALIA NPC regional meeting in Perth.

Attending this meeting were members of various Western Australian library groups. Each representative reported a success story of an activity, event or presentation that their group participated in during the year under ALIA guidelines:

Why is it a success?
How does it fit to the objects of the association?
The success story must be specific to a group or region.

From the many stories heard the group voted for the best to represent the region of WA. As the elected representative I was to present my story and two others of significance.

The business of the meeting was to discuss our views and opinions on papers and issues which would be presented at the national policy meeting. It was my responsibility to bring the decisions and discussions on this issues and papers that had been agreed within the WA regional meeting.

Day one

Delegates assembled in the foyer of ALIA House where we were served afternoon tea. Here we were able to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Imogen Garner (ALIA president) declared National Policy Congress open. Delegates filled into the conference room to find their seats. After we went around the room and presented ourselves the first business was the launch of the ALIA online shop http://shop.alia.org.au/ where Ivan Trundle gave us a live tour of the site and it workings.

From the website launch the first of five delegates presented their success story. We moved on quickly with a paper from Kevin Dudeney and Meredith Martinelli members of ALIA Board of Directors on 'themes and key issues from regional reports and invited groups'. They presented the paper then opened it to discussion. We were put into groups and given key points to discuss. Each group then supplied their points which were written on a white board.

Following was Jennefer Nicholson's (executive director ALIA) presentation 'Celebrating success ALIA 2003-2004 plan: making the difference achievements and highlights.'

By this stage we were ready to relax sharing taxis back to University House where pre-dinner drinks were served followed by a wonderful meal accompanied by good wine.

Day two

Saturday was an early start difficult for some who had enjoyed the last of the wine as a group of maxi buses took us to ALIA House. The first item on the agenda was the pleasure of celebrating success where five delegates presented their success stories. Next Kevin Dudeney and Ann Ritchie presented 'Identifying issues of professional practice.' We were put into groups to discuss questions from the paper covering two groups per question. Our group discussed, 'What mechanisms can we put in place to ensure that issues of professional practice are identified - how can we create a channel to make this happen?'

We did some brainstorming bringing points of common thought together. Some were:

Finding the common elements
Practise by theory
Issue
Reading
Reflect
Incite
Shared
Environment
Evaluation
Digital resources access and presentation
Professionalism vs meritocracy
Return on investment

We took a breather for morning tea, relaxed our brains and enjoyed more success stories. This was followed by Carol Newton-Smith's 'ALIA 2005-2006 plan'.

In our small groups we had to discussed and prioritise a section of the paper with. A being highest priority, D lowest priority

My group had to decide in the area of skilling members for the future the following:

Promote library and information services as a career. B
Develop and deliver career-long professional development services. A
Implement mechanisms for dialogue and co-operation between educators, employers and practitioners. B

The groups pooled their scores and supplied reasons for our priorities. All this information was stored and collated.

We rewarded the great mornings work with the pleasure of fresh sandwiches and fruit. Directly after this was the last of the success stories and Jennefer Nicholson's paper, 'Review of key issues raised during the congress'.

Value as membership
CPD
Adding back to groups more involved
Idiots guide to presentation
Involvement
Sell the ALIA website to groups
Sell the value of my library to my institution
Finding your self with the institution finding my ALIA
Mentoring program getting involved
How do we deal with equity and diversity

Imogen Garner closed the very successful 2004 ALIA National Policy Congress. I felt rewarded and honoured to be part of such an organisation that brings people from all over Australia to discuss, share ideas, listen and be involved in shaping and improving of the future ALIA.

Jean Broomhall Bsc library technician

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