ALIA Queensland OPALs

July-December 2001 report

Report and Application for Re-endorsement for Qld OPALs

The Qld OPALs Group has previously been endorsed from 1 July 2001 until 31 December 2001. The Group is hereby providing a report on its activities throughout 2001 and applying for re-endorsement for the period 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2002.

The Group's original mission and purpose was "to provide a network between ALIA members (and prospective members) who are the sole professional in their work unit providing library or information services to their clients.

The group will provide a forum for support and for knowledge creation, sharing and dissemination.

It will also act as a consultative group when issues arise of concern to the unique environments in which OPAL members work.

By fulfilling its mission, this group will be furthering each of the five objects as defined by section 3.2 of the Constitution of the Australian Library and Information Association Limited."

This is still the purpose and goal of the Group and the consistent attendance at events by members and the growth in the number of members indicate the group is achieving its purpose and goals.

The Group has conducted seven successful events in the last 10 months summarised in the following table:

The membership figures as of 28 November 2001 also indicate increasing support for the Group.
Membership figures to the end of February 2001 showed there were 42 OPAL members in Queensland, of which 32 resided in the greater-Brisbane area (postcodes 4000-4200).
Figures provided on 28 November 2001 give the membership of Qld OPALs as 109 in total of which 95 reside in Qld and of these 69 within the 4000-4200 postcode areas.
This is a more than doubling of the membership.

Budget Report: No budget was presented in the initial application for endorsement as the events the Group organise do not require any expenditure.
The program of events described in Table One were all successfully organised with out members being required to pay for them, nor was any money collected/paid on behalf of ALIA.
Members paid for their own meals at the Christmas dinner on 21 November 2001.

In applying for re-endorsement, Qld OPALs again propose to operate on a zero budget basis from 1 January 2002 until 31 December 2002.

It is proposed to continue with an informal structure, operating on a consensus basis, without the need for office-bearers such as secretary or treasurer.
The convenor will remain as Denise Cadman ph 07 3840 0433 (w).

With support provided by
Lynda Colquhoun ph 07 3229 2655
Deborah Cronan ph 07 3358 8011

It is proposed that the methods of communication will continue as described in the original application for endorsement.
The proposed activities for 2002 are as described in the table below: