Leadership Summit - Thursday

This was a very full day.  Two interesting events happened....

First, the mayor of Louisville proclaimed this the be the Special Libraries Association Week!

Second, Gloria Zamora -- SLA's President-Elect -- was named a Kentucky Colonel by the governor for being the first Kentucky Chapter member to become president of the Association (in 2009)!  Others who have been given this honor include Mae West  and Tiger Woods.  It was pointed out tonight that Gloria is not only a member of the Kentucky Chapter, but that she is also a member of the Rio Grande and Washington D.C. Chapters.   

As for speakers, we heard from:

• Andy Hines on "Anticipating the Future" (keynote).  He noted that they do not predict the future, but instead look for possibilities and indicators in order to construct alternate future.  I have many notes ...
• How do you do foresight?
• Framing
• Scanning
• Forecasting
• Visioning
• Planning
• Acting
• You need to probe beneath the surface.
• What is the current problem?
• What are the driving forces? (trends analysis)
• What are the world views? (breadth and depth analysis)
• What are the archetypes? (myth/metaphor analysis)
• You need to leverage changes in their early stages (when they are just emerging).  If you wait too long, then the flexibility is gone. 
• The Earth is divided into three worlds:
• Affluent -- ~1 billion people -- postmodern (focus on self expression, not possessions)
• Emerging -- Most people -- modern
• Poor  -- 1 - 2 billion -- traditional
• Although the U.S. is affluent, our values are more traditional.
• Think of the postmodern values as being derived from the Woodstock generation that has grown up.
• We are practicing ethical consumption.  We vote our values with our dollars.
• 25% of young adults don't distinguish between those friends that they interact with face-to-face and virtually.  Some have best friends that they are never met.
• 75% of those over 55 years old want to continue to do things (e.g., work, learn).
• Gen-X and Gen-Y don't trust institutions; they trust each other.
• Young adults value friends, family and faith.
• Stephen Abram on "Reality 2.0: Attracting, retaining and engaging the Association 2.0 member." 
• Recession is not good for libraries.
• Toilet seat economy (it goes up and down).
• Relationships -- not content -- are king.
• The future is already here, it just not evenly distributed yet.
• Need to get SLA members to understand the value of their ID and password on the SLA web site.
• Need to promote the resources that are available to members.
• Thousands of Click U courses
• 900+ ebooks
• NewsGator
• Factiva alerts
• In other words...there is a lot of content on the web site that we are not  using.
• Innovation lab and 23 Things (blog post)
• Janice LaChance gave a review of 2007 as well as looked ahead to what will be occurring in 2008.
• New association management system (AMS)
• More outreach
• Interaction with other associations and strategic partners
• Strong financial health of the association
• Took a public stance on issues around the globe that impact libraries
• Strategic alignment project
• Membership growth
• 124 new members during the membership campaign (recruited by 90+ individuals)
• Legal Division gained the most new members (94)
• Knowledge Management Division gain the largest percentage of new members
• Illinois Chapter gained the most new members (65)
• Oklahoma Chapter gained the largest percentage of new members
• A member in D.C. (Jerome ) recruited 11 members
• Members from Fleishman Hillard on "Positioning SLA for the Future."  This is the group that has been hired to work on the strategic alignment project along with Outsell and Andy Hines.  What was important about their presentation is that they have a real process for doing this work.  This work will definitely help us understand who we are, what we value, what others perceive our value to be, etc.  Out of this work then we can set a direction for SLA, decide on how to market the Association, and position the Association for the future.
• In the afternoon, we worked in small groups on "Remembering the Future."  We spent time thinking about our ourselves and our organizations over the next 2.5 years.  (From the perceptive that it was June 2010 and thinking about what had happened since Jan. 2008.)  Then we focused on the Association.  The notes from this will be available online.  The bottom line is that we all saw interesting changes in store for the Association -- changes that we seem very ready for.

After a full day, there were some smaller meetings, then we headed to Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory for the Kentucky Chapter Welcome Reception.  We ate, talked, watched a movie, watched them  make baseball bats, used the batting cage, shopped and  more.

BTW the weather here is colder than we all expected.  We walked briskly to the Reception in 10 - 14 (F) degree weather. Any illusions of Louisville having Southern temperatures have been shattered.