Silicon Valley Chapter | SLA

President's Letter - Preparing for the Annual Conference

Hi San Andreas Chapter Members!

The annual conference in New Orleans is just around the corner and hopefully some of you will be able to attend! The Virtual Program Planner is up and running and keep up with Conference happenings via the Conference blog. Below are some of the events related to our Chapter, Chapter members or SLA members from the Bay Area which might be of interest.

February 2010 President's Letter

Greetings Fellow SLA San Andreas Chapter Members,

 

Welcome to 2010, the year our chapter celebrates 30 years! I am so excited to be president during this important milestone for the chapter. As always, our chapter is well represented with a wonderful hard working board and committee members. I would like to thank Jean Bedord and Vicki Garlow for kicking off our programming on January 14th with a great presentation by Deb Hunt entitled Career Agility 4: Information Pros as Consultants. There is more great programming on its way for the rest of the year. Helen Josephine has been working diligently to get our PayPal system up and running, so if you choose to you won’t have to send in checks anymore but can sign up and pay for programs online. Thanks to Cliff Mills and Steven Kaye who have been actively getting updates, news and pictures out to you via our blog and website. Keeping an eye on the Solo Librarians, they have been active with a program at the Beethoven Center. Thank you to Sonia Dorfman and Eric Kristofferson for organizing this event - you might think of visiting on your own if you were unable to attend. On the national level, our chapter is also well-represented by people such as Deb Hunt (SLA Director), Cindy Hill (Innovation Laboratory & Second Life Workgroup) and recently-appointed SLA Fellow Libby Trudell. 

 

For those of you who don’t know me, I have been involved with the Special Libraries Association since the beginning of my professional career. I first began my involvement as a student member and soon moved on to Sci-Tech chair of the Boston Chapter organizing programming. I also had a stint on the SLA Professional Development Advisory Council at the national level, which gave me a chance to see what the association as a whole does. Since 2003 I have been a member of the San Andreas Chapter as treasurer and membership chair, then as president-elect, and now president. 

Review of San Andreas Chapter 2009 Events

Greetings All - A part of each SLA unit President's duties is to submit a year-end report to SLA headquarters on the state of the chapter over the past year.  It's not only useful to the Association; it gives the President a chance for a final review of "their" year.  One element that is reported is the events held.  When I took a look at this impressive array of activities I felt considerable pride that San Andreas Chapter leadership produced such inspiring programs.  For those of you who attended one or two events and may not realize how rich our activities were this year, I am memorializing for the chapter this remarkable year by sharing with you all what I sent to HQ.

 

Here's to a hearty round of thanks and applause to the Program Directors, Patricia Parsons and Jean Bedord. Likewise thanks are due to Sonia Dorfman, our Solo Librarian group leader, and to Lee Pharis for Professional Development. And of course Hospitality, covered by Helen Josephine and Gloria Elia, is the "behind the scenes" force that is so vital to the event process. 2009 was a truly impressive event year for our chapter.  "Go team!"

 

Leslie R. Fisher

2009 President, San Andreas Chapter SLA

 

 

Our Solo Librarian group met actively throughout 2009.  In January, Jean Bedord addressed the group on the topic of her book, "eBooks Hit Critical Mass: Where Do Libraries Fit with Oprah?”.  At the February Solos meeting, Leslie Berlin, the Project Historian for the Silicon Valley Archives, was the guest speaker discussing and sharing her experiences of the archives. Cindy Hill spoke to the group in April on the topic of “influencing up” and communicating with key stakeholders. In July the group met with Carol Chatfield at The Career Development Center, at Stanford University. In September Craig Cruz, Jr. joined the group to discuss the history and current focus of BayNet (Bay Area Library and Information Network). In November the group met again to de-brief on and share experiences of the Internet Librarian conference.

 

The 2009 Program Directors rolled out an innovative series of career-focused programs styled as the Career Agility Series. This featured as breakfast meetings.  These events proved quite popular. The first was held in April and featured Cindy Hill and Christian Gray talking about branding oneself for the marketplace.  The second Career Agility event was held in June and featured Linda McKell and Sarah Vogel discussing alternate employment options for the information professional. The third of the series was held in July and featured Amelia Kassel speaking about the independent information professional. 

 

The first standard program of the year was held in January and featured the Chapter President de-briefing on the Leadership Summit. It was a casual dinner meeting with pizza and salad held in a conference room at a public library. 

In March we had a formal dinner meeting at a sit-down restaurant. The speaker was author Sarah Milstein addressing the topic she has written about, The Business Case for Twitter. It was a very popular event.

The joint chapters meeting with San Francisco Chapter was held in May in meeting space at SFO. This was also a celebration of the Association’s centennial and we had a panel of chapter luminaries discussing future directions of the profession. The panel included Bill Fisher, Cindy Hill, Richard Geiger, Libby Trudell and Deb Hunt offering up thoughts and inspiration.

Also in May the chapter held a special team building event. Several members travelled to a local winery for a tasting and wine blending party.  We enjoyed the wines of Tenuta Vineyard and then were coached on blending. Three teams developed their blends and all had a final round of tasting to vote on a winner. Lots of good food was consumed and a good time was had by all.

In June-July the chapter held a series of informal Neighborhood Dinner meetings, each one coordinated by a chapter volunteer. The Neighborhood Dinners are a long-standing tradition in San Andreas Chapter and are usually spread out over a week or more and are situated in various locations throughout the chapter boundaries. In recent years these have been calendared to share experiences from the annual conference.

 

In August we had a reception at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, with some members touring areas of the museum in advance of the reception. The reception was followed by a panel discussion on the realm of e-books. Panel members were all players in this industry, including representatives from Morgan and Claypool, Knovel and CRC Press. The discussion began with chapter member Helen Josephine, Head Librarian at the Engineering Library of the Terman Engineering Center at Stanford University, talking about implementation of a "bookless" engineering library.

 

In September we held our annual Professional Development workshop. The topic was copyright and featured Dru Zuretti, Copyright Education Manager at Copyright Clearance Center in an interactive discussion with members. Questions from potential attendees were compiled and sent to the speaker in advance of the meeting. Zuretti covered compiled questions and there was time for additional questions from the audience, as well. This was a half-day event.

 

Our October program meeting was held at Intel and featured Melissa Cefkin and Alexandra Zafiroglu discussing the corporate trends in hiring anthropologists and other ethnographically-oriented social scientists as employees, consultants, and advisors. Cefkin is a business and design anthropologist in the Service Practices group at IBM's Almaden Research Center. Zafiroglu is a senior researcher with Domestic Designs and Technologies Research at Intel Corporation.

 

Scheduled to take advantage of the high rate of chapter members attending the Internet Librarian conference, a tour of the Dudley Knox Library at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey was arranged for Sunday October 25. Organized by a chapter member, this tour was hosted by Greta Marlatt, Manager of Outreach and Collection Development at Dudley Knox.

We had a dinner program at SJSU in November with the speaker discussing "Evolution of Controlled Vocabularies." The speaker, Christine Connors, has extensive experience in taxonomy, ontology and metadata design and development. Prior to forming TriviumRLG, an information management consulting firm, Ms. Connors was the global director, semantic technology solutions for Dow Jones. This presentation was videotaped at the request (and expense) of SLIS. A tour of King Library was organized to precede this dinner program. The November dinner program was the first time out for this chapter to use SurveyMonkey as a program registration tool. 

Our final event for 2009 was the chapter’s annual business meeting and Holiday party. Though this is typically a celebratory event, at which special awards and leadership acknowledgements are given, we also had Roy Tennant as our guest speaker at this event. He shared his perspectives on the three things libraries of the future must have/do in order to succeed. It was a very interesting presentation enjoyed by members and guests alike.

Our Program Directors also organized two “for fun” screenings of The Hollywood Librarian, one in July and one in November.

San Andreas Holiday Party and Annual Business Meeting

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Why not mix a little business with our pleasure! The December 8th meeting will be mostly fun and celebratory. In fact, most of the business will be a celebration too. A key element of the annual business meeting is acknowledging accomplishments and performers. We’ll be awarding the Mark Baer Award and the Lucy Steelman Award, as well as various others. Please be there to add to the applause.

And maybe you deserve something too. Been naughty? Been nice? It’s up to you to decide. But if you’ve been very, very good, perhaps you will want to buy yourself a little tidbit for your jewelry box. My favorite jeweler, Adina Magill, will be showing her wares during the networking portion of the evening. So you can get a little Holiday shopping taken care of too! It’s a pleasure doing business with Adina.

Our speaker will be Roy Tennant. Roy Tennant is a Senior Program Officer for OCLC Research. He is the owner of Web4Lib and XML4Lib electronic discussion lists, and the creator and editor of Current Cites, a current awareness newsletter published every month since 1990. His books include Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow (2008), Managing the Digital Library (2004), XML in Libraries (2002), Practical HTML: A Self-Paced Tutorial (1996), and Crossing the Internet Threshold: An Instructional Handbook (1993). Roy also wrote a monthly column on digital libraries for Library Journal for a decade and has written numerous articles in other professional journals. In 2003, he received the American Library Association's LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Excellence in Communication for Continuing Education. Yes, Roy is a genius. But this won’t be dry. He is also funny and fun.

NEW:  To streamline and semi-automate registration, we are directing attendees to register online. After completing the online form, please send a check to the Registrar. See below for the steps for registration.

Event: San Andreas Chapter Holiday Party and Annual Business Meeting
Speaker topic:  Digital Libraries and Web 2.0
Speaker:  Roy Tennant
Where:  Macarthur Park Restaurant, Palo Alto
When:  Tuesday, December 8, 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Cost:  SLA Member - $25 ; Non-member or guest - $35 ; Retired or unemployed SLA member or SLIS student - $15
Last day to register:  Monday, November 30, 2009
Sponsor:  IEEE

MacArthur Park Restaurant
27 University Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301-2324
   Here's a map:
MacArthur Park is in easy walking distance from the Palo Alto Caltrain station.
For those who will arrive by car, parking is available in the adjacent lot or behind the Sheraton Hotel.

NEW: REGISTRATION STEPS
1.  Check the calendar, making sure the date is not past the November 30th deadline.
2.  Go to SurveyMonkey and register for this event.
3.  Write a check for the appropriate amount, payable to “San Andreas Chapter of SLA."
4.  Put the check in an envelope, stamp and mail it to:

SLA Reservations
c/o AIM Library & Information Staffing
P.O. Box 391210
Mountain View, CA 94039-1210

5. When the Registrar receives your check, she will send you a confirmation email.

Thanks to IEEE for sponsoring this San Andreas Chapter event!

-- Leslie Fisher, San Andreas Chapter President for 2009

An Invitation to Chapter Leadership Positions

Greetings All - I would like to invite each of you to consider joining the stellar Leadership Circle of the San Andreas Chapter, SLA.  We have several positions coming open in 2010.  I will share a bit about the positions and invite you to reach out to one of the members of the Leadership Circle to answer any questions and discuss interest you may have in serving.

Open Board Positions:

President-Elect - The primary responsibilities of the P-Elect are to observe the workings of the Leadership, the President especially of course, and to monitor and encourage membership. 

This is the first of a three year term.  Year two is, of course, that of President.  The President oversees the general operations of the Chapter, ensures that Chapter duties to the Association are fulfilled, presides over business meetings, and represents the Chapter at the Leadership Summit and the Annual Conference.  It is a very exciting year.  The President is enabled to bring vision to the Chapter.  The rest of the Leadership are available as consultants and facilitators.  The President has the resources of all the Leadership to fulfill their duties.  In my experience it is a joy to witness and participate in the collective accomplishments of this group. 

The third year of service is that of Past-President.  The Past-P is responsible for the Governance and the Awards committees, and for providing general "corporate memory" to the Leadership.  Governance requires little activity unless there are changes to be made in the governing structure of the Chapter or requested by the Association.  The Awards task is executed near the end of the year and requires calling for nominations and deliberating with a committee on the submissions.  The Past-P also has responsibility for procuring the Awards and conferring them.

Secretary - The prime responsibility of the Secretary is to take meeting minutes at the Board and Leadership meetings.  These minutes are drafted, routed to the Leadership for approval, and final Minutes are posted to the chapter's web archive through the webmaster.  This is a two year post.

Incoming Program Director - The in-coming Program Director partners with the second year Program Director to learn the ropes.  Historically the Chapter has held from 5-7 programs per year.  The function of the Directors is to plan, schedule and execute programming for the Chapter.  Typically, the Directors define program topics of interest, source a speaker, schedule the event, introduce and act as hosts to the speaker, and formally thank the speaker.  The Directors work closely with the Hospitality Committee. (Hospitality typically arranges for a venue and food, collects registration and prepares badges and greets attendees.)  This is a two year post as the in-coming role matures to the lead Director role.

Open Chair Positions:

Nominations Committee - The Nominations Committee convenes for perhaps 2 to 4 meetings late in the Chapter year.  It's purpose is to nominate a slate of candidates for the coming Chapter year.

Professional Development Committee - The Professional Development Committee typically produces one key event per year.  The purpose is to provide a learning experience for Chapter members.  Unlike programming, which is generally informational, take-aways from a professional development event should include new or significantly enhanced skills, resources for enhancing job performance and/or for pursuing additional learning, and enthusiasm to take back to the workplace.  Professional Development programs can be live or broadcast and may run for two hours or a half-day.

Public Relations - Public Relations is a new role in the Chapter.  Its purpose is to promote the profession to our local communities via announcements about member activities and accomplishments.

These and numerous other committees also have non-chair positions, in case you would like to get your feet wet in Chapter leadership without actually holding a chair.  Remember, the Chapter is yours and you can and ought to bring your influence to bear on what we are doing and where were are heading.  Please take a moment to look at your chapter and ponder what new direction you would like to see for SA Chapter. 

For a list of all Board and Committee positions, along with contacts to the current Leadership, please follow this link.  http://san-andreas-sla.org/board.html

Leslie R. Fisher
2009 President, San Andreas Chapter SLA
Leslie DOT Fisher AT Gilead DOT com

Pondering the SLA Name Change

At the past two Leadership Summits (the winter mini conference) as well as at the last two (or perhaps three) annual conferences there has been increasing communication about the alignment initiative, findings of the research, directions and decisions for the membership.  The path forward, we are strongly advised, includes a name change.  Fleishman-Hillard, our consultant, says so.  Janice says so.  Gloria says so.  But perhaps most importantly, corporate America says so.  I.E., Our bosses or prospective bosses, our clients, our business partners, our colleagues seem to be letting us know that we need to re-conceptualize our titling.   Heck, as was made abundantly clear at this year's conference, as has been reiterated on the leadership list and in various communications to the membership, John Cotton Dana himself, our association's founder, was not satisfied with the name Special Libraries Association.  Rather he, accepted the title as holding a place.  He also said, ""the old type of library must modify itself in accordance with the new needs which the evolution of knowledge and the growth of print have created."  If we substitute "print" with "resources" we can surely recognize the evolution he embraced as something that hasn't and won't be contained.  Just as it did at its creation, the association is offering us another chance to shift.   As our SLA colleague below says, our name is our brand.  Don't we want a brand that attracts attention and evokes respect.  Even if you are satisfied with SLA as a brand, can you be willing to listen to the market place and understand how the brand is perceived by our clients and prospective clients - and do read into that "employers"?  

To me it is time to get past the question of whether or not to change our name.  We already went that far when we changed the named from Special Libraries Association to SLA.  I just don't think that got us very far.  What we need to do now is start the much harder work of coming up with an alternative name.  As our colleague below implies, there's a scuffle in the making.  But we all have the chance to come out winners if we forge through it and re-form our brand to something potent and appealing.

 

Leslie R. Fisher

2009 President, San Andreas Chapter SLA

 

 

From: SLA-FAN Special Libraries Association--Food Agriculture and Nutrition [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Cessna, Jennifer
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 10:55 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [SLA-FAN] SLA & Alignment

What does a brand say to you?  If I say “Would you like a Hershey’s Kiss?” you know immediately what I’m offering; you might ask for an Almond Joy instead, but again, the language is clear and the brand has meaning. 

Can we say the same about The Special Libraries Association dba. SLA?  Quite honestly, if I have one more colleague from Hershey say to me “Oh, you’re a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army”; I may just flex my 2^nd Amendment right to bear arms!  Obviously, I’m joking about the gun, because that would surely get me fired, but as an association, we are experiencing a bit of a brand name crises.  Even Special “Libraries” doesn’t describe us, but the space where we work…or the space where we once worked. 

So while we are doing the work to ensure that we, Librarians, Information Professionals,  Researcher, Analyst or whatever you call yourself, are positioned for the future, it seems like the appropriate time to also evaluate our brand name.  A brand is a bit of a package deal…it’s the name and the good or service behind the name.  So let’s do the work and have the tough conversations and hopefully when the smoke clears, we’ll emerge as an association with a brand that is strong and meaningful not just to us but to our employers, customers and colleagues!

Over the next few months as the work on the Alignment Project progresses, I’ll be acting as the Alignment Ambassador for FAN.  I’ll provide updates as I get them and am open to discussion on the alignment project.  I can also take your feedback & comments to the other Alignment Ambassadors and to the Alignment Committee.  If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to email me.

Helpful Resources

Latest update on the alignment research:  http://wiki.sla.org/download/attachments/34701754/Positioning+Info+Pros+for+the+Future.pdf

SLA Alignment Website:  http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/alignment/index.cfm

 

Have a great weekend!

Jennifer R. Cessna | Lead Information Research Specialist

The Hershey Company| 1025 Reese Ave Hershey PA 17033 | p:  717-520-8869 | f: 717-534-5069 | [email protected]

San Andreas Chapter -- Event Budget Policy Statement

Regarding San Andreas Chapter Event Budgets and Financial Responsibility

 

In tandem with general economic trends, San Andreas Chapter has lost equity in the SLA pooled mutual funds.  (We deposited our assets to the Association's pooled funds 2 years ago.)   As a result, Chapter leadership has determined it necessary to conduct business with a more conservative approach to fiscal responsibility.   

 

For 2009 and 2010 Chapter leadership has defined a guideline to steer toward "break even" event management.  This statement constitutes a "policy" requiring event planners (programming and other meetings, tours, professional development etc.) to arrange for event expenses to be covered by event income.  For events that will not meet "break even" status, the exception is to be reviewed with Chapter leadership in advance of the event.   

 

In other words, Chapter leadership advises that registration plus sponsorship should cover costs for events, to the maximum extent possible.  And Chapter leadership would like to review exceptions on a case-by-case basis to determine if the Chapter budget can sustain any suggested under-writing. 

 

Thank you to all event planners and participants for your contributions to our belt-tightening endeavors.

 

Leslie R. Fisher

2009 President, San Andreas Chapter SLA

Reminders from SLA HQ -- Member Services Highlight

Janice LaChance, SLA's Chief Executive Officer, recently distributed a communication through the Association's "Leadership List," a distribution list for communications to/from Janice, the Association Board, and the unit Presidents and President-Elects.  ("Units" means both Divisions and Chapters for those of you wondering.)  This list is used for various distributions, such as noteworthy events, news about HQ activities, leadership tips and more.  It helps leaders stay tuned-in with the Association as a dynamic and evolving entity.  It helps me keep a perspective on the Association and our profession beyond San Andreas Chapter and my friends and colleagues in this region. 

For instance, a chapter survey is conducted annually and results are made accessible to chapter leaders through the Leadership List.  It has been fascinating to review the variables across the Association and to hear the "voices" of other leaders sharing the perspectives of members and chapters in other places.  It has really opened me up to a new understanding and ownership of the Association.  Whereas once I held the thinking that "I belong to the Association," now I think more along the lines of "the Association belongs to me"--to us.

And with that shift of perspective, I find myself thinking of how I cultivate, nurture, caretake the Association--just as I do about other things that "belong" to me.  I've started to steer away from thinking about what I can get from the Association and instead am turning toward what I want the Association to be, to do, to become.  A variation on "pride of ownership" has sprung up.  The little cotyledon of my "member as consumer" self has fallen away and baby leaves are sprouting a self-identity of "member as participant."  It is exhilarating, in a quiet and harnessed kind of way.

Anyway, back to the list--the list that lets me feel connected to so many more members of SLA and such diversity of humanness.  I want to share with you some of the latest news distributed by Janice.  She has shared with us some of the analysis provided by SLA's Chief Policy Officer, Doug Newcomb.  Doug has analyzed the Obama Administration Agenda and has relayed to us, through Janice, his perspectives on what impact the Agenda will have on our profession.  I have forwarded Janice's message in full to the San Andreas Chapter's discussion list.  But for the Chapter's blog, I will just post a section of the message that pertains to the SLA Public Policy blog, where you can find news on a lot of things going on in our world and how SLA is responding.

From Janice on 25 February 2009:  SLA works hard to keep members informed on a variety of issues that may affect the profession, and we encourage you to provide your input and perspective.  One of the most efficient ways to do this is to read SLA’s Public Policy blog located at http://slaconnections.typepad.com/public_policy_blog/.  This is where you will find news and information about SLA's efforts to shape legislation and regulatory proposals.  I also recommend signing up to receive email updates from the SLA Pubic Policy blog on the link above—it is a great way to have this information delivered directly to you.  (JC)

If you are reading this blog posting but are not a member of the Chapter's discussion list and want to see the full set of comments from Doug, please let me know.  Also, if this is the case, I encourage you to subscribe to the San Andreas discussion list.  San Andreas leadership is developing use policies for the blog and the discussion list, so that in the future you will receive different types of postings in each medium.

As Janice said in the greeting in her recent posting, "Good day to you all."

Leslie R. Fisher

2009 President, San Andreas Chapter, SLA

[email protected]

Report on the SLA Leadership Summit, January 14-16, Savannah, GA

High Level Innovations in the Association

The SLA Leadership Summit, held this year in Savannah, GA, is an annual two-day event with a primary focus on bringing new leaders into the fold.  The Chapter and Division Cabinets also have a chance to meet collectively at this event.  There is some annual conference planning as well; and, of course, the Association Board meets. 

A good chunk of the Summit is orientation to what unit leaders are responsible for.  There are, of course, deadlines, and form and reports and responsibilities.  The Summit is a good place to bone up on these matters and a great place to pose questions, quandaries, ideas, complaints and approval.  And, by the way, the Summit is open to all.  You do not have to be filling a unit leadership position to attend.  The Summit is much more intimate than the annual conference.  You really have a chance to network with lots of folks.

At this year’s Summit, my second, there was a lot of buzz.  Everyone was excited about the Association’s 100^th anniversary.  We also heard a lot about the Association’s "Alignment Initiative" which has taken some powerful strides since the report out at last year’s Summit in Louisville, KY. 

Last year in Louisville there was ice on the sidewalks.  Brr!  Likewise there was a rather tepid response to the progress of the alignment efforts as reported at that event.  Though the weather once again dipped below freezing at least one night of the Savannah event, the conference room was glowing with warm sentiments following the report out on progress from February 2008 to January 2009.

I wanted to share with you some of the keen stuff we heard at the Summit.  I’ll address several points of change in the Association and at HQ.  I’ll review the "Alignment Initiative" at a high level, sharing some of the tangible research efforts that have been executed.  I’ll toss out some bits and pieces from the Keynote Speaker’s address.  And of course, I’ll highlight key Centennial news in the following article.

Here are bullet points of some major news, changes and innovation coming from HQ.  The Staff and Board are doing a great job of proactively meetings our uncertain times face-on.  Go team!

 •In case you hadn’t heard, there is a new dues tier of $35 annual membership fee for members earning under $17,000.  This is a full membership qualifying for all member benefits.  Over 100 new, non-North American members have joined since this was instituted!

 •SLA is now over 11,000 members strong with members in over 70 countries.

 •Click-University is now FREE – all live and replay courses are available to members at no charge!!!

 •HQ has taken measures to adapt to our uncertain economic era.  There will be no salary increases at HQ this year.  And staff will adopt a co-pay system to defray health care costs.  These measures have enabled the organization to maintain the staffing that is in-place.  Yea team!

 •Again for costs containment, publication of Information Outlook will be reduced from 12 to 8 times per year.

 •Once more, to control costs, there will be no Salary Survey in 2009, which is a very costly production.

 •Association Board meetings will be run virtually to a significant degree.  Face-to-face meetings will still happen at the Annual and Summit events.

Alignment Initiative

My interpretation of the purpose of the Alignment Initiative is to bring cohesiveness of self-identity to the Association.  Yes, we are many and diverse in professional purpose.  But while the many variables we deliver as projects, tasks and responsibilities, what our specific skills and titles say about us may be enfolded into the description of our profession, those are not what we must "sell" to our organizations as our worth.  With the Initiative, the Association is looking for, and facilitating, a shift in member self-reference.  We are moving from an identity of a knowledge worker with XYZ skills and capabilities to that of a key corporate contributor who brings significant ROI to their organizations.

If your first thought on the above is to remark that we need our organizations' management-think to change, I challenge you to ponder how that is going to happen.  If you think you can't do it alone, then consider what the alignment and integration across the members and an 11,000-strong professional association can do.  With the Initiative we are being propelled toward a re-thinking of our meaning as professionals, that we may express an essential identity and core purpose in common.  From this we will be empowered collectively to speak of a common framework for communicating our value.

From the Association's website:

"The need to generate a sharper focus on the perceived value of the Association and the profession is pressing …"

"…SLA has embarked on a thorough examination to bring clarity and unity to the core identity and values of the Association and the profession. We are working with a multidisciplinary team of research and communication professionals, led by the international communication firm, Fleishman-Hillard, and supported by futurist Andy Hines of Social Technologies and the information analytics firm, Outsell Inc.

Toward this end, a body of research has been executed.  This global research has been conducted in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Canada.  The following are two examples of research that have already been conducted that were presented at the Summit:

"Positioning Statements":  In this exercise, statements about the profession and the association were evaluated by info pros and other professionals, including middle and upper management of some major organizations.  The results were arrayed using a typical quadrant rating with axes of Favorability (of perception of term) and Frequency (of use of term). 

"Dial Sessions" were another form of testing in which statements about the profession and Association were recorded by Association staff and leadership.  These were then analyzed by various listeners who ranked impressiveness or effectiveness of the statements.  We were able to view various segments of dial rating overlaid on recorded sessions.  Some of the results were predictable, but some were startling.

Next steps in the Alignment project are to determine how to re-focus our image.  The membership is to steer this effort with support from the Association.  There are no details at this time. Of note: While an ad campaign is anticipated, it will not be in a televised format.  Think "virally," such as U-tube.

For more information on purpose, process and results about the Alignment project, see the Association's website.  A link to the Alignment project is found on the home page.  Of note: new information has been added since the Summit.

Keynote Speaker

Stephen Garvey was our keynote speaker, addressing us on the fundamentals of "Influence."  He invoked the adage that "perception = reality" and invited us to take ownership of that matter in any given circumstance.  To understand a current state is to give possibility to a future state and to begin to speak to a future state.  Language is our key form of influence in the professional sphere.  And Stephen’s invocation was to the effect that positive communication has the highest degree of influence, especially in a volunteer organization.  To influence behavior, influence imagination.  Get beyond facts and stimulate the imagination using the "story factor."

To test this yourself, check out the following art communication.  I’ll be interested to hear if – regardless of ideology – you don’t find the communication gets through to your heart.  (-; You've got to use the down arrow button underneath the visible "Hot on Dipdive" list.  "Yes We Can Song" is about 11 clicks down.  http://dipdive.com/.)

There was a lot more to this presentation.  Garvey’s presentation is to be posted to the Association website.

Want to review a few of the references Garvey cited?

 •Fleming, Coffman & Harter.  “Manage your Human Sigma.”  Harvard Business Review Jul-Aug 2005.  Free at http://qep.nova.edu/gallup/forms/human_sigma.pdf .

 •"What the Bleep Do We Know?" [documentary; available on CD] See http://www.whatthebleep.com/ .

 •Zaltman, Gerald.  How Customers Think.  Harvard Business School Press, 2003

 •Author John C Maxwell writes on leadership ["read anything of his."]

 Centennial Activities

A really lovely display has been designed in honor of the Centennial.  It reflects our legacy and our future.  It is a mini replica archive of events and publications, people and accomplishments.  It will be traveling, so keep your fingers crossed SA and SF will be able to get on the travel calendar.

A centennial tool kit is being developed with useful resources for units.  It is an ever aggregating source of "then & now" info, digital photo archive, factoids, stump speeches for us to use, sponsorship proposals, etc.  The centennial toolkit will be relocated to the PR wiki after the centennial year.

This tool kit can be found in the wiki space under the "SLA Community" drop-down list on the main page of the Association website <http://www.sla.org>.  Check out the wiki labeled "Centennial Celebration Ideas." [You will need to log in as a member to get to the wiki spaces.]

Never been to the SLA wiki space?  Check out the wiki "sandbox" – a place for getting your feet wet [dry? (-; ] in "wiki-land" http://www.sla.org/content/community/wikis/index.cfm.

In honor of the Centennial, an oral history project is underway.  Budget for this year’s activities was approved by the Centennial Commission.  A core body of work already exists, courtesy of work done in the 1990’s by none other than San Andreas Chapter!  Doreen Cohen’s work includes interviews with four members of the Chapter.  These, and a projected five new interviews, are expected to be available in transcript form – perhaps with some sound bites – by the 2009 Annual Conference.

The PR Council will outreach to all units during 2009.  There will be an international centennial event in the fall.  No details on this yet.

Going to DC?  Keep your eyes on the Centennial year wiki at http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLA2009/ 

OR not?  Check out what the Centennial Commission is up to at  http://wiki.sla.org/display/CentCel/Centennial+Commission

Or simply visit the Association’s Centennial website:  http://www.sla.org/centennial/

Here’s to a super-charged Centennial year!

Leslie R. Fisher

President, San Andreas Chapter

[email protected]

 

Seeking Volunteers for Chapter Board

The San Andreas Chapter is recruiting for the following Board positions for 2008:

Secretary ( 2 year term to start Jan 2008)--responsible for taking minutes at the chapter board meetings ( 3-4 per year) and the annual business meeting, submitting the minutes for approval to the board, publishing minutes to the Chapter blog.

Program Director ( 2-year term to start Jan 2008)--responsible for working with the other Program Director, Hospitality Committee and the Board to organize program meetings and neighborhood dinner events for the Chapter. Member of the Executive Board of the Chapter .

President-Elect ( 3-year term to start Jan 2008)--as President-elect(2008), responsible for membership recruitment and attending Chapter Board meetings. As President (2009), responsible for fostering chapter activities, reporting to SLA HQ, attending the annual Leadership Summit and the Annual Conference. As President and President-Elect, member of the SLA Chapter Cabinet which meets at both the Leadership Summit and the Annual Conference. As Past-President (2010), chair of the Chapter Awards Committee and Chair of the Chapter Governance Committee.

President’s Message: Mid Year Report - Chapter Activities January 2007-May 2007

By Helen Josephine, President, San Andreas Chapter

As I head off for the SLA conference and the Leadership meetings, I am reviewing our chapter accomplishments for the first half of the year. Immediately following the Leadership Summit in January 2007, the San Andreas and San Francisco Chapters held their annual joint board planning meeting to review co-sponsored projects including the turnover of the Jobline and joint dinner programs. Lorna Beich from the San Andreas Chapter is now head of the Jobline Committee, and she has created new processes (6 week postings) and a clean new format for the job announcements. The annual joint program meeting with the San Francisco chapter was held at the San Francisco Airport Museum on February 22 and featured Mia Garlick, General Counsel of Creative Commons. Other joint programs may also be held this year. (Below: Joe Langdon and Helen Losch enjoying the Leadership Summit in Reno.)

February was the debut of the new San Andreas Chapter blog. After researching available blog software and the use of blogs by other SLA chapters, Mary-Lynn Bragg and Claudia Cohen launched the new San Andreas Chapter blog as the main communication channel for our members. A Blog Party was held March 28 to introduce the technology to our members and discuss the difference between the Chapter Listserv and the blog for announcements and chapter information. Michael Sippey, VP of Professional Products at Six Apart, makers of TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal and Vox was the featured speaker at the Blog Party. The Board approved both a photo policy and a copyright policy in conjunction with the development of the blog as our primary information channel. Thanks to all the chapter members who have contributed content to the blog, including reports on our programs, book reviews and news items of interest. The Blog Committee, Claudia Cohen, Wynne Dobyns, and Sandy Tao have done a great job of keeping the content fresh and well edited. (Below: Mary-Lynn Bragg speaking at the Blog Party.)