[aisle] personal response re. virtual conference, open leadership positions

[Kiss, Susan]

THANK YOU!!!!

________________________________
From: AISLE <aisle-bounces at list.railslibraries.info> on behalf of Christy Semande via AISLE <aisle at list.railslibraries.info>
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2021 1:03 PM
To: AISLE-Share: Association of Illinois School Library Educators Discussion List <aisle at list.railslibraries.info>
Cc: Christy Semande <csemande at yahoo.com>
Subject: [aisle] personal response re. virtual conference, open leadership positions

Hello Friends,

First and foremost, I need this to be absolutely clear: this is a personal reaction to issues I want to address as an AISLE member and as someone with a "behind the scenes" point of view. It comes from my experience from serving on the AISLE board and on several conference committees.

Many of you are probably not aware of this, but there are about twice as many listserv subscribers than dues-paying AISLE members. The purpose of the listserv is to promote communication and resource sharing for the betterment of school libraries. The Board has deliberately made the choice to keep the list open to members and nonmembers because that is what is best for Illinois school libraries.

However, the AISLE Board’s first and foremost responsibility is to the people who pay to be members. The board is obligated to be fiscally responsible with the dues the members pay. The board takes this charge seriously and tries to do the most good they can with the limited funds that are available.

Keep in mind that AISLE only has two paid staff members. To be blunt, these ladies make a pittance for the amount work they do for us.  Without them, the organization would cease to function. They deserve our respect and our most sincere gratitude. Their part-time jobs often require more than full-time hours—which they do because school libraries have remained their passion even after retirement.  The rest of the organization’s work is done by volunteers-- with full time jobs, families and other commitments. People just like you.

You might have noticed in the last few elections that most nominees ran unopposed. We have struggled to find members willing to run for primary leadership roles.  The most common excuse that people give for not running for those leadership positions is that they do not have time. My gut response is that we find the time to do what really matters to us..  Our volunteers do this for the benefit of all Illinois school libraries.  They don’t sign up for personal gain. They do it for the "us" - they do it for you.

You don’t see the discussions, the planning, the policies, or hours of background work that go into making the organization operate. It's not always a well-oiled machine, but it is a machine that has been running successfully for 33 years. It is easy to complain when your only perspective is that of the end user. Please do not dismiss the organization's efforts because the result is not the solution that best fits your personal situation.

The virtual conference last year was great, and the AISLE leadership team is actively looking at ways to can incorporate that model in the future. They realize it is an option that makes the conference available for some who could not otherwise attend. However, we also have pre-COVID contracts in place with our venues that we are required to honor or suffer financial penalties.   These contracts are negotiated years in advance in order to secure the dates we need. That is just one of the reasons switching from an in-person to virtual conference this year would not have been fiscally responsible. There were multiple other reasons which, to save space, I will not detail here. Trust me- we looked at the numbers and crunched them in a hundred different ways before making the determination to have an in-person conference.

The conference planning committee also has looked at ways to offer full conference virtual options- either concurrently with the in-person conference or after the fact.   After examining the technical requirements, the time involved to manage/present digital access, and what AISLE has to do to just meet ISBE’s requirements for providing professional development hours, the conclusion was that it was not a wise way to prioritize our time and resources. Keep in mind there isn’t just one session each day- there are dozens.  Each presenter has a contract and some of those do not allow recording.  It sounds simple to just say, “offer a livestream” or “just record it” but- as someone who saw the behind the scenes work that went in to last year’s virtual conference- it is an incredibly complex and tedious process. Ask yourself, what would happen if AISLE had offered a digital attendance option and then not been able to deliver a worthwhile experience?  Once we weighed all of the factors involved, we committed to providing the very best, most educational and safest in-person conference that we possibly can.

Let me be clear: AISLE members have every right to question the leadership's decisions, policies, or practices.  In fact, I encourage members to be as engaged as possible, and am glad that participants feel the listserv is a safe place to share thoughts, questions, and resources.  The board does not always share the “why” behind the decisions that are made- but you can trust that there are solid, practical, and responsible reasons that have been discussed and debated before you saw the result. A bit of grace, understanding, and trust that the leadership has the organization’s best interests in mind would go a long way.

Sorry for the rant. I cannot express how much my AISLE membership and time in leadership have helped me- both professionally and personally.  I hope you can say the same. If you want to respond to this, I welcome the discourse (csemande at yahoo.com), just be respectful of the dreaded "reply all" that clutters everyone's inbox. (I made that mistake last week).

Thanks for listening-
Christy

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