LITA has a number of roles on its Board of Directors. They are listed below along with their descriptions. If this incomplete or incorrect and you’re a current or former Board member, or otherwise an expert on how the Board works, you are welcome to edit it; ask Jenny Levine for an account if you need one.
Helpful Links
Key Activities for July/August (post Annual)
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- Update text of membership emails (join, renew, drop, reinstate)
- Schedule first Board Meeting & plan meeting schedule
- Assign Board Liaison Roles – note: do this in RT – trying to do it via email is MESSY!
- Finalize/update strategic/tactical plan
- Finalize Nominations committee (if not already done)
LITA President’s Journal – Annual 2016 conference – July 15, 2016
Things you write
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- Announcements of upcoming meetings (as needed but at least 10 days in advance of meetings; sent directly to LITA-L)
- President’s Report (Midwinter, Annual; submitted to Executive Director)
- Write this as you go (at least in note form) — your life will be easier
- ITAL column (quarterly; submitted to ITAL editor and CC:ed to Executive Director)
- Thank-you letters to donors (as needed; ED will provide stationery and contact information)
- Add/drop/renew form letters (at beginning of year, to be sent by ALA automatically on trigger events; submitted to ED)
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Deadlines
You have some. See the LITA Officers’ todo list.
You may get additional deadlines from the following sources:
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- The orientation letter from the LITA Executive Director
- The ALA Appointments Committee
- The LITA Appointments Committee, per your plan for its work
- Any other committees or task forces you’re involved with
It’s your job to get a gift for the outgoing past-president at Annual.
Documents
There are a lot of things to consider reading as they provide useful context for LITA and ALA. Rereading may be useful as many of these are long and dry, and it may take a while for them to stick. That said, it’s understandable if you don’t necessarily get through them all — this is a lot to read!
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- LITA Bylaws
- In theory the LITA Manual has lots of information on how things operate, but in practice much of it is out of date, and it’s proved surprisingly resistant to updates.
- ALA Operating Agreement — surprisingly useful
- ALA Financial Learning Series
- LITA history
- LITA Bylaws
Appointments
You and your glorious Appointments Committee appoint LITA committees; LITA representatives to other bodies; and members of some ALA committees. This is the most important and time-consuming thing you are likely to do as VP.
There’s enough info on this topic that it has its own page: Appointments
Travel
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- ASAE meeting
- Several dates and locations throughout the year
- Arrange with LITA ED; you’ll be attending together
- ASAE meeting
Misc
Dealing with your email
You will get a lot of email. You need a strategy for ensuring that you notice all your VP emails. For instance: set up gmail filters to filter all your mailing lists into a LITA Board folder, and also tag all incoming non-mailing-list LITA emails (there will be several per day).
You should be on the following mailing lists (you can confirm your subscriptions at http://lists.ala.org/sympa/):
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- ala-appt (ALA Appointments Committee)
- divpres (Division Presidents)
- lita-appointments (LITA Appointments Committee)
- lita-fac (LITA Financial Advisory Committee)
- litachairs (LITA committee & IG chairs)
- litaboar (LITA Board)
- lita-l (LITA-L, which hopefully you were already on anyway)
- Your Forum list, and possibly also the list for the Forum before yours
- You are not automatically on the ALA Council list, but its archives are public through http://lists.ala.org/sympa/, so you can read it if you like.
- You should automatically receive copies of committee & representative activity reports (quarterly) and commitment reports (yearly).
LITA communications
LITA maintains social media and other communications channels that you should be aware of, even if you are not active on that particular platform:
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- @ALA_LITA Twitter (WCC & CAM)
- LITA.ALA Facebook (WCC & CAM)
- LITA Blog (blog editor & blog, overseen by WCC)
- LITA members’ newsletter (office staff)
- Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL board & Publications)
- LITA Guides (Acquisitions editor & Publications)
- If you need to request that something go out over social media, use the forms site or talk to the CAM or WCC chair.
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- Learn a bit about Roberts Rules of Order — not that you need to be a parliamentarian, but it helps to understand the flow of the meeting.
- If documents are sent out before meetings, read them. Your fellow board members will appreciate it.
- Don’t worry if you feel you don’t have a great deal to contribute on one particular issue; other issues will draw you in. At the same time, if you have an opinion or contribution, make it.
- But do remember that you (most likely)have excellent committee experience and may have a lot of knowledge about that area – share it!
- Remember that LITA Board is looking broadly, strategically, and towards the future.
- Have fun and be social with your fellow LITAns as much as you can.
Filtering Your Connect Email
You can have Connect discussions emailed to you, and then filter them to the same place as your Board email. This will make it much easier to read documents before meetings, per above.
To activate Connect email notifications, if needed:
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- Go to the “[Yourname]’s Account” dropdown in the upper right corner of Connect
- Make sure you have checked the `LITA Board of Directors` line
Your favorite email program can then filter on subject lines that contain ‘[ALA Connect] LITA Board of Directors’.
Executive Summary
Each member of the LITA executive board serves as liaison to one or more committees or other groups within LITA. When wearing the “Liaison Hat”, board members ensure that communication flows freely between the board and the committees: the committees are clear on what the board needs them to do; they can send action items, ask questions, and otherwise be empowered to work effectively; and that committee work can provide an engaging and meaningful experience for our members.
What to do
If you’ve been a liaison, feel free to describe best practices! Add brief comments inline, or create a new page (with this page as a parent) and link it.
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- Reach out to chairs to establish a relationship. (best practices)
- Make sure the chairs have a plan, and that it’s consistent with the committee charge & strategic plan. (best practices)
- Make sure the chairs are aware of the Virtual Engagement Toolkit our 2017 ELs put together. Whether your chairs are experts at running a virtual committee or just starting out, there is useful content for them here.
- Attend committee meetings, if possible (but don’t let their scheduling bottleneck on you).
- Don’t overstep your bounds (the chairs run the committee; you’re there to support them).
- Monitor the committee’s progress toward its goals. (best practices)
- Identify and follow up on concerns with committee support or progress.
- Facilitate two-way communication between the Board and the committee.
- Identify & initiate collaboration opportunities between your committee and outside groups (especially other LITA committees, task forces, and interest groups).
- Refer issues to staff liaison for things that require staff intervention (generally logistics, like contract signing or ALA IT).
FYI, there are also committee & IG chair coordinators (this is an appointed member position). How do the coordinators differ from liaisons?
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- Liaisons are there to help committees communicate with the board. While they may communicate primarily with the chairs, they are helping the committee as a whole to be effective.
- Coordinators are there to help the chairs be effective. They don’t have any responsibility for the work of the committee; instead, they ensure that chairs have key information (like deadlines); foster discussion among them; and support leadership development.
Key dates
Some committees have their own important dates (especially PPC); you should consult your chairs and/or LITA staff about these.
Unless these tasks are listed under “what to do” above, they are the chairs’ responsibility, not yours. However, you need to know about them to ensure smooth functioning of the committee.
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- August (or as soon as liaisons are finalized): reach out to chairs, ensure they have LITA background information (like the strategic plan), and initiate conversations about their committee plan
- September 15: First quarter committee report due
- September: meeting space requests and program proposals for Midwinter due (consult staff for specific date)
- October: program proposals for Annual due
- December 15: Second quarter/Midwinter committee report due
- March 15: Third quarter committee reports due
- June 15: Fourth quarter/Annual committee reports due
Where to go for more info?
Start with this web site! You can always add sub-pages to this document if you have best practices you’re like to document.
Your Board colleagues are also an excellent resource.
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- Bylaws – Article VII: Committees and Representatives — Includes the official statement on the responsibilities of committees.
- LITA Committees — A description of all of the LITA committees and the committee members with contact information. If using this near Annual Conference, you may want to check with the LITA Office or the incoming President to verify the information is correct.
- LITA Manual Section 7 – Publishing and Publication — Depending upon the committee charge, you may want to direct your committee to work with Publications; Education, PPC, and Forum in particular generate content that might be reworked into LITA publications.
- LITA Manual Section 10 – Programs at ALA Annual Conferences — Depending upon the committee charge, it might be helpful to guide the committee through the program guidelines; ask LITA staff for this year’s deadlines.
- LITA Manual Section 11 – Institutes, Preconferences, and Special Events
- How to write for LITABlog — has your committee been doing work members might want to know about or be involved in? Have them publicize it.
Liaison to ALA Council
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