Ala Council report–Chapter 2
Sunday morning I was up bright and early for the ALA Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session. The Budget and Analysis Committee (BARC) report by Marilyn Hinshaw was detailed and informative. The challenges facing ALA in this year of serious inflation have been considerable. The Endowment Fund Report by Chair Robert Newlen was also informative and encouraging. Despite a highly volatile market, the endowment fund only declined by 1.7% during the past year.Â
Immediately following this meeting was the ALA/APA Council meeting.:Â Revenue results for ALA-APA we said to have fallen short by about $11,000. There seems to be a feeling that the viability of ALA/APA, the lobbying arm of ALA, is tenuous.
The rest of the morning was taken up with the first regular Council Meeting. Resolutions Committee Chair, Peter McDonald, presented a significant revision to the guidelines for developing Council Resolutions. The new, redesigned ALA web site is expected to be launched in September 2008.  Preview site:  http://staging.ala.org/home.cfm  Efforts are underway to reduce the length of Mid Winter and Annual Meetings for Council as early as 2010 so that Council sessions could end on Tuesday rather than Wednesday. During the afternoon I went through a small section of the exhibits and in the evening attended the ALA President’s reception. Later I attended a private screening of WALL-E the new Pixar movie at Disneyland, courtesy of MovieLicensing
Nancy Wilson