As ALA Annual Vegas recedes into a hazy memory, and with a fresh round of Committee assignments starting and new guidance from PARS-Exec about expectations for Interest Group and Conference participation, I’ve had a few questions from people about how to get involved in PARS.
First off, let me say thank you, bravo, and encore. We need new people to take up the work of the Association, because some of us are more than ready for a little break, plus you seem to have energy, ambition, and good ideas. If you’re wavering, wondering what you might be signing on for, and what you’ll get out of it, let me give it to you plainly:
- PARS is a friendly group of people.
- PARS is a small Section of ALA, so we often have room for people who want to get involved.
- PARS gets a pretty high amount of stuff done, pretty quickly.
- PARS develops and promotes standards and practices that see actual use.
- PARS does not get everything done, nor does it do everything quickly.
- PARS pulls off some big things, Preservation Week, for example.
- PARS knows more about inherent vice than any other Section of ALA.
Now let me make that all a little murky.
When you first come to an ALA conference, you may be confused about what is going on or how to get involved. The key thing to know is that there is a committee structure working constantly to make the Association get up an do its thing. The question is how to understand its workings. This information will seem to be transmitted only from one initiate to another. Speculation will abound as to the nature of an Actual Chair and whether there is an actual being To Whom The Chair Reports or if that’s just a projection of our innate longing for Authority Control. There are even rumors of a shadow Executive Committee whose subtle, persistent, and nefarious influence propagates the entirety of ALA… others say that’s just CONSER.*
That should not be the case. ALA business is not simple or obvious, but it shouldn’t be occult. Because PARS is small and full of smart people (and so good looking) it’s a good place to learn how it all happens. It’s the same basic process in every other section, just a lot more of it. So, a few short pieces of (hopefully) useful information:
- Interest Groups (IGs) are membership-up entities, formed by petitioning PARS Exec, and must re-petition every 5 years.
- IGs are self-perpetuating in that they elect their own chair and co-chair; those roles are not appointed by PARS. PARS Exec says “yes/no/with these changes” to petitions, but cannot create IGs.
- PARS has some local practice, such as staggered co-chairs, and some traditions, like PAIG serving as a plenary session with twice the length of most IGs, for example. Those aren’t official requirements for IGs in ALCTS, though.
- Here’s the official info from ALCTS: http://www.ala.org/alcts/mgrps/howto/grp_estiginfo
- All IGs report to a Committee. Preservation Standards and Practices Committee gets reports from DPIG, BPIG, and DCIG; Exec gets the rest… though as I write that I have a sneaking suspicion that the reporting for PPIG and PMIG might have been orphaned during the last big restructuring. That may be something Exec wants to take up.
- Committees exist with a standing charge, and report to Exec. Some are mandated by ALCTS structures (publications), and some are PARS-specific.
- The members of Exec (Chair, Secretary, Members-at-large) are elected by the PARS membership.
- The current Chair in turn serves on the ALCTS Board of Directors, and is PARS primary liaison to ALCTS (the Division).
- The Chair-elect appoint committee chairs and committee members, to PARS and to ALCTS groups that require a PARS rep (e.g. Bylaws), and to other posts and liaison roles as needed.
- The past-Chair provides moral support to the current chair (unofficially) and then (officially) serves on the ALCTS nominating committee to put together a slate of candidate in their after-past-chair year.
- The members-at-large and past-chair provide general support to PARS, such as gathering info, writing documents, turning member input into resolutions and petitions for Board consideration, etc.
- Exec can commission Task Forces (short term) and Working Groups (ongoing) to do specific things for the Section.
Finally, a few thoughts about why you should bother with any of this. Getting involved in PARS (as with any part of ALA) takes some time and patience, and the rewards of doing so are much like the benefits of taking up a healthier diet and getting some regular exercise. These things alone will not make you an Olympian, nor will they alone push back the evil powers of the world that corrupt and destroy our dear collections. They’ll just make you a little better off than otherwise.
That’s it.
If you expect more of ALA, you will be disappointed and probably fail to reap the benefits of membership. This is not because ALA has any of the problems that its naysayers say. (In fact, ALA has all of those problems.) It is because ALA is a professional association, so the only thing it can do is help you to be a somewhat more competent and better informed librarian than otherwise. If you engage with ALA with that set of expectations, you’ll quickly find the problems worth solving and the circumstances worth ignoring, and when you solve a problem, you’ll get the just desserts.
Metaphor: There is a car with a flat tire. One person suggests that we fix it up and go for a drive. Another person advocates that we use it as a soft-serve ice cream machine, and becomes bitter, far from home and devoid of dessert. ALA is the car. Your engagement with PARS is fixing the car. I don’t know who in this metaphor ended up stranded without an ice cream cone, but don’t let it be you.
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* Love you guys!