{"id":590,"date":"2014-02-18T18:01:12","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T00:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/?p=590"},"modified":"2014-02-18T18:01:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T00:01:12","slug":"glbtrt-ala-councilor-report-from-peter-hepburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/archives\/590","title":{"rendered":"GLBTRT ALA Councilor Report from Peter Hepburn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Peter Hepburn<\/em><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Only a year since I left the Midwest for SoCal, and yet I was not so well-prepared for real winter when I encountered it in January at ALA MidWinter.\u00a0 I was heartily glad that my hotel in Philadelphia was so close to the convention center that I could dash over (or to Starbucks) without layering up too much.\u00a0 It was a good set of meetings in Philadelphia, though the weather might have sapped a bit of the energy out of the convention center.\u00a0 Still, it\u2019s a terrific city for a conference, in my experience, and the dining there is excellent.\u00a0 The social was a great success, and the planners deserve our thanks for that.<\/p>\n<p>Council had a moderately busy set of agendas before it this time around with a resolution on Edward Snowden once again and a few other resolutions dealing with things more internal to ALA (electronic communications, availability of governing information, allowing programs at MidWinter).\u00a0 In brief:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Council approved the establishment of a task force to work with ALA staff on electronic communication for Council.\u00a0 There had been a flurry of e-mails and such before MidWinter on how and where documents were posted and how and where they should be.\u00a0 I have not yet heard about the composition of the task force.<\/li>\n<li>Council approved a resolution requiring the governing bodies of round tables and divisions to make reports of their meetings and similar documentation available within 30 days of the meeting.\u00a0 This took a little discussion, and it should be made clear that it does not affect committees or other sub-bodies of the divisions or round tables.\u00a0 The GLBTRT already does this consistently, so far as I can tell, and there should be no further impact on the RT.<\/li>\n<li>Council did not approve a resolution to recognize Edward Snowden as a whistleblower.\u00a0 There was much debate, but my sense was that there was less support and a lower vote for this than for previous resolutions regarding Snowden.<\/li>\n<li>Council referred a resolution on allowing programs at MidWinter to BARC, the Budget Analysis and Review Committee.\u00a0 Because of the potential for financial impact to the association, this is a necessary step.<\/li>\n<li>Council debated and approved a resolution on maintaining government web sites in times of government closure.\u00a0 There was considerable discussion surrounding pay and obligation to the public, and Councilors had to balance the two issues as they saw fit.<\/li>\n<li>In terms of actions arising from committee reports, Council approved resolutions coming from the Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Committee on Legislation related to whistleblowing and government surveillance.\u00a0 Council also approved a new award, Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity.\u00a0 It sounds like a cute and funny thing, but it\u2019s a genuinely intended award.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Council remains a place with some lively debate and some discussions that, well, aren\u2019t quite so exciting to most of us (there are always policy wonks or governance wonks or budget wonks or\u2026).\u00a0 Still, it\u2019s a place I invite all of you to share in.\u00a0 No, it\u2019s rare that you might be permitted to address Council.\u00a0 But the room is open, there is seating for many, and Councilors can usually lend an ear at various times.\u00a0 It\u2019s YOUR Council, so come see what it is doing for you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The big news for me, personally, was my election to ALA\u2019s Executive Board.\u00a0 My second year of standing for election, and it was an honor to share the stage with the rest of the candidates.\u00a0 I am thrilled to be elected, and as a voice from the round tables and a gay man to add those aspects of diversity.\u00a0 I am also delighted that Gina joins me in election for a three-year term, and that Mike Marlin, another RT member, was elected to fill a vacated term for the next handful of months.\u00a0 With ALA President-Elect Courtney Young a longtime member of the RT, we will have a healthy contingent from the GLBTRT on Executive Board.\u00a0 I hope we serve ALA well.\u00a0 I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t thank Ann Symons and Robert Newlen who offered excellent advice and support on the speech (and came to watch the forum).\u00a0 And especial thanks to Todd Krueger and Martin Garnar, my conference roommates of some years now.\u00a0 It is immensely helpful to have two great friends (and fellow RT members) as my sounding boards and voices of reason when we\u2019re back in the room.\u00a0 Believe me, they heard that speech many times, stopping me and helping me tweak things into a much better state.\u00a0 The support of RT colleagues and friends is a wonderful thing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Annual in Las Vegas is up next.\u00a0 I was glad to meet a number of you for the first time in Philadelphia, and I hope to meet more of you this June.\u00a0 Come to the RT programs and social and meetings, come to Council.\u00a0 Find me on Twitter (@phepbu).\u00a0 Send me an e-mail (peter.hepburn@canyons.edu).\u00a0 Be active in the Round Table!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Peter Hepburn Only a year since I left the Midwest for SoCal, and yet I was not so well-prepared for real winter when I encountered it in January at ALA MidWinter.\u00a0 I was heartily glad that my hotel in Philadelphia was so close to the convention center that I could dash over (or to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","category-carousel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}