Annual Report (2003)
ARLIS/NA Management Issues Roundtable

Submitted by Bella Karr Gerlich, Moderator
bg2r@andrew.cmu.edu  
(412) 268-7263 (phone)  
(412) 268-7148 (fax)

Leadership Update

Bella Karr Gerlich, (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA) Moderator (2003)

Lynda S. White, (University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA) Co-Moderator (2002)

Alfred Willis, (Hampton University, Hampton VA) Co-Moderator (2002)

Kitty Chibnik (Columbia University, New York NY) Co-Organizer (2001)

Alfred Willis, (Hampton University, Hampton VA) Co-Organizer (2001)

Activities

There are 102 MIR members. In July 2003, the moderator created a dlist of the MIR members to enable direct communication and gather census / opinions for activities of the group.  The moderator also sent a letter of introduction and summation of the Baltimore meeting to MIR members.

The MIR meeting at the ARLIS/NA Annual Conference in New York is scheduled for Monday, April 19^th at 3:00 p.m.

Two workshops were submitted and accepted for ARLIS/NA 2004 Annual Conference in New York:  “Affecting Change in the Organization” and “Collaboration and the Role of Organizational Culture”.  “Affecting Change” will be lead by Kathryn J. Deiss, Director, Strategic Learning Center, Chicago Library System and moderated by Bella Karr Gerlich (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA) & Lynda White (University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA). Deiss will also lead the “Collaboration” workshop, which will be moderated by Kathleen List (Ringling School of Art & Design, Sarasota FL) and Moira Steven (Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta GA).

As the result of a discussion at the Baltimore MIR meeting in 2003, a Curriculum Approach to Management (CAM) proposal document was drafted by the moderator and distributed on the dlist of MIR members for input and comments.  It was the consensus of the group at the Baltimore meeting that developing such a curriculum based approach for future management workshops would enable developing workshops in a progressive manner – the idea being the workshops from the current year would build on lessons learned the year previously - thus encouraging participants to sign up continuously on a yearly basis, building a resume of relevant continuing education workshops in management.

The moderator has been active on the subcommittee of the Professional Development Committee.  In addition, the moderator will participate in Session XII at the ARLIS/NA 2004 Conference “Establishing Core Competencies in Art Library and Visual Resources Professions”, addressing the topic Core Competencies and Their Application in Management.

Karen McKenzie (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Canada) and Jacqueline Allen (Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas TX) have volunteered to work with the moderator to create Guidelines for the Management Issues Roundtable to be published on the web, pending approval.  A draft of these guidelines will be posted to the MIR dlist in late March, 2003 for input from members.

At our Baltimore meeting in 2003, attendance was lower than the group anticipated (about 20) it would be. After some discussion (both at the meeting and to interested parties later) it seemed that the absences were not for lack of interest, but because a) the meeting time was not as long as requested and b) many members had conflicting meetings or sessions that they had to attend.  The moderator will send an email to the dlist reminding members in early April when the MIR meeting is scheduled for at the annual conference to anticipate attendance, interests and solicit agenda topics.