Annual Report (2002)
ARLIS/NA Membership Committee

Submitted by:
Leslie Preston: leslie.preston@metmuseum.org
Heather Topcik: topcik@bgc.bard.edu 

Chair:  Leslie Preston (Leslie will continue to co-chair in 2003 with Heather Topcik)

EB liaison: Irene Pulchalski

Members: Tamara Fultz, Gladys Markoff-Sotomayor, Adeane Bregman Jeffrey Stephens, Heather Topcik

Activities:

• Organizational Fees Structure Project:  Committee members were assigned 2-3 library/information associations to research how ARLIS/NA membership fees compare with other organizations.  We gathered such statistics as: total number of members, annual budget, membership fees by individual categories, and publications included with membership.  Members sent their data to Leslie Preston who created a chart based on the information submitted.  The chart was sent to the Executive Board for review and a task force has been set up to review whether ARLIS/NA will increase membership fees.
• Library School Outreach Project:  Each committee member was assigned 6-7 states from the ALA accredited library/information schools website. The goal was to establish e-mail contact with the appropriate person at each school who would agree to distribute recruitment information for ARLIS/NA. Included in this information was:  a recruitment letter, the new ARLIS/NA brochure, and updates about the Baltimore Conference.  This project is on-going and each committee member is responsible for maintaining contact with schools.  The goal is to increase membership among library school students who may not be aware of ARLIS/NA.

Business Meeting Minutes for March 22, 2002. St. Louis (with status updates)

1.       Past year's accomplishments: revised form, honorary life members, draft of exit interview

2.       Problems with non-renewal project -- indefinitely postpone phone-call follow-up.  May want to have sampling phonecalls later and spot check non-renewal list. (Postponed indefinitely)

3.       Membership renewal deadline:

HQ purged old non-renewals from the DB in early April.  General email sent on the listserv saying they will be removed from the ARLIS membership directory and all pub. will cease being sent. Some active ARLIS members are on current non-renewal list, and will be personally e-mailed.

4.   Statistics: 

2001 membership total: 1014

2002 membership total: 962 (down by 52)

2001 --539 non-renewal 

2002-337 non-renewals =(down by 202)

119 new members since the prelim. program for St. Louis was mailed out

Over 500 combined VRA and ARLIS attendees at conference

HQ tagged individuals who had registered for the conference but had not paid their ARLIS dues--made them renew before getting conf. packet

5.     Online membership form:

HQ is about to upload the online membership form (form-fill in) where you can join and pay online.  Future of membership database online: members only section with password and username. (Complete)

6.       Handbook and List of Members:

Should be ready by April/May 2002.

7.       Publicity information:

ARLIS/NA has its first "graphic identity".  The EB had worked with a design firm to produce a new publicity packet.  Has been approved by the board.  We would like it to be available online as well. (Complete)

8.       Sharing of membership database information from regional chapter membership databases with NA.  Use of comparing membership data to see who belongs to local chapters compared with NA --may help in gaining more membership. Working closely with local chapter heads to encourage membership for NA. By-laws say members of local chapters should also be members of ARLIS/NA  (Ongoing)

9.   Outreach to library schools

ALA has online directory of library schools in the U.S. and Canada we could use.  Email a letter of introduction, invitation to join ARLIS/NA, announcements about annual conference.  Post conference ideas: have a ARLIS liaison for each library school, based on locality to be responsible for getting information out, emailing listserv or contact at school; visit job fairs, meetings at library schools. (Ongoing)

10.   Networking with other ARLIS committees:

Working with NARC (North American Relations Committee) on outreach to Mexican librarians -- NARC is working on affiliation with AMABPAC (Asociacion Mexicana de Archivos y Bibliotecas Privados)  ideas of affiliate membership at member's rate. Translations of ARLIS forms, membership information.    Working with Diversity Committee, Ethnic Caucus on ideas of promoting ARLIS/NA.

Goals for 2003:

• Continue with Library School Outreach Program
• Discuss possibility of hosting some kind of 2004 conference event related to outreach.