ALA Virtual Membership Meeting

Membership meetings are part of ALA’s ongoing focus to connect members and provide an avenue for input on strategic direction, budget priorities, and topics of interest. For an overview of what has been going on at ALA as well as a status report of the association, you will receive reports from the President and other key leaders. These updates will be followed by an opportunity to discuss and vote on any resolutions offered by members.

All ALA personal members may register and participate. Members who want to vote need to register on Zoom by June 13th to receive voting credentials.

What is a resolution?
A resolution is a main motion, phrased formally, with (a) whereas clauses, (stating the background and reasons for a proposed policy, advocacy position, or action), followed by (b) Resolved clauses in numbered order (stating the proposed policy, advocacy position, or action).

What is the deadline to submit a resolution to the Resolutions Committee?
All resolutions must be received by the ALA Resolutions Committee at alaresolutions@ala.org forty-eight (48) hours prior to the calling of a virtual meeting to order. This deadline ensures that final resolutions will be posted by the Council Secretariat (Marsha Burgess mburgess@ala.org) within twenty-four (24) hours of the calling of a virtual meeting to order.

What are the guidelines?
The following guidelines are addressed to individuals and units preparing resolutions to come before the ALA Virtual Membership Meeting.

How to create a resolution?

1. A resolution must be complete so that, upon passage, it becomes a clear and formal expression of the opinion or will of the assembly.
2. Resolutions, including memorials, tributes, and testimonials, must show the initiating unit, mover, and seconded and provide specific contact information from submitting parties. A resolution without a sponsor will not be presented.
3. The resolution should address a specific topic or issue, use concise direct language, conform to proper grammar, and present an affirmative identifiable action.
4. The terms used in a resolution should be readily understandable or have specific definitions.
5. The intent, objective or goal of the resolution should be clear and purposeful.
6. Resolutions should clearly support ALA’s Strategic Plan, its mission, and/or core values.
7. Any whereas clauses that relate to an ALA policy must include a parenthetical notation of the title of the policy and the section where it can be found in the ALA Policy Manual.
8. If the resolution calls for specific action or program with a timetable, the timetable shall be clear and achievable.
9. Resolved clauses at the end of a resolution gain clarity and brevity and are easier to read by following the resolution methodology of Congress and other deliberative bodies. The new suggested wording states the resolved phrase only once: “Now therefore be it resolved by the [acting body, e.g., ALA, some committee etc.], that...” after which each separate resolved is stated directly in numbered order without repeating “be it resolved by...”.
10. All “Resolved” clauses within a resolution should use the objective form of the verb (e.g., “Resolved, that the American Library Association (ALA): (1) supports...; (2) provides...; and [last resolved] urges....") rather than the subjunctive form of the verb (e.g., “Resolved, that the American Library Association (ALA): (1) support...; (2) provide..; and [last resolved]. urge....").
11. If the resolution is addressed to or refers to a specific group or groups, it shall name in full the group or groups in both the ‘resolved’ and ‘whereas’ clauses followed by the acronym in parenthesis. Thereafter the acronym may be used.
12. Whereas clauses may not contain active links or URLs to cited information such as articles or web pages. However, a numerical footnote designation may be included in a Whereas clause, and a corresponding References list may be added after the mover and seconder information toward the bottom of the document.

What is the process for submitting a resolution?

1. Any ALA member, with seconder, may offer a resolution for consideration at the Virtual Membership Meeting provided the resolution has been reviewed by the ALA Resolutions Committee. All resolutions must be received by the ALA Resolutions Committee at alaresolutions@ala.org forty-eight (48) hours prior to the calling of a virtual meeting to order. This deadline ensures that final resolutions will be posted by the Council Secretariat (Marsha Burgess mburgess@ala.org) within twenty-four (24) hours of the calling of a virtual meeting to order. When preparing a resolution for submission to the Resolutions Committee for consideration, please also fill out the Resolution e-form. Although in some cases some components of the e-form may not be applicable, please try to be as complete as possible. Any information you provide will help to expedite the resolution process. In the interest of expedience and effectiveness, the mover of a resolution is encouraged to submit a statement in advance to be read aloud during the virtual membership meeting.
2. All resolutions, including memorials, tributes, and testimonials, must show the initiating unit, mover, and seconder. Email addresses must be given for movers and seconders.
3. All resolutions approved by the membership will be presented to the next meeting of Council by the chair of the Resolutions Committee. The chair will indicate which membership resolutions are clearly policy matters. The presiding officer of the Council will call for Council’s guidance on the disposition of each membership item in turn.
4. If a quorum is not present for a Membership Meeting, those members may convene themselves into a Membership Forum to discuss matters of concern. The person who would have presided at the virtual membership meeting may appoint a member to preside at the Membership Forum. Those members attending the Membership Forum shall determine their own agenda of matters to be discussed, except that the names of those being presented for memorials, tributes, and testimonials shall be read at the beginning of the Membership Forum.

Meeting Focus and Agenda

• With potentially more than 500 ALA Members in attendance, the logistical constraints will be substantial. The meeting must focus on action-oriented items to move the Association and the library profession forward.
• Changes to the agenda are usually made by general consent, and the agenda is then voted by a voice vote.
• Meeting time must be treated as a precious commodity, to ensure that time is logically allocated based on the significance of the issues at hand.
• Housekeeping items such as announcements, updates, or items for informal consideration shall be considered permissible additions to the end of the final meeting’s Agenda.
• Meetings will be adjourned at the published time unless the membership, by unanimous consent or a majority voice vote, decides to continue the Meeting.

Attendance

• Zoom Webinar registration is required for all Members Registration is open to all members.
• Members who wish to exercise their right to vote must register for the Zoom webinar by June 13th before the calling of the meeting to order. In addition, voting credentials will need to be tested in advance and any access issues need to be submitted to governance@ala.org prior to the calling of the meeting to order.

Recognition

The Presiding Officer/Moderator will recognize speakers.
Virtual Participation

• Members who wish to ask a question or state a comment including a “Point of Order” shall use only one method, the “Question & Answer” box.
  • To verbally speak, please insert the request in the Q&A. For example: “I would like to speak pro”, “I would like to speak against”, “I would like to speak”, etc.
  • Members will be virtually muted other than when recognized.
  • The chat space will be disabled with the exception for participants to chat directly with the host/panelist for technical assistance.
    

Motions

Secondary motions (such as amend, refer, etc.) must be submitted online.

Resolutions

• Draft resolutions must be provided to the ALA Resolutions Committee and Council Secretariat (Marsha Burgess) at least 48 hours (about 2 days) prior to the calling of the meeting to order. All final resolutions must be submitted 24 hours before the meeting is called to order. It is strongly encouraged that resolutions be submitted well before the 24-hour deadline. (see above for resolution submission guidelines)
• No resolutions shall be presented at the meeting that have not been received through the Resolutions Process.
• Only the “Resolved” clauses of a resolution will be displayed and read.
• A resolution which has fiscal implications must be submitted in advance to the Interim Executive Director (Leslie Burger), the ALA Governance Office and the Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC chair) from the Resolutions Committee at least (1) week before it is to be considered. BARC will report on the fiscal implications in accordance with ALA Policy A.4.2.2.

Debate

• All efforts will be made to engage all Members and their insights in deliberations. Diverse discussion methods should be employed, to enable as many members as possible to participate. Deliberations must be at a high level.
• In the interest of good time management, minor amendments that do not alter the intent of a proposal must be delegated to the ALA Executive Director for processing.
• Each speaker will be allowed to speak for up to one minute. No speaker shall have the floor a second time on the same question until all who wish to speak have spoken.
• Members may end debate on a motion or resolution after a reasonable amount of time. Once debate is closed, a vote will be taken on the motion or resolution.

Votes

• All votes will be conducted electronically via the voting link provided by the ALA Governance Office.
  • Voting selections made following the close of that period will not be recorded. Votes will be tabulated based on the number of valid votes received.
  • Members who want to vote must Zoom register for the Membership Meeting by June 13th before the meeting to validate their voting credentials prior to the meeting. Limited support will be provided to those who have difficulty voting during the Membership Meeting due to resource constraints. Members who have not done this will forfeit their voting privileges for this meeting.
  • Members should generally make recommendations by consensus. If needed, parliamentary procedures can be employed to resolve differences of opinion by a majority vote.

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THESE RULES SHALL GOVERN. By general consent, if there are no objections, or by a two-thirds vote, any rule may be suspended.

All ALA personal members may participate and vote during the meeting. Members who want to vote need to register on Zoom by June 13th in order to receive voting credentials. All votes will be conducted electronically via the voting link provided by the ALA Governance Office.

Voting credentials will be distributed on June 17th. ALA staff may not be able to accommodate members who have not Zoom registered by June 13th. Limited technical voting support will be provided. View this video to learn more about how electronic voting will be conducted. All members can participate and speak during the meeting even if you did not receive voting credentials.

There are two member groups that oversee the ALA Membership Meeting. The ALA Membership Committee, comprised of fellow ALA members, provided the input and leadership in developing this virtual membership meeting.

The Resolutions Committee shall provide an advisory and channeling function for all resolutions presented for consideration, reviewing all resolutions submitted to council pursuant to the criteria established by council. The committee is also directed to provide consistent, in-depth training for all new members.

This program will include Automatic Zoom captioning. Please let us know if there are any accessibility services needed to fully participate by emailing Hillary Pearson at hpearson@ala.org or calling (312) 280-5020. We will do our best to honor advance requests, and please communicate any services needed at least 72-business hours prior to the event.