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David Vess's picture

GLBTRT Leadership Responsibilities

This language was last voted on March 7, 2012 by the GLBTRT Steering Committee.

The vote was conducted on ALA Connect for a two week time period.  Seven SC members voted in favor of the langauage and five did not vote.

This language will not be hosted in the GLBTRT Procedure Manual to reduce duplication work and avoid confusion.  The procedure manual will only link to it.  This document should be used as the official language.  Changes to it should be attached, with changes documented, as with the previous versions attached below.  The language on this page should be updated to reflect any changes made.

Executive Board

The GLBT Round Table is governed by an elected executive board.  The board consists of the chair, chair-elect, past-chair, treasurer, secretary, councilor, and five directors-at-Large.

The executive board will:

  • provide oversight and long-term planning for the round table, including: goal-setting, programs, projects, activities, and publications;
  • conduct and review all business between membership meetings;
  • carry out  the formal decisions of  membership;
  • review and approve an annual round table budget;
  • report activities to membership through round table communication channels; and
  • make recommendations to membership by all round table communication channels.

Board votes may be conducted by mail, electronic system, or conference call, provided that all board members are canvassed simultaneously. The chair has the authority to set a time limit within which the votes shall be recorded. If no such time limit is set, no vote shall be counted unless received within 30 days of the date the text of the matter to be voted upon was sent properly addressed to all board members.

Chair

The chair will:

  • serve a one-year term on the executive board (fulfilling a three-year, rotaing appointment as chair-elect, chair, immediate past-chair);
  • serve as the leader of the round table;
  • preside over membership and the executive board meetings;
  • act as spokesperson for the round table in collaboration with ALA's Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) and other ALA entities when applicable;
  • serve as or appoint a liaison to the Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS);
  • serve as or appoint a liaison to the Round Table Coordinating Assembly;
  • make appointments to fill positions that become vacant on standing and special committees during the year;
  • defer to decisions made by the membership or the executive board; and
  • perform any duties that are normally a part of the rights and responsibilities of the office of chair.

Chair-Elect 

The chair-elect will:

  • serve a one-year term on the executive board (fulfilling a three-year, rotaing appointment as chair-elect, chair, immediate past-chair);
  • serve as an aide to the chair; 
  • appoint committee chairs and members whose terms begin when the chair-elect is chair;
  • support and promote the decisions of the executive board;
  • appoint a member to serve, a two-year term as representative of the round table to the ALA Diversity Council;
  • serve as a liaison with the Round Table Coordinating Assembly;
  • perform the duties of the chair in the absence of the chair; and
  • perform duties as assigned by the chair or the executive board.

Immediate Past-Chair

The immediate past-chair will:

  • serve a one-year term on the executive board (fulfilling a three-year, rotaing appointment as chair-elect, chair, immediate past-chair);
  • coordinate the meeting schedule for Annual Conferences and Midwinter Meetings; and
  • performs such duties as are delegated or assigned by the chair or the executive board.

Treasurer

The Treasurer will:

  • serve a two-year term on the executive board;
  • keep round table financial records, including fund expenditure records;
  • attend all executive board and membership meetings;
  • produce an annual round table budget for review by the board at least two weeks before Annual Conferences;
  • enforce a March 15th deadline for submitting all expenditures for Annual Conferences, including the Stonewall Celebration when possible;
  • sketch out the requirements for funding plans that should be submitted with special projects;
  • collect round table expense reports/ and receipts;
  • share the Reimbursement Form (Word doc) with those incurring expenses for the round table;
  • share expenses with ALA and the chair, chair-elect and immediate past-chair;
  • assure that authorized expenses incurred by round table members, in connection with round table activities, are reimbursed through ALA Office of Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS);
  • coordinate fund raising goals in pursuit of financial resources that will help to ensure the continuity of the round table and all of its activities; and
  • manage relations with external organizations in efforts to produce funds to support the Stonewall Book Awards, other programs, and projects approved by the executive board and/or the membership at large.

Treasurer - Additional Information:

  • ALA’s fiscal year runs from September to August.
  • Every November ALA adopts a budget for the following fiscal year, that will begin in September.

Treasurer Ex officio Appointments:

By virtue of being the treasurer, the officer serves in several other appointments.  Participatory rights of ex officio members to round table committees are not limited by their ex officio status.  The treasurer is a member of these bodies:

  • GLBTRT Fund Raising Committee
  • GLBTRT Representative to the ALA Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC)
  • GLBTRT Liaison to the ALA Planning and Budget Assembly
  • GLBTRT Local Arrangements Ad hoc Committees

Treasurer Documents:

  • Reimbursement Form [Word doc: 44kb]

Secretary

The secretary will:

  • serve a two-year term on the executive board;
  • prepare executive board and membership meeting agendas and distribute them through round table communication channels;
  • create executive board and membership meeting minutes and distribute them through round table communication channels;
  • maintain both the round table membership and executive board email lists; and
  • perform any duties that are normally a part of the rights and responsibilities of the office of secretary or as directed by the chair or the executive Board.

Round Table Councilor

The GLBTRT Councilor will be elected in accordance with the ALA Bylaws to represent the interests of the GLBT Round Table on the ALA Council.

The councilor will:

  • report to the executive board and to the membership on ALA Council activities;
  • present ALA Council issues and documents upon which the executive board may wish to act;
  • receive and act on feedback from the executive board and the membership regarding ALA Council issues; and
  • sponsor ALA Council resolutions for the round table.

Directors-at-Large

Directors-at-large serve on the round table executive board.

Inaugural Year of Board

For the inaugural year of the board, all five seats are on the 2012 ballot (bylaws implementation plan; bylaws).  The three candidates winning the highest number of votes will serve two-year terms.  Those candidates getting fewer votes will serve one-year terms.  The result will be staggered terms for directors-at-large in the future.  Beginning in the 2013 election, all directors-at-large will serve two-year terms. 

The Directors-at-large will:

  • support the duties of the executive board as listed in the “Executive Board” Section of this document;
  • attend all executive board and membership meetings; and
  • serve as ex officio member of two round table committees on behalf of the board.  In that capacity, board liaisons will:
    • attend committee meetings when possible;
    • exchange information with chairs and members when attendance is not possible;
    • exchange information with the committee chair and members throughout the year;
    • inform the executive board of committee plans, needs, activities, and issues between Annual Conferences and Midwinter Meetings;
    • report activities to the committee’s executive board liaison;
    • participate in committee deliberations via email and other channels;
    • relay information between the board and assigned committees; and
    • provide advice or assistance as needed.

ALA Board Liaison

The ALA Board Liaison is an Ex officio member of the board, that is a member by right of position, but without a vote.

Committee Chairs

Round table committee chairs will:

  • support the mission of the executive board as listed in the “Executive Board” Section of this document;
  • maintain contact with members who have expressed an interest in serving on a committee;
  • actively recruit members for their committee and recommending them for appointment;
  • mentor an "apprentice" from within the committee who will be recommended to the chair-elect as a the future committee chair;
  • submit budget requests to the treasurer before the beginning of executive board II meeting during Midwinter Meetings;
  • submit expense reports, receipts, and refund requests to the treasurer in a timely manner;
  • submit progress reports and committee announcements to the Newsletter Committee according to the publishing schedule;
  • submit publicity and website content and information to the Newsletter Committee and/or the Website Committee as appropriate; and
  • maintain that committee's portion of the GLBT Round Table Procedure Manual.

Document History

 

Roland Hansen's picture

David this looks really good.  It's about time.  I remember talking about restructuring this way in the mid-90s.

Under Chair Duties, I would rewrite the liaise part to maybe say "Act as Liaison to"...  Is liaise a word?  ;-)

Also, budgets used to be due at the end of Midwinter Meeting, don't know if that is still the case. 

Last bullet under The Treasurer will:  change "managing" to  "manage".

I would also suggest, and I know I have no clout here, and it doesn't really affect me, but I often tried to get a budget template of some sort, with all the account numbers, and then you need only plug in amounts.  Maybe an Excel spreadsheet even, or maybe Elliot has a suggestion.  It would also offer as a checklist since often budget items are missed or forgotten.  Just a thought.  With all the technology out there seems like something could work and then just be passed from Treasurer to Treasurer and not have to reinvent the wheel each time a budget is due.  Thanks for doing this, I may have more to say later, hope you don't mind an old-timer like me chiming in.  Hope all is well w/you, roland

David Vess's picture

Hi Roland!  Thank you so much for having a look at this.  This kind of input from our members (including leadership) is what I think this process needs.  Be warned however, this document and process is my suggestion as to HOW we go about handleling this project.  Our Steering Committee collegues might choose to do this a diffrent way entirely; even start over with langauge.  I've been gathering and merging language about all this for a long time.  I wanted to just stop, and get this off my table in case we wanted to do something diffrent.  Again, thanks for commenting!  You will hear what we decide soon.  D

David Vess's picture

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Day, Lewis <lewisday@fas.harvard.edu>
Date: Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:11 AM
Subject: [glbtrtsteering] RE: [glbtrt-l] Re: Before you run: What Directors and Officers Do
To: GLBTRT Steering <glbtrtsteering@ala.org>

Two quick points relating to SBAC:  

1.       The committee has a chair/chair-elect/immediate-past-chair process in place; I hope that process can be supported (and perhaps serve as an example—where practicable—to other committees);

2.       The plans for the celebration are often not set by March 15 because of ALA’s processes with regard to space and contracts.

Thanks,

 

…Lewis

 

 

David Vess's picture

Amendment

I propose we strike:

attending all executive board and membership meetings;

from the Committee Chair section of this document.

I believe we should allow our committees to choose to operate virtually.  This will relieve members of the burdens of travel to MW Meetings and Annual Conference.  Removing this responsibility might also attract more members who are unable to travel.  As far as I know, only Over the Rainbow Book List Committee, Rainbow Book List committee, and Stonewall Book Awards Committee wish to meet in person at both Midwinter Meetings and Annual Conferences.

 

Amendment

I propose we add the following (I'm not married to the language) idea to the Board section of this document as a bullet point.

The Executive Board will:

ensure strong board/committee communication, the Members-at-Large will be appointed by the Chair to serve as an ex officio member of two committees;

This proposal follows other ALA groups board/committee communication structure.  In the procedure manual the expectation could be stated as: "attend committee meetings; in collaboration with the committee chair, the member-at-large will report committee activities at Board meetings."

Shawn Vaillancourt's picture

Do you mean the Directors at large? or am I misunderstanding?

 

I don't think that requiring the committee chairs to be there is necessarily a bad thing, nor does it really prevent the committees from meeting/working virtually as only the committee chair is required to be at the board meetings. All the members can be virtual and do their work virtually. (For example, programming didn't have any other members at midwinter).

Wouldn't this also just add another layer of communication between the chairs and the board? It seems to me like it would just slow down communication.

 

I'm certainly not opposed to the spirit behind this though. I do stuff with EBSS and their committees primarily meet virtually for midwinter and have a big combined meeting at annual. Which has definitely helped with having members on various committees to know they don't have to make 2 trips a year.

David Vess's picture

Hi Shawn  Sorry I let this go so long!  The amemdment is only about about committee chairs.  I can't believe I left that in there.  One of the reasons we wanted to create the board was to remove the burden of travel to annual and midwinter meetings for committee chairs.  The hope was we might be able to attract more candidates to be committee chairs.  (Yea, I was chair of web committee and we were always virtual.)  We were also hoping to relieve the work of 'running' the round table so the committee chairs could spend their time working on their committee's goals.  To help with communication, each board member would liasion with 2 committees as an ad hoc committee member.  This is the approach I've seen in LITA.  Thank you for having a look!

David Vess's picture

1. "carry out" is two words not one.

2. the following line needs to be added to all the board member position descriptions to clarify this expectation.  Board members are expected to attend all meetings (virtual or inperson)

"attend all executive board and membership meetings;"
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