Welcome to the Michigan Library Association

MLA will hold a meeting of the members January 25, 2008 to vote on restated Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation.  Members will receive a proxy ballot and FAQ describing the voting process and restructuring issues in early January.  Members are invited to vote by mail or in person at the meeting of the members.  The restated Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation are attached for your review along with the FAQ.

This document outlines all association types considered by the restructuring workgroup. MLA appears at the top of the chart. The chart is designed to allow for comparisons with real data about our current structure, member base, and, very importantly our financial situation.

When compared, the list from the Director’s Summit and the list from Leadership ’08 are very similar. These were for the most part very different groups of people. While some directors serve as chair and chair-elect to Divisions, Roundtables and Committees, most of these positions are not filled with directors or managers. The message was very nearly the same. We need to connect with our peers. We need opportunities to be engaged and active in our association. Professional development is a very important need for our members. We need less governance and less rigidity. The most important outcome of the day was the realization by most everyone present that we need to offer 12-14 professional development opportunities instead of 30 per year. These workshops/conferences/seminars must have broader appeal, be self-sustaining, or nearly self-sustaining, and represent cooperation between different constituencies of MLA. That this decision was made on that day, and plans for some very exciting and relevant professional development opportunities were planned or launched by the elected leadership of these groups is a critical step forward in restructuring MLA.

The message was loud and clear and was 130 voices strong. The message is placed in bold at the top of this document. “Put the spaceship in a drawer.”  The spaceship is the term adopted that day to describe the current MLA governance structure. The themes highlighted in the document have served to point out to the restructuring workgroup and to the MLA Board what the new governance structure must facilitate. We took these themes as indicators of what is lacking to some degree in MLA for many members.  We wish to connect with our peers. We need professional development and programming opportunities. We need to satisfy outreach requirements  in tenure track institutions. MLA members from public libraries and academic libraries need to teach each other a new language. We use the same words in our library worlds that mean very different things.  Reading through the responses provides one with a disturbing accounting of our current state and offers a clear path to our preferred future state.

7 Measures of Success - What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don't, is a hot new book about association best practices.  Published by ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership, it compares top ranked associations and what characteristics make them remarkable.  The MLA Board of Directors read the attached summary in preparation for their Board retreat and MLA reestructuring.  The attached Board Outcomes were adopted based on this article.  As we kick off "MLA Reads" please join us in reading and commenting through our blog about association best practices, how MLA stacks up, and what you want from your professional association in the future.