Association angst

As an academic librarian I am strongly encouraged to develop a record of service. As a newbie I had no idea how to go about doing this so I went to my first ALA in New Orleans as rather fresh meat. I had no idea that I would leave Midwinter with several commitments to different committees. Having decided that I would focus my efforts on ALA membership and committee work I hadn't necessarily realized all it entailed. The people that I have met through my committee work have been for the most part fabulous. The level of frustration dealing with the bureaucratic nature of my professional association has veered wildly. As a committee chair there are many more opportunities to observe the truly anal rituals involved in planning any events at conference.

Some of my committee members would like to see the possibility of virtual membership and virtual conferences to be emphasized by ALA. I see some real potential in creating such opportunities as not everyone is as well funded for conference travel as we are here. I know that Meredith of Information Wants to be Free discussed this issue with great eloquence in a post entitled "Martyrdom and ALA".

I agree with Meredith in as far as participating in ALA is challenging. I don't however agree with the personal attacks against other ALA members in the post. I know that trying to understand the other side of an argument can be incredibly difficult when you feel strongly about an issue. Does she really think that playground tactics will ever advance finding a solution? My brothers and I were experts at "they started it". Maybe the best thing to do is walk away. Or maybe if you sat down and talked to the people who were attacked you might discover that there are shared goals hidden amongst the animosity.