Professional organizations and the NetGen

The Noah Principle: No more prizes for predicting rain. Prizes only for building arks. Louis Gerstner

The new Blue Skunk image in this post and blog header pretty much summarizes this week of blogging for me. I stuck out my tongue and now it is firmly attached to the frozen steel post. (If you are from warmer climes and don’t get the image, watch either Dumb and Dumber or A Christmas Story for enactments.)

Sunday’s entry on professional organizations lobbying for the inclusion of information/tech literacy skills in NCLB was, ahem, controversial for a variety of reasons, but one interesting conversation happened in the comments section. For the assertions I made that professional organizations spend too much effort lobbying for money and that their legislative efforts may not be of interest to the NetGen professionals entering the field, quoting a blog expressing deep dissatisfaction with ALA, I was taken to task by some people  I deeply respect and admire.

Diane Chen (the chair of AASL's legislative committee) wrote:

I have to take issue with the area of ALA/AASL's Legislation Committee. As chair of AASL Legislation Committee right now, I am attempting to reach out to every state through partnerships with Affiliates in Affiliate Assembly, the ALA Legislation Committee, NEA, FLANN, state coordinators for National Library Legislative Day, advocacy groups and many other educational organizations.

The issues we face go far beyond crying for more money. Much of the legislative agenda revolves around educating legislators and those who make the decisions so they are better informed on the value of school libraries. Building consensus, gathering information from all members, and forging messages and action plans with the AASL organization is just one of many task.

And added:

I was very disappointed with the blog entry by a library grad student. This blogger was upset with a policy on reimbursement for speakers and made a personal statement refusing to participate in the largest organization representing libraries. I don't find that point worthy of glorification or indicative of all bloggers.

Sara Johns, AASL presidential candidate,  followed up:

When AASL's and ALA's legislative priorities are just about money and not about kids, I will also tell ALA to take a short walk. But they aren't--and it does take involvement, not retreat, to make change happen, legistlatively and organizationally.

And added

So, I agree with your statement, Doug, when you say that paying dues gives you  the right to complain, but it also gives you the chance to have your voice heard by legislators and government agencies and school boards--and that voice is not alone. It gets really tiring to do our jobs alone without the support of library associations for progress, through lobbying and professional development and all the invisible-to-me activities of ALA and AASL

Dorothea, the (mistakenly described) grad student who I quoted added some additional thoughts and Mark Linder added support to Dorothea’s position. PLEASE go back and read the complete postings. They are compelling.

Well, Ollie, this is another fine mess you’ve got us in!

Some reflections:

1. I obviously did not give ALA/AASL enough credit for their efforts in non-monetary lobbying efforts. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa. Thank you, Diane and Sara, for pointing this out. My bad.
2. But my follow-up question might be: Do ALA/AASL and ISTE do enough to let their members know how they are working legislatively on their members' behalf? In this morning’s AASL Hotlinks newsletter in the  LEGISLATION AND POLICY section, the only entry was a link to: ”Education technology suffers cuts in new federal budget” – an article from eSchool News. I feel I keep fairly well informed about national organization issues, reading KQ, American Libraries, L&L, newsletters, etc. But I still feel that I am woefully ignorant of the work these groups do. Advocay and lobbying may be the most important thing our professional organizations can be doing in many members' minds.
   
3. Like it or not, our national organizations have a relevance and/or an image problem to a perhaps small, but very vocal portion of the profession. One of the qualities of the NetGen is their reliance and faith in vox populi as formed and expressed in the blogosphere. Jenny the Shifted Librarian, Dorothea, and Mark  speak for a growing, not shrinking, percent of practitioners. And from my own experience, the more time even we oldsters spend in the social web, the more we develop NetGen sensibilities. Yes, there have always been young rabblerousers in the profession. I like to think I was once one myself as a young educator – back when God’s dog was still a puppy. But at that time, the organization held all the communication strings. Not so today. The discontent have means of voicing their thoughts and opinions to lots and lots of other people. Have ALA and ISTE figgered this out yet? How do established organizations let their members know they are listening – assuming, of course, the organizations are willing to do so - using the latest mediums of communication?

So, enough predicting rain. Let’s build an ark.

1. Today, the ISTE and ALA/AASL legislative committees should being creating blogs related to their efforts on behalf of their members. Perhaps every committee should have one. Certainly, Gorman needs one to explain his views ;-)
   
2. Committee members should be assigned at least a half dozen popular blogs written by young librarians to read, monitor and reply to.
3. I will stand by my initial recommendation. Our advocacy and lobbying efforts need to focus on students and patrons.

• Poor: Advocate for dollars, technology and libraries.
• Better: Advocate for students and library users.
• Best: Advocate for standards and skills that will be critical to future student success (best taught by schools with good libraries and good technology that need money to happen).

Will this win our NetGenners over? Not alone, but it wouldn’t hurt.

In a private e-mail, Sara Johns writes:

 I have found over the years that I personally needed professional organizations to affirm that I was doing the right thing with my students, to keep me on track with the latest library trends, to give me the professional development that I needed, to provide collegiality,  to stay connected with my profession. Some of that is available now through blogs--but not all. I defend the not-perfect ALA because my years in the profession have shown me that, when there are library issues that really matter, only ALA really supports libraries. I am in a school library and, if I have a book challenge, I want the Intellectual Freedom office and its lawyers behind me and they take dues money to support.  If I call or write a legislator,  I get more respect when I start with:  "As an ALA member (NYLA in New York State), I'm interested in this issue."  I don't speak alone, my voice is joined with all of the other members and more members mean a louder voice.

Seems a crying shame that a generation of new professionals might know or take advantage of the benefits Sara outlines.

Your thoughts? 

Comments

[Alice Yucht]

Excellent points, Doug!
However, the nit-picker in me nags: shouldn't that be the Noah PrinciPLE ?

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Alice,

Thanks. This is why I should always have the LWW proof read everything I write.

Doug

(I changed the spelling.)

[John Pederson]

I built another ark this afternoon. http://shiftedlearning.org. The 2006 Online Edublogger Conference. Perhaps you and some of your friends want to come play?

Great post. It's been a generational thing for me all along. We need to better understand that world, you need to better understand this one. We are extremely fortunate to have "different" than us, otherwise, we'd all be quitting our jobs and writing extremely emotional rants. That doesn't get us any further down the road!

I got a close friend of mine in Sao Paulo, Brazil to finally read my blog this week. (She's the curriculum director that taught me everything.) She replies, "Hey, I recognized that Doug Johnson name! I think he's presenting at a conference down here." Small world?

Oy.

[Sara Kelly Johns]

You're going to hear the words "AASL Strategic Plan" a lot, especially if I get elected, but...increased communication WILL happen, I know. It's getting so easy! The ALA Council resolution on the 65% Solution that has been written by AASL members via a wiki is only the beginning.

And, I really like the new American Libraries Direct e-mail newsletter that will be sent each week. It shows a bit about the range of ALA activities and their news.

Speaking of nit-picking, what is the source of that great cross-walk chart of IP2 and NETS standards? Yours? That would not surpise me but...

Grinning, Sara

[Mark]

I also heard from Sara Johns privately, and I sure wish I was a member of AASL so I could vote for her. Sara seems like one classy librarian to me.

As a dues paying member of 2 Divisions and multiple extra Sections, I do have some criticisms of ALA. But as I discussed with Sara, maybe I should also try and say something nice on occasion to offset the legitimate griping.

As a small point of clarification, I am not a NetGenner, my children are. Me, I'm a young Boomer. Honestly, I really do not like generational talk at all. Most of it is completely vacuous. And many of ALA's issues are way beyond being generational. Maybe it is a "new to the profession" outlook; but then I know plenty of practicing librarians, in all phases of their careers, who have no use for ALA.

As I told Sara, I *want* ALA to succeed, and I'd like to be part of that successful organization. But despite the good work they do with intellectual freedom and other issues, they are not going to keep getting large sums of $$ from me every yeat just because they exist. And I agree, Doug, just what are some these wonderful things that they do for this nation?

I like your ark building ideas, and yes, patrons should always be first. Technology is just a means.

[Doug Johnson]

Sara,

The little chart was mine. Interesting, isn't it?

I hope AASL is adding some metrics to its strategic plan - a measurable means of telling if it is meeting its goals or not.

All of ISTE's executive and committee reports now are tied right back into its strategic goal. Helps focus the leaders, I believe.

Got the Am Libraries newsletter today. Yes, good step.

Thanks,

Doug