Two modest suggestions to my profesional organizations...

Both ALA/AASL and ISTE are much on my mind, having just returned from ALA Midwinter in Seattle and anticipating the ISTE board meeting in Santa Fe in a few weeks. If I might make a couple suggestions:

1. Opt out, not opt in.
Both organizations seem to have a constant (lack of) membership  problem. As I remember, only 1 in 7 school librarians belongs to AASL with 60,000 potential members out hiding in the stacks somewhere. If you count ISTE's potential members as every educator, its ratio of members to nonmembers is even more lopsided. A piece of low-hanging fruit I've proposed to both groups, loudly and seemingly in vain:  Automatically renew current memberships every year. Send a post card or e-mail  that says, Unless you let us know by XX/XX/XXXX, your membership will be automatically renewed. $XX.XX will be charged to your credit card.

This is how my newspaper subscription works, my cell phone account, my photo sharing service and blog host. I can opt out, but I don't have to re-up. I like the convenience. Is it ethical? Well, does your church ask you to "renew" your membership each year? I doubt it. My sense is that a lot of people just don't get around to renewing their professional memberships. At least this way we would retain, instead of lose,  all the procrastinators.

Let the members write their own standards
As I commented yesterday, the new AASL Standards will be challenging to write. Here is my second modest suggestion: Let's do a draft and then put the standards out for member revision as a wiki, following the editorial practices of Wikipedia.  I suggested this to the committee that is overseeing the revision and I did not feel the suggestion was taken seriously. The idea has merit, dammit:

• Real people writing the standards will make them realistic.
• The organization shows it has respect and trust in its members.
• The standards, if remaining in wiki form, would always be current.

Will AASL do it? Of course not. ALA/AASL is an institution that has the turning radius of a 747. Too bad we are living in a time where all the fun stuff is being done in experimental two-seaters. But then I have not seen the "refreshed" NETS standards available online for editing either.

I believe in people being a part of a professional organization. It is good both for us and for those we serve. But as a member of such organizations, I also have the obligation to fight for their improved effectiveness. If we don't get smart, flexible and nimble, we will become irrelevant.

Comments

[Susan Sedro]

Doug, I think they truly should have given these ideas serious thought. I'd love to be part of the ISTE standards rewrite. Being in a new country at a new school, I can't commit to committee work, but if the standards were in a wiki, I could add my ideas and be part of the discussion of the various wiki pages. Maybe people wouldn't take part-- so how is that different than what they have now. The wikis would need tending, but I'd love to see my ISTE membership dollars going towards that.

Also like the opt out idea as long as there is enough advance notice.

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks, Susan. I know some ISTE and AASL leaders read this blog and it is good for them to see comments from folks like you.

Doug

[Sara Kelly Johns]

I would say the vision summit with a representative from each state was an AASL version of a wiki...of course, the weather prevented some from reaching it but I've heard from many that the energy was incredible and the 41 who made it worked really hard. And their work is being taken very seriously by the standards writing committee--and the AASL Board.

Wikis are cheaper but one-on-one, in person communication is really superior. Affiliate Assembly was awesome in Seattle as we looked at one of AASL's mega issues and shared information.

Comments on the standards' second draft are open till Feb. 1; I hope tons of people will take the time to do just that.

Gee, I haven't commented on a blog in a long time; maybe I'll even get my own moving again!

Sara

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Sara,

Glad to hear AASL is asking for broad input into its standards. I am not sure why this is an OR thing. Why can't it be an AND. Summit AND wiki?

Where are the second draft of the standards available for those who would like to see them?

And you may have missed my point - I would leave the standards as a wiki so that they could be continuously updated.

Look forward to reading your blog entries again.

Doug

[Sara Kelly Johns]

Thanks for gently pointing out that I forgot to put in the link to the draft of the learning standards. Not everyone has the AASL page as their home page when their browser opens as I do (I have to keep up!) <http://www.ala.org/aasl> Comment please!

I actually didn't comment on the ongoing standards wiki because I am still thinking about it and haven't made up my mind. There are two sides to that idea. To have an impact, the standards need to have a consistent focus, but it sure would be nice to be able to update them "nimbly" (one of the words I heard a lot in Seattle, the passion of our jobs the other) and, especially, to get constant feedback on their implementation and cross-pollination. A blog? The AASL blog?

Still thinking, Sara