Honestly, I am tired of picking on ALA, but they make it so easy.
In the mail today, I received a nice packet of material from ALA. There is a one-page letter from Michael Gorman, a one-page "Brief Summary," and four-page FAQ. All of these materials address the proposed dues increase.
I realize that voting is open until April 24th but, also, that the polls opened on March 15th. That was 12 days ago.
Thousands of people, including myself, have already voted. What in the name of St. Jerome was your, and my, dues monies wasted for on this folly? I mean really. Honestly. I’d like an answer. Someone is completely clueless!
This should have been sent 3-4 weeks ago. And if it was mailed 3-4 weeks ago then it should have been mailed 5-6 weeks ago. At best, we should be receiving emails, or some other low cost form of communication, about this right now, after the polls have opened and thousands of people have already voted.
I did vote for the dues increase. But, honestly, if I could change my vote right now I would. This is simply asinine! I know some of you will differ with me and that’s fine. It’s your prerogative and your right. But in my mind, while definitely not fraud, it is waste and abuse.
I am not the biggest technophile in the world, but this is so…. Well, I’m not going to denigrate any time period, but it is simpy asinine and wasteful. I am serious. If I could change my vote I would. ALA does not deserve any dues increase from me until they can prove differently.
I am not advocating for anyone to vote any particular way on this issue. There are good reasons to vote for the dues increase, just as I did. But this shows me that I cannot trust ALA with any additional monies from me. Hell, I can’t trust them with what I already give them.
ALA, please, just get a clue.
I was a member of ALA way before library school, but I hope to not be again. They are not a professional org, they are a political org. Generally I agree with their political POV, but I am not giving money to a political org. I would love an org that actually spent most of its time on getting me jobs and advancing the profession as well as vetting and training and standardizing what new professionals know. Perhaps this comes from having been an ALA archivist, but reading their internal mail (all in their public archives), specifcially of SRRT means I will attempt to not give my money to ALA if I have a choice.
I had the same reaction — although, I did not vote for the increase. Council buzz keeps calling it an insignificant amount of money, but a new librarian goes from $50 to $130 in three years! (adn the sections are all raising dues as well). And I can’t for the life of me figure out what ALA provides for me with that money….Mostly, I don’t agree with their priorities, but I certainly disagree with their bureaucracy, and their inability to lead in anything but a legislative/litigative arena.
Unfortunately, My membership in my section of my division is very important to me, so I’ll just work for ACRL to pull out of ALA….
Agreed Rudy! Divisions, ACRL and ALCTS in my case, are also my issue. I do think it was the final straw. I think I really knew I couldn’t trust them, but I *wanted* to.
And while I would like to trust ALA, I no longer think I can, I no longer believe I can, and, for now, I no longer want to.
I’ll probably stay for as long as I can afford it, which as you point out may not be long, especially since I also belong to ASIS&T and just joined ILA (Illinois).
I’m hoping to get involved with ILA, especially since I’ll be here in school for another couple years. Let me just say that getting a welcome email from ILA within less than a week of mailing my application gives me a *very good* 1st impression.