Buckner, 'ALA-Wide Program Planning Fair: A Success by Everyone's Standards', LITA Newsletter v15n02
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/lita/lita-v15n02-buckner-alawide

V15N2.PROGFAIR LITANEWS
----------------------------------------
The ALA-Wide Program Planning Fair:
A Success by Everyone's Standards
 
THE INVITATION READ, "Would you like to learn more about what it takes
to put on a successful ALA program? Meet committee chairs and program
planners from other ALA divisions? Explore mutual interests and
program co-sponsorship opportunities? The Program Planning Fair is for
you!"
   On Saturday, February 5, 1994, more than 60 conference program
planners from ASCLA, ACRL, ALCTS, AASL, LAMA, LITA, PLA and RASD
attended a joint program planning workshop and exchange sponsored by
LITA's Program Planning Committee and facilitated by members of the
CLENE Round Table. Led by CLENE members Diane Johnson (University of
Missouri School of Library and Information Science) and Duncan Smith
(North Carolina State University Library), participants discussed a
wide range of programming goals as well as specific strategies for
accomplishing those aims, both in divisional and cross-divisional
settings.
 
Barriers to Cooperative Program Planning
 
Different divisional planning processes and calendars often discourage
collaborative work in program planning. LITA participants in the
Program Planning Fair learned that our own requirements are simple and
straightforward (12-month lead time and a single Program Planning
Committee to navigate) compared to those of other divisions (18-month
lead-time and multiple approving bodies).
   Attendees also commented on the lack of encouragement and tangible
rewards for cross-divisional programming. While conference-goers have
complained for years about "overprogramming" at the Annual Conference
and the number of programs on a given topic that are offered during
the same time slot, ALA has done little to foster interdivisional
programming. Finally, participants felt that the absence of an easily
accessible forum for exchanging program ideas and seeking planning
partners was the greatest obstacle to cooperative program planning.
 
Benefits to Cooperative Program Planning
 
Despite these hurdles, participants in the Planning Fair agreed that
cooperative planning offers significant benefits, in terms of
cost-sharing, meeting ALA members' more advanced information needs and
expanding the coverage of various issues from different divisional
perspectives. LITA members were especially excited about the potential
for LITA (a "type-of-activity" division) to learn more about the
automation concerns of members of the several "type-of-library"
divisions (such as ACRL, PLA and AASL), and to cosponsor programs with
them.
 
Promoting Cooperative Program Planning
 
In the second hour of the Program Planning Fair, attendees listed
topical areas that could meet their members' educational and
programming needs, then "shopped" for programming partners. A number
of matches were made that afternoon, and other participants agreed to
talk further after the conference. The CLENE facilitators are using
the sign-up sheets circulated at the Fair to generate an attendance
list including names, postal and E-mail addresses, ALA divisional
affiliations and programming interests. Supplying this list to each
participant will promote additional post-conference "cross-pollination."
   Attendees clearly shared many concerns about how best to achieve
cooperative program planning. Among the most popular ideas generated
at the session were:
 
*Establish a program planning listserv, to be used by program planners
 throughout ALA to seek partners and exchange programming ideas
 
*Add the question, " To which ALA divisions do you belong?" to program
 evaluation forms, as a way of identifying likely divisional
 cosponsors for future programs
 
*Join with another division or divisions to plan two or three programs
 on different aspects of a single topic; schedule them to run
 consecutively on the same day, creating a "mini-conference" on the
 topic
 
*Ask ALA to make special funding available to divisions that jointly
 plan and produce a program
 
*Develop an ALA-wide program planning grid that shows each division's
 programming timelines and requirements
 
What's Next?
 
Participants commented positively about the appealing format of the
Program Planning Fair, the value of the "networking" contacts they
made there and the value of the information presented. "Wouldn't it be
great if we could do this every Midwinter, for all program planners?"
asked one attendee, to a chorus of approval.
   LITA's Program Planning Committee will take the lead in ensuring
that the ALA-wide Program Planning Fair becomes a regular Midwinter
event, encouraging 1994 attendees to speak with the presidents of
their divisions about the ideas that grew out of the Fair and the
perceived need for more program collaboration. PPC is actively
pursuing the possibility of an ALA-wide programming listserv, as well
as the proposed planning grid. LITA's Program Planning Committee will
ask its counterparts in other ALA divisions whether these Committees
would be interested in having a member of PPC meet with them in Miami,
to learn more about their technological interests and how LITA can
support them.
   [If you would like a copy of the Program Planning Fair address and
idea list CLENE is generating, send a note to Barbra Buckner
Higginbotham, The Library, Brooklyn College, 2900 Bedford Avenue,
Brooklyn, NY 11210; bxhbc@cunyvm. cuny. edu]--Barbra Buckner
Higginbotham