Reference & User Services Association
Vice-President’s Annual Report to RUSA Board, June 2016
Alesia McManus, RUSA 2015-2016 Vice-President/President-elect
I was privileged to be elected as RUSA Vice-President. Thank you Susan Hornung and the RUSA Office Staff, Anne Houston, RUSA President, Joe Thompson, RUSA Past-President, and the other members of the RUSA Executive Committee for their support and encouragement this year.
Committee and liaison appointments
With the assistance of RUSA Section vice-chairs, committee appointments were completed by ALA Annual 2016. I also completed appointments of RUSA representatives or liaisons to ALA committees. Thank you to all RUSA members who volunteered to serve.
RUSA Budget and Finance Committee
One of the responsibilities of RUSA Vice-President is to serve as chair of the RUSA Budget and Finance Committee. I was unable to attend ALA Midwinter 2016 so Anne Houston chaired the meeting on my behalf. The committee also met via Adobe Connect on April 25, 2016. We will meet again at ALA Annual to consider budget requests for FY2017 and to recommend a FY2017 budget to the RUSA Board. As mentioned in the RUSA President’s Annual Report, RUSA has planned for a deficit in FY2016 so we will be including cuts in expenses for the FY2017 budget.
The year ahead
I will be working closely with the RUSA Executive Committee and the RUSA Board to add new action items to the RUSA Strategic Plan. Some key areas of focus are:
· RUSA membership and outreach including the creation of a value proposition statement to justify the dues increase on the 2017 ballot;
· Following up on recommendations in the LOKCS task force report;
· How to modify our organizational structure to formally implement Interest Groups and to facilitate the work of our RUSA volunteers;
· Continuing to develop and deliver timely and engaging conference programming, professional development offerings and a variety of publication channels and venues;
· Updating the Awards committee manual, finalizing the policy on RUSA awards that lose sponsors and discussing the desired impact of the RUSA Awards ceremony;
· Working closely with the Vendor Relations Liaison to maintain a good relationship with our current sponsors and to identify new sponsors;
· Continuing to identify leadership development opportunities for new members and mid-career members;
· Learning from the Name Change Task Force what RUSA needs to do to brand ourselves and services.
To facilitate communication and with the support of the Executive Committee, I have asked Susan Hornung to create a listserv, RUSALead, for RUSA leaders including members of the Executive Committee, Board, committee chairs, and liaisons and representatives.
It has been an honor to serve as RUSA Vice-President this year and I look forward to the opportunities and challenges in the year ahead.
Alesia McManus
RUSA Vice President 2015-2016
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