RUSA New Chair Orientation 2008

Congratulations on your election or appointment as a leader of RUSA. The Executive Board of RUSA, the RUSA staff, and the RUSA Board of Directors welcomes you and looks forward to working with you.

RUSA History, Values, Norms, and Traditions:

The association was established in 1957 and was known as the Reference Services Division (RSD) of ALA. The year before (1956) ALA created the Adult Services Division and the Reference Services Division. In 1972 RSD merged with the Adult Services Division to become the Reference and Adult Services Division (RASD). In 1997 the association's name was changed to Reference & User Services Association to emphasize the division's mission of service to "all groups, regardless of age." In addition, the use of the word association (rather than division) emphasizes that the organization is an association in itsown right in addition to being a part of ALA.

RUSA operates in a collaborative and collegial fashion. We value teamwork and consensus. While we have six sections we work as one group.

RUSA's Values:

· Our association's focus is on the user.

· We value our members. We listen to them and try to gather feedback systematically.

· We welcome new members and look for opportunities to get them involved on committees.

· We value collegiality. This is even borne out in our ground rules for Board members.

· We value inclusiveness. We welcome wide participation and are respectful of everyone's opinions.

· We have a strategic plan (posted on our Website) and we reiterate values in this document and make decisions based on the plan.

· We share ideas and work collaboratively.

RUSA's Norms:

How we work is determined largely by our structure. We have a RUSA Executive Committeeand a larger Board of Directors. We have bylaws and policies that flow from the bylaws.

Norms for meetings

· Actively participate

· Take responsibility for outcomes

· Share in the facilitation of the meeting

· Have fun

· Keep comments within the scope of the group

· Speak up before the group if you have an issue

· Be respectful of others' ideas and approaches

· Start and end on time

· Bring all group members into the discussion

· State something positive before you criticize

· Be mindful of your time 'on stage'

· Share the workload.

RUSA's Traditions:

We have a RUSA President's Program every Annual conference. The RUSA President determines the theme.

An Awards Ceremony follows the President’s Program.

We have a RUSA New Chair/Leader Orientation every Saturday afternoon at Annual.

We sponsor a RUSA Spectrum Scholarship internship. This individual works with the RUSA President for 18 months.

We sponsor the Literary Tastes Breakfast every Sunday morning at Annual. This event honors The Notable Book List, The Reading List, and the Sophie Brody Award.

We have a tradition of sponsoring successful preconferences. Among them is the History Section's Genealogy Preconference.

Since 1960 we have been publishing a division journal, first known as RQ, now known as Reference & User Services Quarterly. The inaugural issue was 8 pages--it is now 104.

We also have a tradition of focusing on the development of professional tools that will help members in their job, most notably, national guidelines.

Finally, there are also many traditions within sections:

BRASS Monday Night Dinner

BRASS Handbook

BRASS Publishers’ Forum

BRASS New Members Reception

BRASS awards:

Gale Cengage Learning Excellence in Business Librarianship Award

Dun & Bradstreet Outstanding Service to Minority Business Communities Award

Emerald Research Grant Awards (2 per year)

Dun & Bradstreet Public Librarian Support Award

Gale Cengage Learning Student Travel Award
BRASS Business Preconference

CODES Award Reception

CODES Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Forum

CODES Wilson Indexes Committee

CODES Awards:

Sophie Brody Medal

Dartmouth Medal

Notable Books Council

The Reading List

Louis Shore/Greenwood Publishing Group Award

Reference Sources

History Genealogy Preconference

History Sunday night Dinner

Genealogy Committee and Discussion Group Saturday night Dinner

History librarians discussion group at midwinter

Historical Materials article in RUSQ

History Awards:

Genealogical Publishing Company Award

ABC-CLIO Online History Award

MARS Happy Hour

MARS My Favorite Martian Award

RSS Reference Research Forum

RSS Open House

STARS preconference

STARS Midwinter Social

STARS Annual Leadership Orientation

STARS Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished Interlibrary Loan Librarian Award

STARS-Atlas System Mentoring Award

An Overview of How RUSA is Organized:

RUSA has six sections, a board, and an executive committee. RUSA also has many standing committees.

The Sections:

BRASS “represents the interests of reference librarians, business information specialists, and others engaged in providing business reference and information services”

CODES “addresses the collection development interests of reference and user services librarians in libraries of all types”

History “represents the subject interests of reference librarians, archivists, bibliographers, genealogists, historians, and others engaged in historical reference or research”

MARS “interested in mastering the rapidly evolving technology that affects the reference and research departments of every library”

RSS “represents the interests of librarians and library support staff engaged in all aspects of reference and information services”

STARS “brings together librarians and library staff involved with interlibrary loan, document delivery, remote circulation, access services, cooperative reference, cooperative collection development, remote storage, and other shared library services”

The RUSA Board:

The Executive Committee

The Chairs of each Section

Six elected Directors at Large

RUSQ Editor, ex officio

RUSA Update Editor, ex officio

The RUSA Board determines the division’s strategic direction, sets and approves RUSA policies, guidelines, budgets, conference programming, new RUSA level committees, and responds to relevant ALA policy and plans.

The RUSA Executive Committee:

President

Vice President

Past President

Secretary

Councilor

Executive Director, ex officio

The Executive Committee is empowered by the RUSA Bylaws to act on behalf of the board when the board is not in session.

RUSA Committees:

RUSA committees function on several levels. There are award committees that administer the big and overarching awards of the division, there are administrative committees that manage the broad and collaborative work of RUSA and the sections, and there are task-oriented committees that help RUSA run smoothly.

All of the committees that effect the operations of RUSA, such as membership, standards and guidelines, and budget and finance, have representatives from each section to ensure that decisions and plans are carried out with the wide input of all six RUSA sections. It is critical to the effective running of RUSA that all section reps attend the RUSA committee meetings, play an active role on the committee, and carry information back and forth between the committee and the section.

Here is a list of all the RUSA Committees:

Access to Information*

AFL-CIO/ALA Library Service to Labor Groups

Awards Coordinating Committee*

Board of Directors*

Budget and Finance Committee*

Conference Program Coordinating Committee*

Executive Committee

MARBI

Membership Committee*

Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award

Isadore Gilbert Mudge R. R. Bowker Award

Nominating Committee*

Organization and Planning Committee*

President’s Program Planning Committee

Professional Development*

Publications and Communication Committee*

Reference & User Services Quarterly Editorial Advisory

Reference Service Press Awards Committee

Standards and Guidelines Committee*

John Sessions Memorial Award

Thomson Gale Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services

* Indicates that the committee includes representatives from each section. Typically half of the members of these committees are appointed by the vice chairs of each section.

Each section appoints representatives to RUSA committees on the following schedule:

BRASS, CODES, and History appoint for odd years 2009-2011, 2011-2013, etc.

MARS, RSS, and STARS appoint for even years, 2008-2010, 2010-2012, etc.

RUSA Staff:

RUSA is managed by a staff of two FTE. The RUSA Executive Director and RUSA Web Manager positions are RUSA funded at 75% each; the RUSA Marketing Specialist position is funded at 50%. The balance of these positions are shared with another ALA division, ASCLA (the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies). RUSA staff are here to help you. Please contact the office if you have any questions.

Mailing address:

Reference and User Services Association, American Library Association,

50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2795

Telephone: 1-800-545-2433. If you are calling from a touch-tone phone, after the automated attendant answers, you may press these extensions to reach:

4395 RUSA Executive Director

4397 RUSA Web Program Officer

4398 RUSA Marketing Specialist

Direct Dialing: 1-312-280 + above extensions

Fax: 312 280-5273

E-mail:

How RUSA Works:

The Strategic Plan Process:

RUSA is guided by a Strategic Plan (SP). All expenditures of funds and all initiatives and programs flow out of and are supported by the SP. Each year the Executive Committee in consultation with the RUSA Board develops the action items to be implemented during the year. The SP is evaluated each year by the Executive Committee at their Fall Leadership Meeting, by the RUSA Board at Midwinter, and is monitored by the Organization and Planning Committee on a continuous basis. The SP is posted online. Comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome.

Making Decisions:

While RUSA traditionally leaves section affairs to the individual section, there are a series of actions that only the RUSA Board can approve. They include any expenditure of money, new RUSA initiatives, creation of new RUSA committees, task forces, or other RUSA-level work groups, all items related to external relations, and any other matters with policy, financial or other major implications for RUSA.

There are also several items that may start in a section but must be approved by a RUSA Committee and then by the RUSA Board before becoming official. These include conference and pre-conference programming, new awards, guidelines, policies, and standards.

Keeping Everyone in the Loop:

RUSA is a very active and dynamic division. To ensure that everyone stays in the loop please be sure to copy the following on any major decision, action, or plan:

Section Chairs: Please copy the current, vice, and past presidents of RUSA, and the Executive Director.

RUSA Committee Chairs: Please copy the RUSA Board.

The chairs of individual section committees are encouraged to copy the chairs of corresponding committees in other sections. Sharing ideas and working collaboratively is a prized value of RUSA.

RUSA has one general information electronic list, RUSA-L. Please ensure that you are subscribed to this list and ensure that all your committee members or section members know that they should subscribe as well. This list includes, among other things, general updates about RUSA, information on RUSA programming at conferences, and information about volunteering to serve on a RUSA committee.

The RUSA Board has its own list and if you are a member of the Board you will be automatically subscribed to the list. It is critical to read these emails and keep up with the conversation (see below for more details in the RUSA Board Meeting section)

The RUSA Chair list is an email list of all RUSA committee chairs. As a RUSA committee chair you will automatically be subscribed to this list.

The RUSA General Membership Meeting:

In Denver and Chicago, for Midwinter and Annual 2009, RUSA will hold a division wide meeting to solicit feedback and hear the ideas of our members. RUSA board members and RUSA committee chairs are expected to attend both meetings.

RUSA Board Meetings:

The RUSA Board uses a strategic planning agenda. This means that board time is spent on the strategic direction of RUSA and not on committee reports or updates. The agenda is set by the RUSA President and sent to the RUSA Board well in advance of each conference.

At each Board meeting we will discuss a big issue of RUSA. Everyone who is interested in attending this discussion is welcome to participate. At Annual 2008 we will discuss RUSA Update. At Midwinter 2009 we will discuss the topic “what do we want RUSA to be in 10 years.” All members of RUSA are invited to suggest big issue ideas in advance of the conference meeting for consideration. Please send your ideas to the RUSA office at least one month prior to the start of conference.

When not in session, the RUSA Board conducts activities via a range of online tools including the RUSA Wiki and online community. All RUSA Board members must learn to use these tools.

When making decisions while not in session the following process is observed:

· The RUSA Executive Director sends out an email notice to the RUSA Board using the RUSA-Board email list.

· The email will include the action item to be considered, a time range for discussion, a cut off date for discussion, and the start and end date for voting.

· Board members are expected to closely monitor the RUSA-Board list and contribute as necessary to any discussion on an action item, suggest changes to the action item, or raise concerns if needed. At this point in time the action item can be modified as needed based on the input of the Board.

· Once the discussion period is over, no more discussion or suggestions will be taken and the Board must proceed to vote on the action item as presented or as revised during the discussion period.

As is true when the Board is in session, once the vote is called, the action item cannot be modified. Your only recourse at that time would be to vote against the action item. It is therefore critical to engage in the conversation during the discussion period so that you can have a voice and contribute to the conversation at a point where your ideas can affect the action item.

Please respect the time of your fellow board members by not raising issues after the discussion cut off date.

Either in session or virtually, the Board is expected to focus its work and discussions on the big issues of RUSA and not on wordsmithing. Most documents that come before the board have already been through a review process that includes section, and when appropriate, RUSA committee, input. The time to make suggestions and changes to the wording of a document is while it is in this committee/section review process and not when it reaches the board level. Each section has representatives to RUSA committees that must approve documents. Please ensure, if you are a section chair, that your section representatives are actively communicating and sharing information with your section so that you can suggest changes during the appropriate stage of review.