The upcoming conference brings us the opportunity to focus on the groups
which represent the grassroots of ARLIS/NA.

The five Divisions - Academic Library, Art and Design School Library,
Museum Library, Public Library and Visual Resources reflect the work
environment of most members.The ten Sections and Roundtables focus on
particular interests such as Architecture, Cataloging, Serials, Women and
Art and Space Planning.

Those of you who are Moderators have already received email about the
proliferation of splinter groups. The Los Angeles conference has 56
individual group meetings which had to be scheduled.

The most frequently heard suggestion is to allow more time to discuss
mutual problems and solutions. The Board has been attempting to devise
strategies to free up time during the scheduled DSRT meetings for
discussion. We believe that if the routine tasks of electing  a new
Vice-Moderator and selecting an Update editor were done in advance of the
meeting, it would allow time for discussion.

Therefore, we are asking all DSRT moderators to place a call for
candidates on ARLIS-L and to come to Los Angeles with a slate of
candidates already in place. We believe that this will make the upcoming
DSRT elections process more flexible, accessible and quicker!

The importance of member participation in leadership roles at this level
cannot be overemphasized.  This is one of the routes through which new
members can quickly become active in society leadership.  So, if you are
interested in becoming active in a group please don't be shy!- send an
email to the current moderator and say you're interested in running or
becoming the column editor. The moderators are listed on the AWS and
Handbook.

Another item that always seems to take up most of the time of meetings is
coming up with ideas for conference sessions for the following year. Prior
to Los Angeles, we would like groups to start email discussions about
possible topics for St. Louis. The St. Louis conference will be
substantially different in many ways including more plenary sessions that
will be of interest to both ARLIS/NA and VRA members. We will not be
having as many sessions so you will not need to generate as many ideas. In
fact, we will be putting out "calls for papers" on certain topics and we
hope many of you will contribute.

We also want to remind you that sessions DO NOT have to be sponsored by a
DSRT- anyone can propose a session. You do not have to be sponsored by a
group. Also, it is not necessary to have 3 or 4 sponsoring groups- the
selection committee does not judge the worthiness of a session by the
number of sponsors, but by the quality of the idea.

We hope that by having a slate for election and preparing conference ideas
in advance, there will be time freed up for discussion. In the future,
splinter discussion groups will not be formally assigned a room. There
will be one room kept free with a first-come, first-served sign-up sheet.
Whatever happened to discussing mutual problems over lunch or a drink?
There are very few hotels remaining that have the meeting space we require
for the minimal number of bedrooms we use. We may have to change to
convention halls in the future if we cannot get the number of meetings
under control.

So please, do as much of your business beforehand as possible and leave
time for discussion during your regularly scheduled meeting time. You'll
enjoy it and we hope it will make the conference more meaningful!

Ted Goodman
ARLIS/NA V.Pres./Pres-Elect
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