Dear Karen, and ARLIS/NA Members,

Thank you for your response to my message. Please 
be assured that the issues raised by you and the 
Canadian members have not in the least bit been 
dismissed. I hope the following response elucidates this point.

I urge you to please review what I outlined in my 
June 12th message to the membership, to see that 
the 'Transitional Model of the Executive Board' 
indicates in the notes that the roles of the 
regional representative positions will be 
continued and reviewed as we consider the 
proposed functional roles. There is a specific 
comment in the notes that indicates we will be 
giving special attention to the review of the 
Canadian Representative position.

Please recognize that the board deliberately 
decided to give the recommended structural 
changes of the Executive Board a trial period - 
in hybrid form with the current model - for the 
next year or so. This approach preserves 
continuity, yet gives us the opportunity to 
experiment with the proposed recommendations. We 
thought that taking first steps to coordinate 
some transitional change at this level would help 
to illuminate the other proposed structural changes.

We are still in the process of collecting reports 
with feedback from all of the committees, 
divisions, sections, round-tables, and chapters 
about the assessment task force recommendations, 
and therefore have not fully thought through all 
of the feedback as of yet. We plan to continue to 
review all of the feedback, including the letter 
you submitted, within the next few weeks. In the 
meantime, our own review at the board level led 
us to the decision to implement the 
recommendations by the task force as a trial and in hybrid-transitional form.

As was emphasized at the conference and noted in 
both of my messages to the membership, thus far, 
the feedback from the membership is important. 
And it is my intention to clearly demonstrate 
that the steps we take to make some changes with 
the Society will show clear consideration of 
membership input. One of the most significant 
roles of the Executive Board is to see that the 
expectations of the Society's membership are met 
in an equitable and fiscally responsible way.

Our Society is at a juncture from which we need 
to realize some variation in how we operate, in 
order to achieve the goals we set out in the 
Strategic Plan and to sustain the vitality of our 
membership. I think the Society can meet this 
juncture in a progressive and inclusive way that 
will further our mission and vision and that will 
proudly promote exactly what we are - the Art 
Libraries Society of North America.

Respectfully,
Deborah K. Ultan Boudewyns, President, ARLIS/NA

At 07:30 PM 6/12/2007, McKenzie, Karen wrote:
>Dear Deborah and members of the Executive Board,
>
>Congratulations to all of you on launching the 
>ship of ARLIS/NA reconfiguration.  I can imagine 
>what an immense labour it's been to arrive at this point.
>
>I'd like to raise a question that is of great 
>concern to Canadian members.  As you may know, 
>there was a passionate, if not heated, 
>discussion at the Atlanta conference Canadian 
>members meeting concerning what we believed 
>would be the inevitable loss of Canadian 
>members' unique voice and needs, as a result of 
>the proposed reconfiguration.  Our collective 
>concern was articulated by Jill Patrick at the 
>Membership meeting.  Subsequent to the 
>conference, a written submission to the 
>Executive Board was prepared by Jill, myself and 
>Marilyn Nasserden, our Board Representative. It 
>was distributed widely for discussion by all 
>concerned Canadian art librarians, and received their strong endorsement.
>
>As a former President and senior Canadian 
>member, I am disappointed that my compatriots' 
>(and my) concerns appear not to have been 
>addressed. They are, I believe, valid.  In my 
>thirty plus years as an ARLIS/NA member, there 
>have been many occasions when I've felt 
>compelled to diplomatically remind my fellow 
>members that the Society is named ARLIS/NA, not ARLIS/USA.
>
>I don't intend to diminish the Board's 
>achievement in undertaking such a contentious 
>and monumental task as reconfiguration.  I do, 
>however, hope to see the Society's longstanding 
>inclusiveness of all its members' voices reflected in the final result.
>
>Karen McKenzie
>Art Gallery of Ontario
>Toronto, Canada
>
>_____________________________________________
>
>Starting June 23 Tour the artworld. Skip the 
>jetlag. Five great exhibitions on view this 
>summer: Da VinciÕs genius: the codex / Get 
>Close: Chuck Close in NYC / The power of Bernini 
>/ IndiaÕs edgiest art / Celebrate CanadaÕs First NationsÕ Treasures
>
>Art Gallery of Ontario - http://www.ago.net
>
>______________________________________________
>
>
>
>__________________________________________________________________
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Deborah K. Ultan Boudewyns
Art History & Performing Arts Librarian
University of Minnesota
170b Wilson Library
309 19th Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
         ph: (612)625-6438  fax: (612) 626-9353
                 email: [log in to unmask]
President, ARLIS/NA, www.arlisna.org

__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
        http://www.arlisna.org/join.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
        to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
       http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]