Dear ARLIS/NA Member,
The ARLIS/NA Membership Committee is conducting a survey to gauge
members' feelings about benefits and membership structure.
The Society is striving to remain relevant to and inclusive of all of
our members, whether they have been the director of a visual resources
collection for years or are just investigating a career in art
librarianship. We strive to provide a rich environment for members to
interact with each other in a meaningful way.
Our membership and our members' needs are diverse and evolving. The
Membership Committee has been charged with reviewing and adjusting our
membership structure to meet these needs.
By participating in this survey, you will be helping us make sure that
any changes made to the membership structure will be desirable to as
many members as possible.
We are eager to get your input before we proceed. If you have additional
comments, please contact the committee by posting comments on ARLIS-L,
sending an e-mail to [log in to unmask], or posting to our blog at:
http://arlismembership.blogspot.com
<http://arlismembership.blogspot.com/> .
You may access the survey by using the following link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=381673173957
Below are a few goals/assumptions/rationalizations from the committee
that we want to be transparent to the membership as we go through this
process.
1. Using the Process to Market and Communicate We want this process to
be open. It's important that the Membership Committee receive feedback
from the majority of the members, before any change is implemented.
Additionally, we want to make sure that the reasons for changing the
membership structure are clearly communicated. By doing so we hope to
garner support for any changes made. Listed below are the motives for
making a change.
2. Offer More Benefits/Generate More Money Members have expressed
interest in additional benefits and services, such as blogs, web space,
electronic book reviews, and e-courses to name a few. As these
additional benefits and services come with a price, we need a membership
and fee structure that can sustain not only what we do now, but future
benefits and services valued by the membership. We hope that many people
will opt for a higher level of membership (in the case of tiered
membership) or more bells and whistles (in the case of ala carte
membership). Both membership models include benefits that are not yet
available. By introducing these now we hope to illustrate some of the
ways in which the Society intends to grow. We hope the new membership
structure will generate more money so that the Society can pursue
enriching the services it provides and offer more benefits to members.
3. More Options
One of the goals of revamping the membership structure is to provide
more options for ARLIS/NA members, so that they can select a level of
membership more tailored to their needs and wants. However, we want to
avoid making a system that is overly complicated for fear of turning
people away and making tracking too difficult for ARLIS/NA Headquarters.
4. Accessibility
We want to offer levels of membership that make the organization
accessible.
For students and retired people this will mean retaining reduced dues.
Other classes of members that we hope to retain and even attract are:
people new to the profession, paraprofessionals, the part-time and
unemployed, and those who have previously been chapter members, but not
ARLIS/NA members. There needs to be a level of membership that is
inexpensive enough that more people will feel that joining ARLIS/NA is
possible at some level.
5. Pro-Rating Dues
We'd like the Society to consider pro-rating dues for people who join
after a certain date. In addition to being a fair practice, we hope it
will encourage late-in-the-year joiners.
6. An Option Similar to the Current Individual Membership Don't like
change? With any new structure we feel it's important to have one option
that will offer comparable benefits to the current Individual
membership.
For anyone who does not necessarily support or want to deal with a new
membership model, he or she will have an easy option available allowing
him or her to retain a familiar level of membership.
Thank you very much for you participation.
Sincerely,
Rachel Resnik, Chair
Margaret Boylan
Jon Evans
Shalimar Fojas
Janine Henri
Vanessa Kam
Alyssa Resnick
rachel resnik
technical services librarian
massachusetts college of art
621 huntington avenue
boston, ma 02115
617-879-7115
__________________________________________________________________
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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]
