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.
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
617-879-7115