Abstract
As my term as ALA president comes to a close, I congratulate the board, volunteers, and staff on the achievements that made 2009 another successful year for our association. Because exciting news makes headlines, ALA members were kept well informed of the ALA programs, products, services, and events that emerged and evolved in 2009. What did not make headlines was the ongoing quality improvement process that goes on behind the scenes of ALA.
A moment in the movie The Wizard of Oz comes to mind. As Dorothy and her friends stand awestruck before the booming presence of the great and powerful Oz, Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal a man pushing buttons and pulling levers. As president, I discovered that ALA is an impressive best practices model from which other associations and professional societies learn. I witnessed firsthand how this is not a result of wizardry, but of simple sweat equity and a leadership team truly committed to organizational excellence.
ALA has set the bar high when it comes to doing things right—things the average member is most likely completely unaware; things about which the average member probably doesn't really care. Our organization, however, cares deeply and its commitment to doing things right serves all of us well. Keeping our administrative house in good order allows our vision and strategy to blossom into tangible member benefits.
In 2009, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service mandated all nonprofit organizations to comply with new tax reporting requirements intended to increase governance transparency and organizational accountability. These were serious and complicated new mandates. In response, ALA leadership and committees promptly and conscientiously addressed them, assessed how current practices measured up, developed appropriate responses, and adjusted bylaws, policies, and administrative procedures accordingly. The result was another exceptionally clean bill of health by the external auditors who pull back ALA's curtain annually to carefully review its organizational and accounting practices.
This success is the result of a tremendous amount of thought and effort, and a coordinated partnership between our volunteer leaders and our professional staff. The list of individual items and issues that required attention was comprehensive in breadth and depth. We drilled down to the details of potential conflict of interest disclosures, compensation guidelines, meeting documentation, robot safety, membership category structure, data validation, insurance coverage, software configuration, budget development, budget adjustments, and so much more. This all was in addition to the continued delivery of many new and existing membership programs, products, services, and events.
Looking back, it seems like a staggering challenge…but we did it. Our internal and our external achievements in 2009 are a testament to the well-oiled management systems ALA has in place. I am proud to be a part of this system, and look forward to continuing to contribute to its locomotion in the future.
Sincerely,
