I second Laura's concerns about expanding voting and committee membership
rights, at least as those rights would apply to vendors. While there
are vendors that we would readily consider friends and allies, I think
there is an inherent conflict between the interests of vendors and the best
interests of law librarians.
It chills me to think that vendor representatives might be able to muster
a substantial say in our votes or committee stands on association policy.
In my opinion, some of our most principled stands on public policy issues
in which law librarians have an interest have been taken in spite of
vehement vendor opposition. I wonder whether we would have taken some of
those stands had vendor reps been able to so directly influence the outcome
as they would with votes and committee memberships.
I hope all of us who plan to be in Baltimore will attend the business
meetings to speak out and vote against this challenge to who we are as an
association.
-Susan
______________________________________________________________________
Susan Lewis-Somers
slewis@willamette.edu J.W. Long Law Library
(503) 370-6386 Willamette University
(503) 375-5426 (fax) 245 Winter Street SE
http://www.willamette.edu/~slewis/ Salem, OR 97301-3922
______________________________________________________________________
On Fri, 21 Mar 1997, Laura Orr wrote:
> 3. The Resolution in the Spectrum is so broad that no one will be
> excluded and everyone would have the right to voting and to office.
> While the resolution does reflect our desire to open up membership it
> does absolutely nothing to alleviate present AALL law librarian member
> concerns that non-law librarians could exert undue influence in the
> Association, through those voting and office privileges.
______________________________________________________________________
Susan Lewis-Somers
slewis@willamette.edu J.W. Long Law Library
(503) 370-6386 Willamette University
(503) 375-5426 (fax) 245 Winter Street SE
http://www.willamette.edu/~slewis/ Salem, OR 97301-3922
______________________________________________________________________
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