Relationship of WESS to ACRL
Contents
- Activity Sections Council
- Budget and Finance
- Preparing Section Budgets
- Committee Procedures
- Conference Arrangements
- ACRL Publications of Interest to WESS Officers and Chairs
The Association of College and Research Libraries is a division of the American Library Association
(ALA). Within ACRL there are fourteen sections. Eleven sections are designated "type of activity"
sections and three are based on type of library. The starred (*) sections listed below are those
classified by type of library.
- ANSS Anthropology and Sociology Section
- ARTS Arts Section
- AAS Asian and African Section
- BIS Bibliographic Instruction Section
- CLS *College Libraries Section
- CJCLS *Community and Junior College Section
- EALS English and American Literature Section
- EBSS Education and Behavioral Science Section
- LPSS Law and Political Science Section
- RBMS Rare Books and Manuscripts Section
- STS Science and Technology Section
- SEES Slavic and East European Section
- ULS *University Libraries Section
- WESS Western European Specialists Section
- WSS Women's Studies Section
For the names and telephone numbers of the officers of the Association, see the most current ALA
HANDBOOK OF ORGANIZATION.
Activity Sections Council
[For communications purposes, the Chair and Vice-Chair of WESS regularly attend the ACRL
Activity Sections Council, whose purpose and function are described below.]
Statement of Functions and Organization
The Activity Sections council met February 3, 1981, and June 29, 1981, and discussed the
organization and function of the Council. The following document summarizes the discussion.
The Council has requested that the ACRL Board take the necessary steps to activate the
recommendations which they have done.
I. Name
A. The name of the Council should be the Activity Sections Council (ASC - pronounced like
ask).
II. Functions of the Activity Sections Council:
A. The Council should not be a legislative body but rather a vehicle for communication. Section
business should not be filtered through the Council before consideration by the Board.
B. ASC should be a forum for the sharing of information about programming and projects among
the section chairs and vice-chairs. This would not be a "clearance center" for programs, merely
an information exchange. Secretaries of each section will submit a one-page report on the
conference programming, projects, preconferences, and other activities of the section to the
ACRL office by September 1, following the Summer meeting. Mail these reports to all ASC
members.
C. ASC should take an active role in promoting activity oriented sections in the life of ACRL.
D. ASC should serve as a sounding board on issues for which the ACRL Board wants immediate
feedback (between the two ACRL Board meetings at each conference).
E. ASC should discuss issues of common interest that are before the ACRL Board or should be
brought before the Board.
III. Organization
A. The Activity Sections Council is composed of the chairs and vice-chairs of the type of activity
sections.
B. The ASC representative to the ACRL Board is an ex-officio member of the ASC and can take
items of general concern to the ACRL Board.
C. The Chair and Secretary of ASC are elected by the group at its meeting during annual
conference, the choice to be made from among the incoming section chairs.
D. The Chair of the ASC appoints a nominating committee to put forth two people who are
ACRL members to run for the position of Activity Sections representative on the ACRL Board.
E. ASC should be scheduled between the two ACRL Board meetings and at a time when no
ACRL section activities or meetings are scheduled.
F. ASC should keep minutes.
G. The ASC agenda would usually have the following:
Midwinter
- Items coming from the ACRL Board for reaction.
- Reports from sections on activities and projects.
- Discussion of items of interest to the Activity Sections that are before the ACRL Board or should be brought before the Board.
Annual
- Items coming from the ACRL Board for reaction.
- Reports from sections on activies and projects.
- Discussion of items of interest to the Activity Sections that are before the ACRL Board or should be brought before the Board.
- Appointment of nominating committee (in appropriate years).
- Elections of chair of ASC for the next year from among the current section vice-chairs of the Activity Sections.
Adopted by the Council June 29, 1981
Each ACRL section must prepare a budget with justification and submit that request to the ACRL
Budget and Finance Committee. Submitting the budget to the ACRL office is a task of the newly-elected Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect each year. The budget schedule is as follows:
September 1 - August 31 - ACRL/ALA fiscal year
September
Requests for special allocations for programs planned for the next ALA Annual Conference must be
submitted to the ALA Deputy Executive Director.
September - October
Instruction for submitting budget requests for the next fiscal year are sent to ACRL committee, section and chapter chairs.
December 1
All budget requests from committees, sections and chapters are due.
Annual Conference
ACRL budget for the next fiscal year is sent to the ACRL Board for approval.
August 1
ACRL units are notified of the ACRL Board's actions on the unit's budget for the fiscal year beginning
August 15
Deadline for submitting requests for reimbursement of expenses incurred in the past fiscal year.
Source: ACRL Guide to Policies and Procedures, June 1988, p.26.
Preparing Section Budgets
WESS's budget needs should be discussed during the course of the annual meeting so that our final
request can be submitted by December 1. In completing the budget request form:
1. Be sure to provide clear and concise descriptions of the activities which request budget support.
Describe what you will do, how you will go about doing it, why it needs to be done, and give time
lines for completing segments of the project, if appropriate. Attach an additional sheet if necessary.
2. Travel funds for committee meetings at times other than the midwinter meeting and the annual
conference must be included in the budget request. No funds will be provided for travel to ALA conferences.
3. ACRL funds are not available for any librarian or member speaker's expenses at ALA meetings.
Requests for special program expenses (e.g. non-librarian speaker) are solicited separately at a later
point in the year as they do not come from the ACRL budget. ACRL funds are intended to support
division activities since they are derived from membership dues. ALA conference functions are
supported by registrations and exhibitor fees and are therefore the source of funds for conference
programs.
4. The ACRL divisional budget will include separate funding for the dissemination of information
and materials such as standards, guidelines, etc.
Expense Reimbursements
- Each section is allotted funds as requested and approved by theACRL Budget and Finance Committee and the ACRL Board of Directors.
- Funds may be used only for the purpose for which they have been approved.
- Requests for payment for WESS activities must have the approval of the Chair of WESS, to whose budget the claim will be charged.
- Requests must be made on the appropriate ACRL forms: Budget Request Form, Reimbursement Request Form, or Budget Notification Memo.
- To serve on any committee within the Association of College and Research Libraries:
- You must be a member of the Association. It is American Library Association policy that no member of ALA may
serve simultaneously on more than three committees, including division and section committees,
unless membership is ex-officio. It is also ALA policy that committee members are to attend the
meetings of the committee at both the Midwinter and Annual conferences of the Association. Neither
ALA nor ACRL provides funds for committee members to attend these meetings.
- If you have accepted an appointment on a WESS Section Committee:
- You should receive an ACRL Appointment Acceptance Form from your committee chair or the
WESS Vice-Chair. Complete the form and send it to the ACRL Executive Director. Send a copy
of the completed form to the WESS Vice-Chair to confirm your acceptance.
- If you have accepted a nomination for a WESS Section office:
- You should receive an ACRL Biographical Information form (example on page 15 ) from the chair
of the Nominating Committee. Complete the form and send it to the ACRL Executive Director.
Send a copy to the chair of the Nominating Committee to confirm
your acceptance of the nomination.
- If you are serving as chair of a WESS Section committee:
- You should prepare a summary of the committee meeting(s) upon completion of the last committee meeting at both the Midwinter
and Annual conferences of ALA. You may use an ACRL Meeting
Highlights form (example on page 16) for this purpose. Return
the form to the ACRL desk in the ALA office area before leaving
the conference site, or mail it to the ACRL Executive Director as
soon as possible. Be sure to also send a copy of your meeting
summary to the WESS Secretary.
Conference Arrangements:
- Conference Planning Manager:
- Schedules meeting rooms, room arrangements, and meeting times
- Conference Editorial and Production Manager:
- Produces conference preliminary and final programs
ACRL Publications of Interest to WESS Officers and Chairs
- ACRL Fiscal Policy Manual
- ACRL Guide to Policies and Procedures
- Contains the ACRL calendar, important ACRL documents including the constitution, bylaws, strategic plan, and budget/committee appointment/meeting forms.
