Submitted on behalf of Meghan Sitar, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, ACRL Instruction Section
I have completed the Instruction Section committee appointment process for the coming year. Following Merinda’s lead from last year, I wanted to make the process more transparent for the Section by sharing a rundown of the numbers from this year’s round of appointments.
# of Opportunities Compared to # of Volunteers
- In total, there are currently 175 slots for volunteers across the Section.
- 94 of those 175 slots were filled by continuing or reappointed committee members, including appointments of Chairs and Vice-Chairs. Attention was paid to committee members not exceeding five years of consecutive service to any one committee when reappointments were made.
- That left 81 open slots across all committees and task forces after reappointments were made to existing committees.
- This number includes 26 new slots created this year through the creation of two new task forces and the addition of member slots to existing committees where appropriate.
- We had 185 unique IS member volunteers for these 81 open slots. This means 104 volunteers regrettably did not receive any appointment.
- Because volunteers can express interest in more than one committee, these 185 unique IS member volunteers expressed interest 581 times across committees. For example, 80 people volunteered for the 3 open slots on the Teaching Methods Committee.
# of Opportunities for First-Time Appointees
- Of the remaining 81 slots, 53 went to members who were first-time appointees to any type of IS volunteer opportunity.
- 28 slots went to members with previous experience serving in IS. In some cases, these were instances where a committee appointment was the result of a selection process (for example, the Publications Editor on the Communications Committee) or a standing appointment (for example, the appointment of the Section’s Past Chair to the Awards Committee)
- In the case of the two new task forces, 4 first-time appointees and 4 experienced appointees were added to each group.
Guiding Principles
I used the following guiding principles to choose between available volunteers.
- Priority was given to volunteers who had not yet served in the Section and who did not already have an appointment to other ACRL committees at the section or division level.
- Information provided by the volunteer in their application was carefully considered, with priority given to IS members who connected their professional interests to the work of the Section or the specific committees for which they volunteered.
I want to sincerely thank all of the Instruction Section members who volunteered. I know it can be disappointing to not immediately have a way to continue participating in the Section’s work if you did not receive an appointment. In order to create opportunities for our newer members and first-time volunteers, returning volunteers who have dedicated their time and talents in the past may not have received an appointment. The lack of appointment does not reflect a lack of value attached to your membership and involvement in the Instruction Section. I encourage you to volunteer next year and to keep your eyes peeled for additional opportunities that will likely emerge for contributing during this year. I also encourage you to share your work in response to calls for proposals by the Discussion Group Steering committee and other groups doing programming for the Section. Finally, please consider volunteering as an Instruction Section Mentor for our very successful mentoring program when it begins recruiting at the end of the summer.
