March 13, 2015
Background:
In January 2015, the Canadian Library Association Executive Council issued a paper entitled Canadian Library Association: A Proposed New Vision for Our National Association. This paper discusses the history of CLA, its achievements and current challenges, all within the context of the very complex Canadian library association landscape. The paper presents a recommended new model for CLA: a federated association-of-associations. The recommended governance of this proposed federation is the provincial/territorial multi-sector library associations and the national sector associations. The paper discusses the federation model at a very conceptual level, recognizing that many details would need to be determined by the proposed governance representatives.
CLA Executive convened a meeting of national associations, national sector associations, and provincial/territorial multi-sector associations on January 31, 2015 to determine if there is interest in such an approach. The discussion was wide-ranging and, in the end, there was general agreement that an agile and focussed national voice for libraries and issues affecting libraries in Canada is critical. We also heard a willingness to continue to further explore the federated model for CLA, recognizing that the direct membership model is no longer sustainable for our country’s national association.
This Stakeholder Group agreed that a smaller Working Group should be formed to further detail membership, governance, and financial features of the proposal, creating a Version 2 of the proposal (“revised proposal”). The Working Group will be formed in March 2015 with an aim to bring recommendations for a revised proposal back to the Stakeholder Group for discussion in June 2015. Once the Stakeholder Group has agreed upon the composition of the revised proposal, then the revised proposal will be drafted and issued to the library associations’ memberships for comment and feedback.