Council Matters: the CILIP Council Blog

Council Briefing - Notes from the July meeting

This was the first meeting of Council under the second of our two 2008 Leaders, Caroline Moss-Gibbons and – unsurprisingly – began with thanks to her predecessor, Judy Broady-Preston for a job-well-done.

A previous meeting had asked Ridgmount Street to prepare a report on the issues surrounding the use of members’ e-mail addresses by Branches and Groups – and the means by which this use could be facilitated. After much discussion Council asked that more work should be done in consultation with Branches and Groups to offer some further options. The point was also made that ‘one size does not fit all’ and some Branches and Groups may have different requirements to others.

Council also approved recommendations assuring the future of the Accreditation and Chartership Boards and the CILIP Assessment Panel (CAP) as currently constituted, approved recommendation on ‘light touch revalidation' and agreed to establish a small Task and Finish group to develop and test a revised CPD Scheme – which will be the new name for what is currently called the Revalidation Scheme. Further information will shortly be available on: http://www.cilip.org.uk/qualificationschartership/foqareview.htm.

International Policy. Council was invited to note the draft policy statement, which – in its final form – will be presented to the next Policy Forum. Suggestions were made that the final version might include the words “learning” and “culture”. An evidence base and action plan are currently in preparation.

The consultation exercise on Branch and Group Funding was approved ready for sending out on Monday 28^th July (and, as some members will know, has duly been sent out). In order to make a recommendation to the Membership at the AGM on Members Day, 16^th October 2008, the timetable is as follows:

• 28^th July to 18^th September – Discussion Paper and questionnaire circulated to English Branches, Celtic Nations and Groups for consultation and response
• 25^th September – Final recommendations of the Task and Finish Group to Council

Council very much hopes that replies will be received from all those who received the papers so that a true member-led solution can be delivered.

The Chief Executive stated that Patrick Conway’s Professional Standards of Service in public libraries report had been very positively received by members and sister organisations, and Council agreed that a position statement on public libraries should be drafted for circulation and comment immediately; a separate paper drawing together the various strands of CILIP’s work around “modern professionalism” should be produced for the September Council meeting; and work on professional standards and on the skills mix would be reported to the same Council meeting. They also endorsed the six action lines:

• Define what CILIP regards as a professional standard of local public library service;
• Define what CILIP regards as the roles for library and information professionals within the skills mix of a modern public library service;
• Identify what alternative models for the provision of public library service can be developed, which do not compromise quality, accessibility and accountability;
• Find out what is happening ‘on the ground’; and continue CILIP’s dialogue with government and associated bodies;
• Develop CILIP’s position on what constitutes a modern form of professionalism;
• Develop a general statement of CILIP’s position towards public libraries.

Council also received a report on the CILIP survey on Police, Surveillance and Libraries conducted during June; the report is available on the CILIP website at http://www.cilip.org.uk/policyadvocacy/policypriorities/informationsociety/Privacy.htm; and will also be passed to the Policy Forum for their attention. In essence the survey found that there was little evidence of police ‘fishing’ although libraries are experiencing legitimate police and security agency activity. Nearly three-quarters of respondents reported that to the best of their knowledge, the police followed proper procedures and were making specific enquiries with good reason.

Peter Griffiths, Chair of the Policy Forum, reported that planning was well under way for the next meeting, which will take place at Ridgmount Street on 4th September - the meeting will include some important discussion as well as formal business. The morning session will be a discussion on libraries, extremism and surveillance and will be attended by Sue Wilkinson of the MLA. The meeting will also look at the Task and Finish Groups which the Policy Forum 'runs', and Peter went on to report on how much they had achieved. His final point was that there is a real need for Branches and Groups to bring forward proposals to the Forum about areas in which they feel CILIP lacks policies. A successful member-led CILIP under the new governance depends on a democratic Forum - and this in turn depends on Branches and Groups as the conduit through which the membership can speak.

The regular report on membership renewals shows a positive picture with renewals and membership subscription revenue comparing well with previous years and on target.

Council signed off the accounts for 2007 which show a hard-won surplus of over £300,000; this money is largely to be used in replacing or upgrading the Institute's web and ICT hardware and software – a long overdue investment. Council also noted that this year's cautious budget is on track, though the need to pay for urgent corrective work on the membership database and the effects of market volatility on our financial investments may yet have an impact.

The Council also adopted a revised Reserves Policy. This is not fundamentally different from the previous version but includes a slight change to the calculation of reserves, allowing for the fact that some direct costs vary in direct relation to the enterprise income, thus reducing the required level of reserves. The revised Policy does NOT affect English Branches, Groups and Celtic Nations as it retains the principle of allowing them to retain and manage their reserves in order to ‘give flexibility and encourage initiative’.

Finally, Council held a lengthy and useful discussion on risk management within CILIP, which will be continued later in the year at a Council Risk Management Workshop.

Notes

CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. It forms a community of around 36,000 people engaged in library and information work, of whom around 21,000 are CILIP members and around 15,000 are regular customers of CILIP Enterprises.