Council Briefing - Notes from the November Meeting
This is the first of two 'winter term' briefings - the December Council following hot on the heels of this November one!
Council's earlier decision on the use of members’ e-mail addresses by Branches and Groups has been acted upon, and the provision by CILIP of a dedicated mailing service for Branch and Group Committees will be launched at the beginning of February 2009. The team is still working on the means of exporting data from the CARE database in read-only format, which forms the trial second option.
The Council Leader, Caroline Moss-Gibbons, reported on her correspondence with Hackney (and the press) following the unfortunate banning of author, Ian Sinclair by the Council. What has been revealed by the incident is the strength of opinion and the passionate views on the importance of the library. Council wished to express the congratulations and thanks to all those involved in this practical demonstration of some very rapid and useful CILIP advocacy. There has also been other correspondence, including a letter on the possibility of opening Ridgmount Street in the evening, and that with the British Library and Dr Saad Eskander regarding the presentation of his Honorary Fellowship at the British Library on 8th December.
Nigel Macartney, as chair of the Branch and Group Funding Task and Finish Group, reported on progress. There has been a further round of consultation through the recent Branch and Group days, and this will be reported on in full at the December Council. Both Groups and Branches had felt that another meeting would be helpful and this was agreed by Council in the hope that those who were unable to attend in November would be present. Given the importance placed on the outcome by Branches and Groups it was disappointing that a number were not able to attend: the next meeting early in 2009 will be the last opportunity for voices to be heard and the end of the consultation process.
Council also acknowledged that the idea of opt-in for Branches was universally unpopular and agreed that it should be taken out of the final package. Also agreed by Council was the fact that the current system of capitation plus a lump sum is preferred by most Groups and Branches and that the new model should be based on this – although there may need to be some fine tuning.
Council felt that the idea that all Groups and Branches should have business plans and targets was good practice (it was suggested that these should be visible on their websites), and very much approved of the idea that bringing new members into CILIP should be one of those targets, possibly linked to financial rewards. Branches and Groups will be able, of course, to continue to raise income as they do now.
A not inconsiderable amount of work has been undertaken on the Encompass project over the last months. Encompass is a positive action training initiative to bring more ethnic-minority staff into libraries - details can be found at http://www.cilip.org.uk/encompass/. Since our last meeting a publicity leaflet, together with a PowerPoint (plus speaker notes), a comprehensive website with an FAQ, and an Encompass Toolkit have all been produced, a steering group has been set up, and a consultant appointed to develop an employer engagement strategy. Encompass is an exercise in employer engagement and the London pilot - running prior to opening the scheme to the whole of UK - has begun with some 300 employers contacted, many of which have already visited Ridgmount Street and left with armfuls of CILIP literature and brochures. A number seem likely to join the scheme and are working towards final signup.
Following the September Risk Register Workshop for Council and the management team, the Task and Finish Group has successfully produced a draft Register as well as a report to Council on progress. The work is ongoing, with further detail to be added - but the process was adopted unanimously by Council.
Work is also ongoing on the Corporate Plan, and it is intended that short-term (1-year) and long-term (3-year) plans, together with a 'delivery plan' will be drafted by the December meeting.
Reporting on CILIP Advocacy, Bob McKee mentioned the important DCMS Library Service Modernisation Review of Public Libraries (http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/libraries/5583.aspx), which has effectively placed libraries round the table with other statutory services (such as schools). The next project meeting will take place in early December - before our next Council so there should be an interim report. Interestingly, best-selling author Tracy Chevalier (see 'From the Chief Executive's Desk' blog - http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/cesdesk/archive/2008/11/19/of-benylin-and-books.aspx) has been added to the project board. There are five working groups which should complete their work by the end of the year, and this will be followed by a Round Table Forum, chaired by the Minister, to which CILIP has been invited.
Continuing the Advocacy theme, Guy Daines reported that the MLA Guidance on Controversial Stock, to which CILIP contributed (the Guidance, not the stock!), would be seen by the MLA Board in the last week of November. Guy Daines also reported that the ‘Information Matters: building government´s capability in managing knowledge and information’ report was published on November 18th.
CILIP has also commented on the 'No to Age Banding' campaign (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/27/age-banding-childrens-books), and on the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) consultation on Informal Learning - and it is pleasing to note that in the light of that comment DIUS have pledged to work closely with DCMS to ensure that libraries and cultural institutions play a full part in the comprehensive strategy in informal learning that is currently being developed. Also, the CILIP Policy and Advocacy Director, together with the Chief Executive and Sue Jones, Chair of the Youth and School Libraries Joint Committee, met with officials from the Training & Development Agency to convince them of the high level role filled by school librarians. The meeting was extremely positive, and CILIP has been invited to continue the liaison.
Council agreed (under any other business) that all existing and future CILIP policies (Governance, Communications, Employment, etc) should be made easily available on the CILIP website. It was also agreed that from January 2009, items of reserved business would be reported in a brief, open form as well as in the current, detailed, closed form, thus enabling greater transparency in these reports.
The meeting ended with reserved business. The ongoing Web/ICT Programme 2008-2010 reported back via the Programme Board on progress, and Council confirmed its agreement with the slight reworking of priorities for the second and third phases. The remainder of the meeting was taken up with business, financial and budgetary matters. It was agreed that the next meeting would focus on the Business Plan.
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.
CILIP Council is the body of Trustees responsible for the good governance of CILIP, and these briefings are a means of reporting back to the community on our activities.