Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Re Respect

I have modified my post titled Respect. I removed a few sentences about the AALL Members' Forum. Upon reflection, after a phone conversation with AALL Executive Director Kate Hagan, I decided I would rephrase the post. Kate read me a part of the transcript of the Forum. I mis-heard, or perhaps mis-remembered, that part of the Forum. I would rather be careful and as truthful as I can be. I do not intend to hurt anybody's reputation with this blog. The point I was trying to make with that section of Respect, was that the moderator mis-spoke (something that I recognized even at the time), into a volatile situation. It was part of a pattern of poor communication between AALL leadership and members, albeit a very understandable one -- I would hate to try to speak off the cuff up there when tempers may be getting frayed!

But one of the things about that Forum that was particularly annoying was that there was a little Greek chorus arranged. If anybody wanted to speak about the Bylaws, there were AALL past Presidents Kay Todd (93-94) and Judy Meadows (97-98) to act as a tag team to present the other side. It did NOT feel like a situation that really welcomed open questions, debate or even comments.

Just my humble opinion.

No comments: