Say "Hi" to Velvet Chainsaw's Dave Lutz

In a comment to Time to Take a Velvet Chainsaw to AALL's Less Than Comprehensive But Official Review of Annual Meeting Programming, Vicki Szymczak wrote the following about hiring Velvet Chainsaw Consulting to assess AALL's annual programming:

This might work. AALL never listens to its members who provide free and expert advice on any number of things. They only feel they should listen to advice that they pay for. So, if VCC is legit, it may payoff for us!

Yup. Had I known AALL would pay someone to listen to member input by way of surveys etc. someday, I might have not deemed them an utter waste of time over the years. I doubt I am alone. My bad.

So meet Velvet Chainsaw's Dave Lutz. In a recent comment to the above-cited post, he wrote in pertinent part:

My name is Dave Lutz and I headed this consulting project for Velvet Chainsaw. In addition to speaking one-on-one with quite a few people, AALL did share an incredible amount of member input. The research and discovery process included reviews of survey comments and ratings from past meetings, session, exhibitor and membership surveys. Your point about having the input of past attendees (or from those that never attended) is good, but I do believe we captured that intelligence. While our recommendations have been delivered to AALL, I would welcome an email or call from anyone willing to share their opinion. Here's my contact details - dlutz@velvetchainsaw.comor phone (330) 474-1047 The AALL leadership cares a ton about the value you receive for your time and financial investment in the Annual Meeting. I can't stress enough how important it is to complete surveys and session evaluations. The more you can share about the speakers or sessions that rocked vs. the ones that bombed, the better. Individual member input on the education and networking value is the #1 most critical input for any organization that desires continuous improvement.

Hum. I may have missed an offical AALL announcement that provided Dave's contact information because, well, I'm an aging and decrepit law librarian who was been hacking up a lung due to a lingering bout of bronchitis before-- as in long before because apparently one of our elected officers was not regularly checking her AALL email account -- and after the above cited Oct. 17, 2011 LLB post. Do we need a by-laws amendment that requires the E-Club to check their AALL email accounts at least more than once every week or two if member input really is "the #1 most critical input for any organization that desires continuous improvement"? But I digress... .

While Velvet Chainsaw has already submitted its recommendations for consideration at the Executive Board's upcoming meeting, Dave Lutz offers to hear you opinion. Thanks, appreciated. But I sort of think it is a bit too late unless Velvet Chainsaw has recommended to the Board that you conduct a follow-up investigation and the Board accepts that recommendation. Loop back up to Vicki's comment about how this may payoff.

Dave, did you know that AALL officialdom has an unwritten policy of not responding to blog posts directly? Hopefully Velvet Chainsaw won't lose any future AALL business by having done so in this instance... . But thanks for the contact information. [JH]