Stepping Up to the Plate for AALL's Executive Board Elections

Assuming no additional candidates are added to the ballot under Section VI 2c of the AALL Bylaws (does anyone remember the last time that happened?), here's the slate of candidates selected by the Nominations Committee:

Vice President/President-Elect:  

• Julie Pabarja, research services manager, DLA Piper, Chicago
• Holly M. Riccio, library/calendar manager of Northern California, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, San Francisco 

Treasurer:

• Joan M. Bellistri, law librarian, Anne Arundel County Public Law Library, Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, Annapolis, Maryland
• Gail Warren, state law librarian, Virginia State Law Library, Richmond

Executive Board Members (two slots):  

• Femi Cadmus, Edward Cornell law librarian and associate dean for library services, Cornell University Law Library, Ithaca, New York
• Kenneth J. Hirsh, director of the law library and information technology, University of Cincinnati College of Law, Robert S. Marx Law Library, Cincinnati
• Allen R. Moye, director of the law library and associate professor of law, DePaul University College of Law, Rinn Library, Chicago
• Roger Vicarius Skalbeck, associate law librarian, Georgetown University Law Library, Washington, D.C.

Congratulations to all. Hopefully the nominees have a fair amount of patience to wait for a pitch to hit out of the ballpark if they want to get our association "future ready" instead of accepting the traditional MO of solving today's problems tomorrow. I guess we will see where the candidates stand on the one issue that matters most -- the future of AALL -- if they address that with some specificity in their official statements for accepting their nominations when posted on AALLNET.

But, what the heck, at least this will be the first time since the turn of the century that a representative from the only market sector that matters to our major legal vendors will be elected Vice President/President-Elect.

Do note the informal structure of electing officers by market sector in this year's line-up of nominees by office. Institutionalizing this by way of a bylaws amendment that reforms the structure of the Executive Board would be far better. At least AALL by way of the Nominations Committee is trying to re-engage the many private sector law librarians who have just about given up on AALL.

The election will be held November 1 - November 29, 2012. The elected officers will begin their terms officially at the 2013 AALL Annual Meeting in Seattle. [JH]