SarahGlassmeyer(dot)com in perpetual beta

I am recently returned from my 5th AALL annual meeting.

There are many things I could write about with regards to this meeting…the fun of hanging out with Internet friends in meatspace, my nervousness at having my sister be a presenter, the excitement of finally getting to “meat” people that I’ve only known online, reuniting with former co-workers and old friends, the great programs I saw, my annual fear that my near pathological shyness would be interpreted as snobbery by those that don’t know me well, the exhibit hall madness, the rush-rush nature of AALL…but I’m not.

Do you know why?

Because I’m exhausted, y’all.

Which brings me to the thing that I do want to talk about.

I am on the AALL Annual Meeting Program Committee for the AALL 2011 in Philadelphia, so I tried to pay particular attention to the programming this year, seeing what I liked and soliciting advice from the librarians I met while at the conference.  If you’re reading this, that means you likely read other law librarian blogs, which means you are aware of the controversy about AALL program planning that sprang up in the days preceding this year’s annual meeting.  Given my membership on the AMPC, I didn’t want to get involved in that online discussion prior to meeting with the committee at AALL in Denver, but now I feel a little more free to shoot my mouth off.

CAVEAT LECTOR: I am not speaking for the AMPC in the following.

First of all, I was really excited to see that the law library blogosphere get whipped up on AALL program planning.  If I thought the process was perfect or that everything with program planning was hunky-dory, I never would have applied to be on the committee.  I hope now that the meeting is over and the annual meeting is fresh in everyone’s mind, more suggestions are offered as to how the meeting should be programmed.  Even if you’re not a blogger, the AMPC contact information is available on the above linked site and I really hope you suggest changes if you have an opinion.  There was an open committee meeting and Open Forum at AALL.  No one besides committee members showed up to the committee meeting, so no outside suggestions were offered there.   I wasn’t able to attend the Open Forum as I had another meeting to go to, but from what I understand  a discussion of changes to the Annual Meeting programming did not happen, even though some of the bloggers were in attendance.  I’m disappointed by this, but, again, there’s still time to offer an opinion!  I really do want to hear it!

That being said, I must admit that I had to work to  not take some of the criticisms of the AMPC personally.  Especially the “advance criticism” that we were getting. By this I mean, broad statements of “what AMPC is looking for.” Or, more maddening,  people saying that they would submit a certain program, but the AMPC probably wouldn’t accept it because they didn’t accept something similar a few years ago, so they’re not going to bother.

The AMPC changes every year. It’s not a faceless, secret organization determined to make AALL annual as awful as possible.   It’s me. And Anne Myers. And James Senter and Ruth Bridges and Ann Matthewmen and and April Schwartz and Linda Tesar.  We’re just a bunch of AALL members and, unless they’re having secret meetings without me, not once have I heard any secret agenda or list of people who automatically get programs accepted.  It’s sort of stunning how little of an agenda we have besides wanting the best program that provides the most educational value for as many members as possible.

But here’s the thing: AMPC’s hands are really tied. We can’t create an awesome slate of programming unless members propose and create the sessions.   This brings me to why I’m exhausted.  Even though the organization is “The American Association of Law Libraries”, it’s run by and for law librarians.  As I said, I wasn’t happy with programming in the past, so last year I submitted 7 program ideas and agreed to speak on 2 others.  Of that, one of each got accepted.  Additionally,  I co-ran an unconference, attended several committee meetings, dragged myself to the AALL business meeting even though I was experiencing an ocular migraine at the time (fortunately I left before the sing-a-long), and made it to a couple of networking events where I actually forced myself to talk to new people.

I really believe that if you want AALL (either the meeting or the organization or both) to change, you have to be the one to do it.   I also have a new personal rule that the statute of limitations for complaining about AALL is 5 years.  That is to say, if something happened more than 5 years ago, you need to buy a ladder and get over it because I certainly don’t want to hear about it.  The nature of AALL leadership is fluid enough that whoever made the decision that wrecked your plans is long gone and you need to try again.  Otherwise, you are just a whiner, and there are few things more annoying than people who complain without trying to do anything to change the situation.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a nap.  I’m exhausted.