From: Chris Orr (christineorr@mindspring.com)
Date: Fri Aug 27 2004 - 13:27:35 PDT
Message-ID: <10576966.1093638455703.JavaMail.root@wamui07.slb.atl.earthlink.net> Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 13:27:35 -0700 (GMT-07:00) From: Chris Orr <christineorr@mindspring.com> Subject: Re: SLA-SF: students
Hi Michele,
I came away with a different take from the Board/Council meeting. I thought we spent a tremendous amount of time on the questions of how to serve students in our profession. We affirmed our committment to helping students in our local area, be they in graduate or para-professional programs. We did not make any move to decrease our student subsidies, in fact, we came up with ways to increase them. Students are in no way "dispensible" as shown by the serious activities of our chapter both as a whole and as individuals to reach out. And last but not least, we have a dedicated, highly-motivated Academic Relations chair in the person of Camille Reynolds with positive plans for the coming year that the entire Board supports.
You mention that you shudder at the $30 cost of attendance for members. That is more at the heart of the matter. The costs are very real to ALL. We are also all being asked to do more with less at our jobs, and find that in 2004 there is even less time to volunteer. As you rightly say, having our volunteer organization take on more infrastructure like a mentoring program that would be better administered by the schools themselves is ill-advised at this time. However, it's clear that our chapter is (and has been) more than willing to support the school's efforts to establish mentor and intern programs by making our members available. If the schools are not doing this for their students, I'm sure that we have the will to lobby for them to step up to the task. Yes, offering our membership to the schools as a willing & capable group from which to recruit mentors is the way to go.
Thanks,
Chris Orr
(Chapter Pres-Elect)
-----Original Message-----
From: Michele McGinnis <mm@kk.org>
Sent: Aug 27, 2004 11:45 AM
To: SLA-SF@exploratorium.edu
Subject: SLA-SF: students
Hey Ya'll,
After last nights meeting, I'm wondering how important students are
to this organization - both with their current status as students and
as future professional members who can bring their skills and energy
to the organization? I get the sense that they are fairly
dispensable, and that is disturbing. I'd like to have more dialog on
where they fit in our organization.
I'm glad we agreed to reduce the cost of their attendance because I
know as a student, I would have been unable to afford $20 for a
meeting. Hell, I shudder now at having to pay $30.
A student mentoring program requires time and infrastructure to be
done successfully. I understand the reluctance of SF-SLA taking this
on and I am in agreement. But we fool ourselves if we think that the
few students who can afford to come to our meetings can get the same
quality benefits from that experience as they could from a formal
mentoring program.
As Dunn replies to SJSU that we can't currently take this on, I'd
like to see her encourage the school to consider taking it on and
offering our membership as a willing group from which to recruit
mentors.
thanks, m
-- Michele McGinnis, MSIS Research Librarian to Kevin Kelly149 Amapola Pacifica, CA 94044 650-355-7676 650-359-9701 fax
mm@kk.org www.kk.org
"They are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man." --Michael Moore on librarians
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead
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