B03-05

B O A R D D O C U M E N T

TO: Board of Directors

FROM: Karen Kreizman Reczek

Christine DeBow Klein

David Stern

John Latham

RE: SLA Member and Nonmember Needs

DATE: October 7, 2002

Background Information: The Board of Directors requested that we prepare a report on member and non-member needs (whether met or unmet) and determine how best to tailor SLA's services to meet these needs. We felt the best approach at the outset would be to build on all the hard work already performed by the units - and not reinvent the wheel.

We have determined which SLA units have conducted membership and have compiled results in the last three years (2000-2002). This has been done by sending a notice to the Leadership list as well as reviewing the information provided in the Unit Annual Reports. A list of those units which have conducted surveys can be found on Virtual SLA at http://www.sla.org/content/leadership/unitsurveys.cfm.

During our analysis of the commonalities, trends and anomalies we found areas of common interest, but also some areas needing further clarification. There were commonalities in the high rating of networking and presentations from information professionals. There were anomalies in the rating of the benefits of the annual conference. It was difficult to spot any trends because of the short period that the surveys covered. There did not appear to be significant differences in the requirements of members of large units compared with small units.

Networking was always rated highly, but we need to do further research on this before coming to any conclusions. Except for casual interactions and those meetings resulting in serendipitous discovery, networking is probably not the real value. We consider that it is the thing being networked which is so highly valued and therefore we plan to carry out a web-based survey to identify what content our members desire to have "networked".

Financial Impact Statement: If we proceed with a survey and the preparation of recommendations, the only financial impact will be the $20 charge for online survey and overhead costs of the time spent by members and SLA staff.