Sylvia James
It is my great pleasure to stand for the position of SLA Treasurer and Board Member in the 2006 SLA Election.
As Treasurer I would be able to bring my long experience of working in the international financial services sector for over 35 years, both as an information professional and sector specialist, who speaks and trains business executives from all areas of commerce on all aspects of the financial institutions and markets.
I also bring the vitally important international perspective to the SLA Board, who is now being regularly challenged with financing issues of the growing non North American Chapters. I have already been called on to help with financial issues for the Asian and Australian and New Zealand Chapters and have been Treasurer for SLA Europe for the past 4 years, dealing with all the problems and practicalities that are required of operating in a non-dollar environment.
Those of you that have attended the courses I have given at SLA Conferences for many years know that I also have a far reaching knowledge and understanding of company structures and form all over the world. This will also be vital background for developing the correct and appropriate structures for SLA to operate in as new international Chapters develop.
In my capacity as the Chair of Business & Finance Division last year, this experience was also extremely helpful as we developed new international stipends and needed to understand how these could be awarded in developing countries. It is also very important to have a sound financial background that I have developed by working for a major Division of the Association for the past few years, in understanding the financing and sponsorship intricacies that face our Divisions as they plan for the SLA conferences.
As a member of the SLA Board, again, my international experience in the wider business community will be invaluable. I frequently work in areas where there are no designated information professionals and am very interested in ways of bringing their status and expertise to a different audience. I have written about this in some detail in my column for “BF Bulletin” for the past few years, especially encouraging business information professionals to look for non-traditional career paths where they can demonstrate their information skills and knowledge.
I have run my own successful consultancy business for some 17 years and that practice has always been international and outward looking from my base in Europe. SLA needs to reach outwards for new members in all areas of the world and as I work and teach in many countries every year, can bring a focus and depth of understanding on how this might be successfully achieved.
Sylvia James
January 25th 2006
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