Oklahoma Library Association Directed Project Final Report

May 5, 2020

LIS 5940

Alyson Hayes
Overview:

This semester, I had the privilege to work with the Oklahoma Library Association

(OLA), specifically OLA President, Lisa Wells. Lisa’s goal for OLA has been to create

documents and procedures that create consistency throughout the organization and its Divisions,

Roundtables and Committees (DRoCs). In order to determine what OLA’s needs were, Lisa and

I had an initial meeting in early January to discuss her vision for OLA and what projects she

wanted me to complete. We also set up regular meeting times throughout the semester. In

addition to meeting regularly with Lisa, I also participated in OLA Executive Board meetings

and OLA conference program planning meetings throughout the semester.

COVID-19 hit the United States in mid-March and had an impact on certain projects and

the initial timeline. Meetings had to be canceled or rescheduled and certain projects/tasks on the

projected project timeline had to be adjusted. OLA Annual Conference (April 22-24) and the

annual OLA Leadership Retreat (typically scheduled in mid-late July) both have had to be

rescheduled, impacting several deliverables on my initial project prospectus. Although the

semester may be over, I plan to work with OLA and Lisa through the summer to ensure that

these tasks are completed successfully.

Project Synopsis:

Initially, I had six deliverables to complete throughout the semester:

- Review the current OLA Constitution and Bylaws and compile proposed

amendments to take before the OLA membership at the OLA Annual Conference.

- Create a list of OLA “Job Descriptions” for OLA Leadership positions.

- Create a guide for planning the annual OLA Leadership Retreat

- Create an FAQ for the new OLA website

 - Create an OLA Workshop Planning “roadmap”

- Create a committee appointment roadmap

My first goal was to read and review the OLA Constitution and Bylaws and the OLA

Handbook to familiarize myself with OLA’s operations, and the duties of each OLA officer and

DRoC. OLA currently has 23 standing committees, in addition to three Divisions and seven

Roundtables. Because it is sometimes hard to find leaders to fill each of these positions, one of

Lisa’s goals was to consolidate and combine DRoCs whose purposes overlapped. To make this

easier, I created a list of current OLA DRoCs and proposed OLA DRoCs (see link below).

Because AMIGOs is our Association Management Company, I looked at several other

state library association’s Constitution/Bylaws and Handbooks for guidance on updates that

needed to be made. The library handbooks that I found to be most useful were the Missouri

Library Association Handbook and the Wyoming Library Association Handbook.

As we began looking at the OLA Constitution and Bylaws, Lisa felt that because OLA

currently has a Constitution and Bylaws committee, it would be more appropriate to have them

compile the list of updates and changes. Lisa and I had a meeting with Kristen Burkholder, chair

of OLA’s Constitution and Bylaws committee to share with her the notes and proposed changes

and recommendations I had made.

My largest project this semester was to compile a list of “job descriptions” for each OLA

leadership position. The previous OLA intern sent out a survey to OLA leadership and one of the

things they most noted was the fact that they would have liked a written document detailing their

duties. They felt that the OLA Handbook was daunting, somewhat outdated and didn’t provide

details of their required duties and time commitment necessary. The Job Description document
was created to be a more informal, detailed list of duties. It is meant to be updated and adapted as

necessary and is written in a less formal manner than the Constitution and Bylaws or Handbook.

In order to effectively and efficiently compile this document, I sent out a Google Doc link

to all OLA Officers and DRoC leaders asking them to list their duties, required time

commitments (both as chair and for the membership) and to list things they wish they had known

before stepping into their roles and what trainings would have been helpful. Most participants

input their information early in the semester and I was able to take their comments and apply it to

other organizational documents I was creating.

One of the biggest tasks that this helped with was creating the Leadership Retreat

Planning Guide. By assessing all the items OLA Leaders wished they had known, I was able to

share that with Lisa and create a list of trainings, breakout sessions and resources that would be

the most beneficial at the retreat.

Creating the other documents such as the Committee Selection Roadmap and the

Workshop Planning Toolkit will hopefully make these two tasks much clearer and easy to

navigate. Previously, every standing OLA committee was listed on the Committee Preference

Form on the OLA Website. The template of the new form only lists the committees that add new

members every year and it also provides a description of the committee’s purpose for more

clarification. In addition to the Committee Selection Roadmap, I also created a DRoC

Appointment and Term Limits Google Sheet that will help future OLA President Elects

determine what committee chairs that are required to appoint at the beginning of their term and

lists certain committee’s rules for term and member limits.

The Workshop Planning Toolkit is meant to serve as a repository on the OLA website

that OLA DRoCs scheduled to host a workshop in a given year can access to find resources that
make the planning process much easier. This will be a working and ever-evolving document that

OLA leaders can edit and update as needed.

Additional Projects and Tasks:

As Lisa and I continued to meet, new ideas and issues to be addressed arose. Lisa would

often send me emails with questions for me to research, resources she found helpful and ideas

that she had for the organization. Throughout the semester, I kept a document of notes that

included questions that needed to be answered, new tasks and other miscellaneous information.

In addition to finding information and responding to emails, I also organized an OLA

Mix and Mingle, which was going to be scheduled at the OLA Annual Conference before the all-

conference reception. The Mix and Mingle was going to be a time for OLA members to meet

leaders of various DRoC and learn what they did within the organization and if they were

interested, how to get involved. Although, with the conference being moved to a virtual

experience this year we will not be able to host this, hopefully, we will be able to have it in the

future.

Another project was to send out a guide for first time OLA Conference attendees. This

guide would provide information about the hotel, key programs of interest, information about the

association and the DRoCs. As people registered for the conference, we added a check box

asking if they were a first-time attendee so that we could compile an e-mail list. Although we did

not have the regularly scheduled conference this year, this would be a great informational

resource to send out before future conferences.

Outstanding items:

- Continue to work on answers that correspond to the FAQs for the new website

- More information is needed on the workshop planning roadmap, such as the list of

conference program proposals that are deemed better in workshop format and the

speakers for them (Will ask for a list from the Conference Planning Committee chair after

the next conference sessions are selected), a compiled list of potential workshop speakers

- this should be a working list, such as a Google Doc, that OLA Leadership can

contribute to and update regularly.

- I have updated the Committee Preference Form template to only include those OLA

committees that regularly recruit new members, but clarity is still needed as to how

committee members are documented once they are selected, who compiles that

information and where that information is kept. (this might be a job for future OLA

interns)

- Lisa and I will meet with Cathy Blackman, incoming OLA president, to share with her

the created documents and get her input.

- Meet with future “OLA Intern” to share these documents with them and assist as needed.

- Meet with previous OLA Intern to organize all of the documents and information we

have created so that we can ensure it is easy to access and use in the future.

- Questions that have not yet been highlighted on the “Notes” Google Doc that I created

(link below)
Things I learned and how I will apply them in the future:

I learned a number of things this semester, and many of them pertain to my future goals

as a librarian. Working alongside Lisa Wells has been a wonderful opportunity and I have

learned a great deal simply watching her in the role of OLA president. My long-term

professional goal is to one day be the director of the Southern Oklahoma Library System and

Lisa has a leadership style that I greatly admire. I highly respect Lisa’s decision-making abilities.

One of the goals listed in my portfolio is to develop the ability to make critical decisions

effectively and efficiently and mentoring with Lisa taught me skills that with help me achieve

this goal.

As we were moving through the process of transitioning the Annual Conference from in-

person to virtual, Lisa told me that the decisions had to be made from a business perspective.

Although there might be personal feelings about these decisions, the choices made must be what

is best for OLA and emotions must be set aside for the betterment of the Association. She also

clearly thought through her decisions and once she had examined the various options, was

unwavering once the decision was made.

Participating in OLA Executive Board and Conference Planning meetings and interacting

with the OLA leadership also allowed me to meet and network with librarians from across the

state. Hopefully these relationships will continue, and will provide me with a network of mentors

and peers who I can collaborate with and learn from for years to come, which also helps me to

reach my program objective of mentoring with and learning from leaders in the library

profession through involvement in professional organizations.

The documents I created throughout the semester taught me the importance of planning

and consistent structure in an organization. The Oklahoma Library Association had the benefit of
having an Executive Director for 30 years, but that Director recently retired, taking with her

much of the institutional knowledge of the organization. This information was never formally

documented and therefore, the transition has been somewhat disorganized. The implementation

of job descriptions, roadmaps and toolkits for members of the Association will ensure that in the

future, when these regular transitions happen, they will be much more seamless.

These practices can be applied to any library or organization and good protocols, cross-

training and document retention are necessary to ensure that the institutional knowledge of an

organization isn’t dependent on one person or small group of people.

Project roadblocks and lessons learned:

One of the biggest things I learned this semester was how to be adaptable. With COVID-

19 happening two months into the semester and a month before OLA’s Annual Conference,

many things were forcibly changed or canceled. The Annual Conference has now been

rescheduled for the end of July and will be completely virtual, which has forced a cancelation of

all the scheduled social events, including the OLA Mix and Mingle.

Also, because the Annual Conference is now in July, the Annual OLA Leadership

Retreat, which is normally 2-3 days in July will have to be rescheduled, canceled or adapted to

correspond with the conference. This will affect how the Leadership Retreat Planning Guide will

be used. The overview of the Workshop Planning Roadmap that was created will also greatly

adapt and change with the introduction of more virtual options; the way OLA DRoCs host

workshops could take on a very different format.

A major roadblock I encountered was not receiving feedback and input in a timely

manner. Although most DRoC leaders responded to my emails and requests for information,

there are still several job descriptions that I am lacking. I realize that people are very busy and
with circumstances currently the way they are, more pressure has been placed on many people to

take on new roles. I am hoping that once things return to the “new normal” I can reach out to

these leaders again to receive their information.

Project Meeting Dates:

January 6: Initial meeting with Lisa

January 21: Initial meeting with Dr. Abbas

January 28: Met in person with Lisa and via Zoom with Dr. Abbas to discuss the overview of

the project.

January 30: OLA Conference Planning meeting, on site-in Tulsa

February 4: In-person meeting with Lisa

February 13: Zoom meeting with Lisa

February 19: Zoom meeting with Lisa

February 21: OLA Executive Board meeting and OLA Leadership Retreat Follow-up

February 25: In-person meeting with Lisa

March 9: OLA Conference Planning meeting

March 10: In-person meeting with Lisa

March 19: Zoom meeting with Lisa

March 20: OLA Executive Board Meeting

March 24: Zoom meeting with Dr. Abbas

April 2: OLA Conference Planning meeting

April 14: Zoom meeting with Dr. Abbas

April 15: OLA Executive Board Meeting

April 17: OLA Executive Board Meeting/OLA Conference Planning meeting

April 24: Zoom meeting with Lisa

May 1: Meeting with Dr. Abbas

Links to final documents:

OLA Job Descriptions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N_Ob7RRowZC7uaYV6hRwLuDJ4bMsp3gpdN8uqcpKB
D8/edit

OLA Leadership Retreat Agenda and Training Topics:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SKvAdRRNWMuQwvUJoL7CuEjj3ws8BRe7B86r8MLh
P_E/edit

OLA Committee Selection Roadmap: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kNUEz1-

1jcyU2JIJnXYIYVAFZVtG41Kiipd_zhkSJ-s/edit

Current and Proposed OLA DRoCs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16-

1s3xskmRH27-Low01CqnMkaGnO5FpuVuGenpxcrJk/edit

Link to previous OLA Internship Documents, I added the DRoC Appointments and
Term Limits Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3CpKW_EDrxTAjTzhJybSA9hz6DK8zcVYt
HoxjZRH-4/edit?ts=5e1344a5#gid=786009460

OLA Workshop Planning

Roadmap:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OhNVpEG4mg1NkSViWzfnRIFIr2WC0pD24b
Qd7-WYf3A/edit

Potential Website FAQs:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CeW_uTMqFxFtblMB2PB_eXjbefWQv4MR_RsNhFGqq
LA/edit

List of Directed Project notes that arose throughout the semester (red highlighted items have
been addressed): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zxrcG56A0hdlpl4GaErm_mCViMFln6-
eqBQvYo0hQf4/edit