University Libraries Section (ULS): About Our Committees

The Membership Committee serves as a resource for all issues related to ULS members, recruits new members, promotes involvement in ULS, maintains an up-to-date roster for all section committees, and develops liaison relationships with the ULS Communications Committee and the ACRL Membership Committee.

The Membership Committee usually has eight to ten members. See current committee roster.

It is useful to have some members located in the upcoming ALA Midwinter or ALA Annual Conference cities to help in planning the ULS Social.

The Membership Committee on ALA Connect: Post and find agendas, minutes, and committee happenings.

Please note that you will need to sign in to ALA Connect using your regular ALA web site username and password to access ACRL ULS committee content.

The committee has a number of responsibilities including the following:

• Sending new, reinstated, and dropped member letters
• Planning and marketing the ULS Social for ALA Midwinter and Annual Conferences
• Planning and marketing On-the-Fly Mentoring at ALA Midwinter and Annual Conferences

The chair ensures that there is one person assigned to send each of the types of letters and at least one person assigned to plan and market On-the-Fly Mentoring. The chair also leads and manages the ULS Social planning. The membership chair represents the membership committee to the ULS Executive Committee. 

Tips for planning the Social

• Start early—finding an affordable and well-located venue can be challenging.
• Consult with members of the committee on potential locations—they may have local knowledge themselves or know others who do.
• Know your budget—the Executive Committee sets the amount allocated for the socials each year when the annual budget is approved.
• Once you have a venue and have chosen the food, bring ACRL Program Officer Megan Griffin into the loop so that payment can be arranged.
• Everything should be finalized at least a month before the conference.
• Advise committee member(s) doing the marketing to send out at least two rounds of publicity for the Social to relevant e-mail distribution lists.
• All members of the committee who are at the conference should attend the Social. Designate at least one committee member (preferably several) to arrive a bit early, greet attendees, and take a running headcount.
• Invite the ULS chair to give a brief welcome speech at the event.

Tips for coordinating On-the-Fly Mentoring

1. Confirm time and location with Beatrice Calvin. The location of the event is the ALA Joblist Placement Center, and it typically takes place over two days, Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
2. Create signup sheets for both mentors and mentees. Both have a template where you only need to modify the dates attached so they can be reused for each Annual and Midwinter Conference.
3. Advertise for mentor sign up and mentee interest in the event. Advertising for On-the-Fly Mentoring should go out via the ULS e-mail distribution list. For this, there will be a member of the ULS Communications Committee who can assist. Since mentees come from many different fields of librarianship, opportunities to advertise elsewhere are always welcome. Only the mentor signup sheet is required to be attached to the advertisement at this time.
4. On both days of the event, bring the day’s respective mentee signup sheets with you. Organizer(s) should try to arrive at least fifteen minutes early in order to prepare. Mentors should try to make the time that they promise to assist. Any timing conflicts for mentors should be addressed to organizers with sufficient timing.

Request form for promoting activities

The committees use this online form to gather requests for promotion of committee and discussion group activities.