In accordance with ALA Forward work requested of all units in 2025, staff of both divisions have completed a program assessment. With input from division boards, the assessment helped determine which committees, task forces, and working groups will be Preserved and Invested in, Reviewed for Retention, or Sunset. A copy of the report has been shared with YALSA and ALSC committee chairs, some of whom have provided feedback. For our divisions, the assessment coincided with our work facilitating the reunification between ALSC and YALSA. The process allowed us to see where there is overlap in scope between a YALSA and an ALSC committee and bring those two groups together to have a cohesive committee charge and structure that will be implemented as of reunification finalization on September 1, 2026.
ALSC Organizational Effectiveness and YALSA Organization & Bylaws are two committees whose overlapping purpose and work will be brought together under one committee when reunification is complete. Due to the charge of these two committees, they were asked to be the first to undergo the self-reflection described above and to give feedback on the process to help guide other committees through the same work.
Below is a suggested workflow for two committees to complete the Committee Review and Feedback Survey together. We’ve included the steps that worked well for us with tips that we hope will be helpful for other merging committees.
1. Making contact with your chair counterpart:
Since scheduling for volunteer committees can be complex and take time, we recommend that you reach out to your ALSC/YALSA counterpart chair(s) as quickly as possible. We have recommended to ALSC staff that they provide contact information to respective chairs, as it is no longer possible to find a directory of email addresses on ALA Connect. However, if contact information has not been sent to you, it can be found with a bit of sleuthing! ALSC committee charges and rosters can be searched from the ALSC Committees web page. You can then reach out to your respective counterpart chair using ALA Connect messages, which is how our two committees were able to initially connect.
2. Getting a joint meeting on the schedule:
After making the connection between committee chairs, we moved the conversation off of Connect and shared our regular meeting schedule over email. If it is an option, try to make one of your upcoming regularly scheduled meetings act as a joint meeting with as many members in attendance from each committee as possible. This was ideal for us as we did not have to triangulate an additional meeting time! Our first meeting ended up being a fantastic opportunity to formally meet each other, fill in gaps as to what information had been shared about reunification, and solidify next steps for both the survey and committee logistics moving forward.
3. Reviewing the survey questionnaire in a meeting and providing input asynchronously:
During our preliminary joint meeting, we chose not to fill out the survey at that time. Instead, we created a shared Google Doc with the survey questions and determined who would be responsible for completing the different parts of the survey. The largest consideration was who would work on the new synthesized charge, which consists of visiting both ALSC and YALSA charges/functions, and combining them based on what we know about our committees’ joint responsibilities moving forward. A member of each committee volunteered to work together to start on the combined charge. We set a 2-week deadline for both filling out the questions on the Google Doc and adding input to the responses via comments. We then scheduled an “interstitial” meeting at that 2-week point to go over any open comments, questions, or major sticking points. While we did have a few discussions about some of the questions, this may not be necessary for every committee!
4. Having a follow-up meeting to discuss and finalize input:
During our 2-week check-in meeting, we were able to resolve most comments quickly. We did have a few issues that needed to be discussed, but ultimately landed in a successful place. After this meeting, we felt confident in our goal of submitting our Committee Review and Feedback survey with as much thought and input from committee members as possible. Our recommendation (to avoid getting bogged down by details) is to treat questions such as the committee name and newly synthesized charge as suggestions, knowing that the board will have final say on these details. As we all know, this is a new process for everyone, and there will inevitably be kinks and unexpected circumstances to work out along the way. Because of this, we have suggested to leadership that the questions on this form be re-assessed on (at least) a semi-annual basis to ensure that recommendations regarding charge descriptions and considerations such as committee make-up are effective and still stand.
5. More advice?
We know that every merging committee will look different; however, ALSC Organizational Effectiveness and YALSA Organization and Bylaws have decided to fully immerse ourselves in the reunification process. It has been a positive experience! This has included scheduling future meetings as a joint committee, including both committees on all email correspondence, and sharing committee documentation with one another so that future document access is seamless. Moving forward, we will continue meeting as a joint committee, and working on our agendas/meeting notes collaboratively.
There may be other considerations that are specific to your committee that we would love to hear about! It may end up being a helpful reunification tip for others. Please respond and let us know what you found helpful (or not) during the reunification process. If you have any other questions or would like a follow-up conversation about your merging committees or experience, please comment on this post or email the chairs of this unifying committee – Manuela Aronofsky (maronofsky@berkeleycarroll.org), Tanya DiMaggio (tanyathelibrarian@gmail.com), and Rebecca Leonhard (rherwatic@gmail.com) – and we will set up a conversation!
This blog post was jointly authored by members of the ALSC Organizational Effectiveness committee and the YALSA Organization and Bylaws committee – soon to be one committee!
