log in, and read the ALA Handbook of Organization end-to-end. Take notes; please, post your notes with commentary for others who may not have noticed that little detail you found.

Take over ALA Governance

Council elects an Executive Board, which theoretically runs ALA, but delegates to the Executive Director of ALA, currently Keith Fiels (a good guy, but he also isn’t going to steer ALA anywhere EB isn’t taking it — and that’s correct behavior). Council nominates and elects EB. With a majority on Council, you theoretically have control of ALA (since you can elect the EB). There are just under 200 Councilors, so elect a slate of 100 Councilors and you have a majority. Yet it’s not that simple, either, because as the ALA website notes, “Council, the governing body of ALA [is] comprised of 183 members: 100 elected at large; 53 by chapters; 11 by divisions; 7 by roundtables; and 12 members of the Executive Board.” It’s not impossible that a slate couldn’t include chapter, divisional, or roundtable candidates, but it would require more effort, and since not all Councilors are elected at the same time, you can’t just run 100 at-large candidates. More likely than electing Councilors from chapters and divisions is first, to build a reform Council over several years, and second, that a strong Council EB slate would pick up additional votes outside the original reform slate.

Make it a deep down body change

Seed key ALA committees with members who will be on board with the slate’s core values; and you want to grab the hearts and minds of the ALA membership, and ensure that the library press are on board with you.

Committees:

COO
COM
COMM
Others?

Change the ByLaws

But you want more than elect a Council: you want to change the bylaws, which were last significantly revised during the reform era of the early 1970s; you want to ensure the chapters and divisions are on board, because even with a majority vote, if they aren’t on board they will just stalemate you until your slate’s term is up

Timeline: Changing Executive Board, the Bylaws, and some committees

Year 1

Run an ALA presidential candidate who will be the president during the “action year”

Run a slate of Councilors committed to the slate’s governance issues

Start probing and parsing key ALA committees, such as Organization, Committees, and Bylaws.

Year 2

Run the member who will be the president-elect.

Run another Council slate.

Focus on having a clear majority on Council.

Rewrite Bylaws and Policy as needed.

Year 3

Run another president

Run another Council slate

Solidify presence

Clean up Bylaws changes

That’s it. It’s not forever, because nothing is forever.

Question - how many votes are realistically needed to get a slate of people into Council? (david king added this, too)

An analysis of the 2007 elections for ALA offices, including councilors, is here and points to how many votes are needed to become a councilor, etc. - http://blogs.ala.org/memberblog.php?title=2007_election_results_and_analysis&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

(You will have to copy and paste the URL b/c if you click to follow the link, the blog software thinks it is referrer spam)

Improve ALA Wiki

Strategizing

Strategies for Success

How to effect change

RTFM