Many people have traveled to Louisville, KY for the SLA Leadership Summit. You can read notes from the conference here, here and here. This evening, approximately 20 – 25 people gathered for a Leadership & Management Division Brainstorming Session led by Ulla de Stricker (Immediate Past Chair). Approximately six people were not members of LMD. Why brainstorm? It was felt that broader input was needed in order to think about how to position the Division, what benefits it should provide, and how it should communicate with its members. Here are some thoughts that stood out to me from the session:
- We need to communicate better that you do not need to be in a leadership or management position in order to join this Division. Several people noted that they joined the Division in order to learn about management issues before becoming a manager.
- LMD is not a subject-focus division, but a division that should be able to meet many member needs, since a high percentage of our members are in leadership or management positions, OR aspire to be in those type of positions.
- Communicating with Division members — as well as other members of SLA — needs to take many forms, including using social networking tools.
- LMD’s three sections need better visibility. What are the sections?
- Consulting — Members of the Consulting Section represent
services such as information brokering, strategy consulting and technical
consulting. This includes consultants within an organization, and those serving
external clients. - Marketing –The Marketing Section of the Leadership & Management Division was established to provide a forum for the exchange
of ideas and information regarding marketing theory and how to effectively
market information services. - Content Buying — The Content Buying Section of Leadership & Management Division includes buyers and sellers involved in the many aspects related to managing enterprise-wide content, such as supplier relationship management, contract negotiations, budgeting and funding of licenses, training and communications, risk management, and measuring and maximizing an enterprise’s return on the investment in content licenses.
- Consulting — Members of the Consulting Section represent
- LMD is the fourth largest division (still) after giving birth to both the Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management Divisions. The Division is financially sound.
- LMD’s programs at the Annual Conference are well received.
I look forward to the actions that are considered based on today’s discussion. However, I honestly believe that just having the discussion helped to move the Division forward.