What follows is a brief summary of the activities at the Denver Midwinter Meeting relating to the ongoing struggle of the section newsletters for their survival in ACRL.

Background: At the very end of the San Francisco ALA meeting in 1992, the ACRL Executive Board voted to cut funding for the newsletters in half, thus limiting them to one 8-page issue for the year. (The Executive Board took this action without consulting the ACRL Publications Committee, in flagrant violation of its own procedures.)

Shortly before the Denver Midwinter meeting, the ACRL Task Force on Publications chaired by Mike Kathman forwarded its report to the ACRL Executive Board. The report recommended, among other things, that section newsletters be phased out and migrate to electronic form, presumably with no financial support from ACRL. Opposition from the sections was strong and swift. The Activities Section Council passed a strongly critical resoltuion on Saturday morning. That afternoon a large number of newsletter supporters from the sections turned up at the ACRL Executive Board meeting to express their unhappines with the Task Force’s recommendations. Nevertheless, the Board passed a motion “to accept the Report, to have the Executive Committee explore ways to implement the recommendations and report back to the Board.” At a meeting Monday morning (also attended by two members of the ACRL Executive Board), the section newsletter editors passed a resolution asking the Board to involve the newsletters in their discussion regarding implementation of the Task Force recommendations. At this meeting the Executive Board voted to accept the resolution of the newsletter editors and also established a Task Force on Membership Communications, charged with recommending a plan to use electronic communcations to replace ACRL printed publications as appropriate.

Before leaving Denver, the ACRL Board of Directors voted to restore funding for two 8-page section newsletters, pending final approval of the budget in New Orleans.

Where does this leave the section newsletters? It is clear that in the long-term they will be distributed electronically rather than in print form. The question is when, and how the transition will be managed. The ACRL staff has been helpful and supportive, but working with the Association’s own elected leadership—getting them to deal seriously with grass roots concerns and with the diversity of membership needs—has been a tiresome struggle, and the results have been uncertain at best. We have succeeded, for the moment, in getting their attention, but further positive action will require sustained and concerted pressure from the sections. If the immediate past is any indication, it is difficult to be hopeful.

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