A Wind Up - ALLA: from Inc to Ltd

Yesterday, Thursday 13 September, the Australian Law Librarians Association took a historic step in voting to voluntarily wind up the Incorporated Association and become a Limited Company.  The reasons leading up to this decision have been well documented, and work in progress for a dedicated and hard working group on the National Executive Committee these past few years. 

I jettisoned into the final vote yesterday by way of the Committees need at the eleventh hour for a new Secretary, I felt like someone who had turned up to a party just as it hit full stride, I mean, I missed out on all the hard work.  And really, that's what I want to talk about - the hard work and the passion people have for this Association.

I joined the Australian Law Librarians group in 1997, I was new to Melbourne, new to Australia for that matter, and my boss back then was a leading light of a group of Victorian Law Librarians called the VILLANS, who had convened two very successful Symposia in Melbourne.  Joining the Association was a matter of course, you needed to know who was who, and, the group always put on great parties, that was a big draw card and the start of many friendships for me, newbie in town.  But there was more, lunch time seminars, access to a list of serials held across the state, and, new to the profession, an invaluable course called Finding the Law (which frankly I was finding bewildering).  I was struck by the knowledge, expertise and willingness to invest their time by a wide range of professionals, and, the dawning realisation that this was a two way street.  Eventually I took Finding the Law classes myself, co convened a Conference and had a stint as Convenor of the Victorian Association.   

When I attended the AGM yesterday I met old friends I hadn't seen for years, members of the National Executive who have served many years tirelessly, editors of our professional journal, the team that run the website and our social media presence, the Brisbane conference committee who have worked on the two day conference the AGM is one part of.  People who really care about our group, people who voted for, and people who voted against, the special resolution, people who felt passionately about the outcome.  I am very proud of our Association,  the familiar faces, the new faces, the people who make up the body of our Association.