How are we doing?
You see this phrase almost every day…every time you turn around, some company or other wants your feedback. This post deals with organizations that really need your feedback, but not so that they can make more money.
As Courtney mentioned over at Reading is Sexy, we had an LTAIG committee meeting yesterday. We made plans for a lot of exciting projects, including the 2007 salary survey (see Court’s post for more deets) and our session proposals for the 2007 BCLA conference. Our meetings are always a lot of fun, not only because I really enjoy working with my fellow committee members, but because I always come away with renewed enthusiasm, excitement, and pride in the library community I’m a part of.
We also talked about how to generate more feedback from the members of the organization. See, LTAIG operates mainly as a virtual group: the closest thing we have to “members” is our e-mail list’s subscriber base, which is about 400. The list is open to anyone, but we gear our events and activities to library support staff (technicians and assistants). The downside of not having a formal membership is that it’s hard for us to gage whether our work is successful. As volunteers, we can only hope that our efforts are useful to others: no formal membership means no formal feedback. It can be disheartening to work at something you really believe in, not knowing whether it really makes a difference. In our next newsletter, we’ll be asking some specific questions in an attempt to get a more concrete idea of how our members think we are doing.
Within the library community, there are so many people whose volunteer work benefits us all. In every organization I’m a part of, people graciously give their time and hard work because they believe in the organization’s goals, and yet so often, these efforts go unrecognized. This is not limited to the library world - every field has peer associations that depend on volunteers to run. The more work I do in a volunteer capacity, the more I realise that it’s essential to tell people when they’re doing something right. Specifics are nice, too! I’m not saying this because I want the glory, and I know I’m not alone in this sentiment. Just as we want to hear what we’re doing right, we also want to hear what we could be doing better.
So, here’s my challenge (yes, I mean you!): if you enjoy or appreciate something that a volunteer/non-profit organization does for you (a conference or seminar it hosted, an article you read in its newsletter, etc.) - let someone know! When I attend a talk that is particularly useful, I try to send a quick e-mail to the speaker to say thanks and let him/her know that I enjoyed it. You’ve heard it before, and I’ll say it again…it only takes a second, but it can make a world of difference.