[CALIBK12] CSLA membership suspension

[John McGinnis]

To: Janet Melikian

I’m writing to address your decision to suspend your CSLA membership  
and to respond to your assertion that CSLA Executive Board members  
behaved callously.

YOUR MEMBERSHIP

In your message to CSLA members you said:

“The callous treatment of this amazing lady and fine man [Carol Shuey  
and Bob Skapura] astounds me.  If this is how CSLA treats individuals  
who have provided excellent, long term service, what does that say  
about the organization?"

The answer is simple - it says nothing. The treatment you call  
callous, if it were true, might say something about the eleven CSLA  
officers, myself included, who supported the decision to contract with  
the Association Resource Center (ARC) to provide management services  
for CSLA. But it says nothing about the other 1,500 members –  
professional and paraprofessional, retired and student, honorary and  
friend, commercial and sustaining – who volunteer on committees and  
boards to support the mission of CSLA, “To provide leadership to  
ensure that all California educators and students are effective users  
of ideas and information.”

When you sever your ties from the community of your colleagues by  
refusing to pay your dues, you hurt not only the eleven members with  
whom you disagree, you hurt the other 1,500 members as well. Worse,  
you hurt the “educators and students” CSLA is committed to serve.  
Worst of all, you do it in a budget year when CSLA needs every member  
it can recruit to help preserve our colleagues’ jobs, our school  
libraries, and, therefore, our students’ access to ideas and  
information as provided uniquely in school libraries. There are better  
ways to express both your admiration of Carol and Bob as well as your  
disagreement with CSLA officers. But that requires you to remain a  
member of the California School Library Association.

THE EXECUTIVE BOARD DECISION

The people you accused of the “callous treatment” of Carol and Bob are  
eleven CSLA Executive Board members who supported the recommendation  
to contract with ARC, and the Leadership Development Committee whose  
chair brought the recommendation to the Board.  They are:

Sandra Yoon, President

Connie Williams, President-Elect

Martha Rowland, Past President

Nina Jackson, Secretary

Peter Doering, Vice President, Communications

John McGinnis, Vice President Governmental Relations

Judith Martin, Vice President, Professional Development

Mary Ann Harlan, Northern Section President

Diane Alexander, Northern Section Past President

Jim Duke, Southern Section President

Pam Oehlman, Southern Section President-Elect

Barbara Jeffus, Chair, Leadership Development Committee

These are not people given to the “callous treatment” of their friends  
and colleagues. Several of these officers worked more closely and for  
more years with Carol and Bob than you have. For some of them, this  
decision was difficult, and in a few cases painful. They reached their  
decision because, in their minds and hearts, this action was in the  
best interest of our association, its members, and the “educators and  
students” CSLA serves. They made their decision after thoughtful  
deliberation based on research conducted over a period of several  
months. You have every right to disagree with them. You have no right  
to impugn their character so unjustifiably and publicly.

Barbara Jeffus, as chair of the committee that made the recommendation  
to the Board, will post a message soon to CALIBK12 in which she  
describes the selection process in more detail.

John McGinnis
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