Community Group Guidelines

Types

There are two types of Community Groups: affinity and interest.

• Affinity groups may have membership requirements that include particular criteria (example: job title).
• Interest groups are open to all who are interested in the specified topic.

Size

Each Community Group should ideally have at least five members. MEOC may make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. There is no set maximum number of members for Community Groups as long as the size of any group does not interfere with its ability to function.

Who can join Community Groups?

• Any staff member at an ARL library is welcome to participate in Community Groups
• That being said, Affinity Groups may have membership requirements that include particular criteria
  • Please note, however, that due to legal considerations, a group whose affinity includes a protected status (e.g., a particular race or ethnicity, gender or sexuality) may not restrict membership eligibility based on on an individual’s protected characteristic.
  • Meanwhile, Affinity Groups whose affinity does not include a protected status can restrict their membership to only individuals who meet that affinity (example: an Affinity Group for Library Communications Professionals can restrict its membership to only Library Communications Professionals).

Sponsorship

By default, each community group will be sponsored by the Member Engagement and Outreach Committee.

• Groups can make a case on the Proposal Form to be sponsored by the Board of Directors or the Executive Director if there is a better alignment of the purpose of the group with the strategic direction of the Association, or operational practices of the Association as relevant. 

ARL Staff Support

When requesting a Community Group, requestors are asked to specify whether they anticipate needing Basic, Moderate, or High levels of ARL Staff Support.

The default is Basic ARL Staff Support. If you anticipate needing moderate or high levels of support, you’ll be asked to provide some more information on why that is appropriate for the group.

The definitions for each level of ARL staff support are as follows.

Basic:

• ARL staff provide support with the group’s infrastructure (for example, communication platform, recruitment/invitations included in select ARL communications); ARL staff are not expected to attend group activities.
  
• Conveners are responsible for scheduling group meetings and ensuring effective meeting facilitation and group communications (such as notes and resource sharing).

Moderate: 

• In addition to basic-level support, ARL staff may also provide advice/guidance on group structures and operations, including identifying meeting topics and activities as well as connecting the group’s efforts with the work of the Association; ARL staff may attend group activities.
• Conveners are responsible for scheduling group meetings and ensuring effective meeting facilitation and group communications (such as notes and resource sharing).

High:

• In addition to basic-level support, ARL staff will engage with conveners to determine group structures and operations, including identifying meeting topics and activities, connecting the group’s efforts with the work of the Association, and ensuring effective meeting facilitation and group communications; ARL staff will usually attend group activities.
• Conveners engage and ARL staff will meet to determine roles and responsibilities to meet the needs of the group (for example, scheduling, ensuring effective meeting facilitation and group communications).

Pilot Status

Pilot Status is valid for up to 12 months after approval. Within this timeframe, a Group in Pilot Status must complete the following tasks: 

• Release their initial announcement to the ARL community within 2 months of approval
• Host their first meeting within 4 months of approval
• Identify the group’s conveners within 6 months of approval
  • Conveners are group members who are responsible for supporting the group’s operations and communication. Conveners do not have to be the people who submit the initial group proposal form.
• Submit a group roster with at least five members to MEOC within 12 months

Active Status

Active Status is valid for up to 24 months: July 1 through June 30 of two years following; 

All active groups should:

• Host a minimum of two activities per year.
  • Note: “Activity” here is intentionally vague—this can be a virtual meeting, an asynchronous email conversation about a specific topic, or many other possibilities. It does not have to be a huge lift or very formal!
• Submit an annual activity summary to their sponsor by March 1
  • The summary should include the following:
    • Name of group
    • Names of the current conveners of the group (July of previous year to June of current year)
    • Number of group events with attendance estimates for each
    • Brief description of status of group goals
    • (If relevant) updates/edits to group goals
    • Names of next year’s conveners of the group (July of current year to June of next year)
    • (In renewal years) confirmation of intention to continue

Renewals

Groups may be renewed an indefinite number of consecutive times. Groups are automatically considered for renewal by their respective sponsoring bodies unless noted in the activity summary presented in their renewal year. If a group does not submit an annual summary—or receive an approved extension—by March 1, the group may be returned to pilot status. Sponsoring bodies should communicate decisions regarding the status of groups by June 1 of their respective renewal years:

• Active Status renewed
• Status updated to Pilot 
• Sponsorship withdrawn

In the event that a group indicates that they do not wish to continue as a group or sponsorship is withdrawn, the group will have until the end of the current calendar year to resolve all group activities.