Right, apologies for cross-posting, and a quick gab through what happened at 
January 2010 CILIP Council with additional apolgato’s for delay as my natives 
have been somewhat all-consuming since Council

Anything with (P) against it, in traditional mode, there’s a Paper for it if you 
log into the CILIP website (go to sitemap – Council – Council meetings is 
simplest way in).

So….

* Changes to the Runners and Riders in the 2010 Council Stakes *
January being the start of the governance year there was a lot of changes in 
personnel re CILIP Council, and a few changes re jobs. Our new Councillors 
(John Crawford, Emma McDonald, Nick Poole, Edwina Smart) joined the fray. 
Nigel Macartney was elected Leader of Council, Isabel Hood continues as 
Deputy Leader, Judy Broady-Preston takes over as Treasurer from Nigel, and a 
new post for 2010 is Deputy Treasurer which is Jill Lambert.  So basically Nigel 
is now in charge of the gavel and passes over the calculator after many years 
formidable service with. Up-dated biographies, area’s of expertise and Register 
of Interests are available on the website under Council heading for all the 
Councillors.

* Ceremonials / the passing on of the gong * 
In terms of the Office of the President team for 2010 there was the investiture 
of Biddy Fisher as CILIP President for 2010 by Peter Griffiths who now becomes 
Past President. Brian Hall attended his first Council meeting as Vice President. 
There was speechifying and thanking in the traditional manner as people tried 
not to stick pins into each other too painfully or get ribbons snagged on ears.

For those of you who missed it all I am in possession of photographic evidence 
of Council in session and handing over of gongs etc. So shall put a couple on 
the Council Matters blog to give a flavour of the new Council and aid 
identification slightly (and yes, I’ve found ones in which we all look like we’re 
just about attached to our own heads, so that’s a good start).

* Main Business… *

CILIP Budget – The budget for 2010 was debated and confirmed. This includes 
An additional pot of money dedicated to advocacy for library and information 
services in the recession. 

Update to go monthly with six issues in print thudding through letterboxes in 
normal manner, and six issues online only. This will mean more content, more 
timely content, and a balanced approach between media, as well as saving 
some costs involved in the hardcopy. See the news release for more detail at 
http://tinyurl.com/y8vwme5

The funding for further roll-out for England (the pilot had been London) of the 
Encompass positive action traineeship scheme. 

Bequest funding was ear-marked for consultation and testing work on the 
mechanism for the compulsory CPD scheme and on feasibility study for joint 
accreditation with other bodies re the Information Matters agenda.

The Big Conversation - Biddy reported on the positive outcome of the 
selection process re the Project Board - see http://tinyurl.com/ycu7wla - with 
a diverse range of individuals being selected from a strong field. Nigel 
Macartney as Leader of Council was further co-opted onto the Board’s 
membership. Biddy recorded a podcast on the Big Conversation after Council - 
at http://tinyurl.com/yd3wfju - in which she discusses the need for the 
conversation and goal of, role and composition of Project Board, timescale, 
opportunities for involvement. There’s also various pages relating to in the 
Office of the President section of the CILIP website.

Interim Policy Forum (P) – the Regulations for the Interim Policy Forum for 
2010 (as recommended by the existing Policy Forum last year)  were 
confirmed. The Policy Forum  (the focal point for professional policy 
generation) will be a smaller more focused body, but with an obligation to 
engage with other parts of CILIP in policy development, including Branches and 
Groups. Three members will be appointed through an open selection process 
and it’s hoped the first meeting will be in the Spring. Two Councillors 
(Trustees) will also serve on it. Due to a polite fight  of eagerness three 
Trustees with particular policy background and interests – Ayub, Nick and 
John - will eye each other up  before each meeting, the one who blinks first 
gets not to attend! Though, more prosaically, I suspect diary conflicts might 
also come into it!

Advocacy – CILIP consolidated response to the DCMS Consultation Paper on 
(English) Public Libraries – This was composed by a Task + Finish Group over 
the Christmas period (with representation from the various points of sectoral 
interest within CILIP) aided and abetted by a website survey through which 
individual members could also feed in to the response. The final version of the 
response was circulated in Draft at January Council and final version - at 
http://tinyurl.com/y85nhrw - went in to DCMS a few days later and is very 
much a position paper re public libraries in England including overview of issues 
and recommendations for the future rather than a list of disparate answers to 
questions, which should make it more coherent and robust and re-useable. See 
News Release on at http://tinyurl.com/yawyrjn


* Other matters…. *

Branch and Group Forum Meeting (P) – If anyone missed this and wants a run-
down on what happened, then see this. In particular it discusses the structure 
of the new Branch and Group Forum, gave discussion on the impact of the 
recession on sectors and geographic parts, up-dates on various issues of 
branch & group business and work of relevant TFGs including Membership.

Proxy voter feedback from AGM (P) – Proxy voters (whether for or against the 
subscription motion regardless) were asked if they would be prepared to give 
feedback on their reasons, and the results of this were disseminated to Council 
and discussed. The discussion was lively and far-ranging, as reflecting the 
range of subjects raised in the feedback, but common area’s related to the 
subscriptions model and package, communication and services issues, and the 
need for more enabling ICT for member participation. The Paper was discussed 
by Council and also sent to the Membership TFG. Many of the area’s raised will 
be fundamental to the Big Conversation which is starting to evolve.

CILIP Libraries Manifesto for the Westminster elections – The text has been 
finalised and design work is now underway.

Chartership Board report included work to be undertaken on reviewing 
copyright and data protection matters and discussion of potential use of video-
conferencing or making available on dvd re Chartership workshops. 

Review of Governance – the Audit Panel is putting together a Project Plan re 
this.

Composition of Disciplinary Panel (P), Qualifications Appeal Panel (P) and 
Boards (P) and subordinate bodies (P) of Council (e.g. current Task + Finish 
Groups) reporting to Council were confirmed after miscellaneous up-dating 
amendments.

UNISON is conducting a People’s Inquiry into the UK Public Library Service 
(taking place at the British Library in February) – CILIP will be represented at 
the meeting.

Honours (P) – The LIS-related recipients of New Year Honours were noted with 
congratulations

Communication of Council Business – It was agreed Isabel and Emma (who will 
attempt to keep me on the straight and narrow) would jointly do Council 
Briefing for 2010 and that key decisions of Council meetings are added onto 
the home page of the CILIP website as an announcement after each meeting

February CILIP Council – Will take place on 25 February commencing at 9.30am 
in the Charter Suite in CILIP, any members welcome to observe (we had a 
merry band for January, sure they could cope with a few additions though!). 
For those of you rather further up the country, July Council is in Leeds on the 
15th, but more of that a bit nearer to the time….

Isabel