In which I am quoted

Does this make me a rebel?  Or The Man? 

Hey, all I'm saying is that since I joined a conference planning committee for the Indiana Library Federation, I have come to realize that conferences don't plan themselves.  That may sound ridiculous, but truly, when was the last time you thought about who chose the food [the most expensive part of the conference we plan*!], who booked the rooms, who painstakingly made the schedule?  It wasn't Santa Claus.  Planning a conference takes actual work.

And so does running a professional organization.  And that work is not done by perfect, all-knowing geniuses [ahem - unless you're an ALA employee or committee member reading this. *sweet smile*].  It's done by people like you.  And me.  We make up ALA.

So if you want, say, free training opportunities for librarians in your state**, someone's going to have to figure out a way to pay for it, to arrange it, to plan it all.  Why not you?

And if you're not willing to get involved and do some work to better the organization, then fine, don't belong to it, but I don't want to hear you complain about it either.

That's all I'm saying.

*YES!  THAT IS WHERE MUCH OF YOUR REGISTRATION FEE GOES!  If you want nicer food, guess who's going to pay for it?  YES, YOU.  Still feel like complaining about it??


**Or whatever it is that you actually do want from ALA.  What is it that you want from ALA, anyway?  That might be the first step towards making it an organization that is worth your membership fee.