CILIP in London update (March 2010)

A version of the below will be getting sent to members by email shortly:

In view of the continuing reduced level of capitation from CILIP, the Branch Committee has reluctantly agreed further reductions in activities. These mean that we shall:

• Not arrange a spring evening general meeting in March or April. The AGM, however, will go ahead on Wednesday 12 May and feature Professor Dave Nicholas as our guest speaker.
• Reduce the Sekforde Arms meetings to 5 per year and make a charge of £5 per meeting for non-CILIP members. The remaining three meetings for 2010 are likely to be in June, September and October or November. Please see the Gazette for details in due course.
• Reduce CLIP to two hard copies per year and make full use of the CILIP HQ email service to fill in the gaps
• Suspend the international programme; this means that no bursaries will be offered in 2010.

There will be a general evening meeting at the end of the year, on Wednesday 8 December at which Biddy Fisher, the President of CILIP, will be our speaker.

From the President of CILIP in London – Peter Beauchamp (Feb 2010)

Hello London colleagues

I am emailing you in my capacity as President of CILIP in London to introduce you to the new Branch and Group email service that CILIP HQ is providing – this allows the Branch Committee to send regular (or, indeed, irregular) emails to Branch members.

We should welcome your comments on the value of this service, and whether you are content to receive information and news in this way.

The service is limited, of course, to those who have registered their email address with CILIP; so, it would be helpful if you could encourage colleagues, who have not, now to register. Given the continuing restrictions on Branch and Group capitation funding, however, it is likely that we will have to rely more on electronic communication in the future, although we are worried that there are still Members who may not have access to the Internet. In addition, we would not expect these emails to replace our efforts to maintain a relevant and up-to-date website within the main CILIP web site.

The financial position of the Branch is a major concern at the moment. Capitation funding has been halved and this is causing difficulties in maintaining our present level of activities. The two most significant areas of expenditure are meetings and London CLIP, and we are making reductions on each front, as well as in our international activities.

The Committee is not in favour of charging for meetings, but we cannot support as many as before. At present, in 2010, there will be 7 Sekforde Arms meetings and 3 general evening meetings (including the AGM). Sekforde Arms meetings will not be held in the month when there is a general evening meeting, thus maintaining the existence of a Branch meeting in every month except August and December.

In future, CLIP will be issued twice a year in hard copy and will be printed only in one colour. Two electronic issues will supplement hard copy.

In previous years, the Branch has provided a bursary for a London librarian to visit one of the new EU countries, and a bursary for one of their librarians to visit London. Neither of these bursaries will be offered in 2010.

By these measures, we hope to be able to continue providing a broad range of services and support for Branch members, but further reductions cannot be ruled out, and are likely if not in 2010 in 2011.

We should welcome your comments on any of this, or on Branch matters generally. Please send them to our Secretary, Steve Cook, and copy them to me.

Kind regards

Peter

Welcome

Please note this blog is used to replicate the messages sent to CILIP in London members via the CILIP email system.

This replication being to allow for members to receive these messages via RSS and for an archive of the messages to be stores.

http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/regional-branches/london/ for more information