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