Coalition Building Committee
Charge
The Coalition Building Committee, charged with administering the Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award, recognizes that effective coalition building in units provides the necessary framework to oppose censorship at the ground level. (Updated and approved by the IFRT Executive Committee 2/2022.)
Responsibilities
Committee will seek nominations for the Hodges Award and choose a winner
Committee will continuously update the SIFnet roster and attend the State of the States meetings
Committee chair will participate in discussions about fundraising and managing IFRT awards.
All round table communication is conducted on ALA Connect (Including reports, documents, meeting information and a listing of committee members)
Additional round table committee chair responsibilities
OIF Responsibilities
Works with committee chair to schedule and organize committee meetings
Attend virtual and in-person meetings when possible
Monitor committee connect space and respond to questions and requests
Post press releases to ALA News
Forward nominations to the committee
Maintain online nomination form and PDF
Update online list of past recipients
Add the chair to the SIFnet connect group and communicate meeting information and responsibilities
Provide guidance on ALA Connect and ALA processes
Provides initial welcome and onboarding email to committee members at the beginning of the term
Timeline
After the Chair-Elect has finalized committee appointments and before the term begins, the incoming Coalition Building Committee Chair may want to meet with the incoming chair and staff liaison to review the goals of the year, the frequency/calendar of meetings, confirm duties and clarify any questions.
First Quarter (July - September)
Term begins at the close of Annual Conference or July 1
Welcome new officers and committee members
Review goals and calendar with committee members
Second Quarter (October - December)
Prepare any proposed changes to IFRT Bylaws that need to be voted on by the membership for the ALA spring election.
Publicize a request for award nominations
Draft a press release for OIF staff to post on ALA news page (previous Hodges News)
Post request to multiple groups including SIFnet and Chapter Relations
Create social media graphics and text for IFRT, OIF, CR platforms
Speak at web meetings with a verbal request for nominations and to highlight past award winners
Submit a brief piece for the IFRT Newsletter
Respond to each nominator, thanking them for their time and submission and outlining the committee's process and giving them an estimate of when they would expect an announcement.
Third Quarter (January - March)
Committee may meet in person at ALA's midwinter meeting to discuss the nominations
Communicate process of review with committee members
Review nominations
Committee will discuss the nominations virtually
Nomination Review Process
Committee chair assigns a nomination to a committee member
Committee members research background information and references provided in the nomination
Committee members submit a report of 2-3 paragraphs based on their findings, or additional information the committee should be aware of before making a final decision.
Post the nomination report in the committee library
Summarizing the nominee's accomplishments briefly with the nominee's name listed.
Make a reference check of the references listed on the nomination and find out any more information you can from the references about the nominee to verify and possibly discover additional facts that assist with the nominee's narrative and contributions.
Additionally research online what you can about the nominee's accomplishments to verify what you can, or fill in any missing holes as you see fit in order to fairly rank their achievements.
Based on your research and interviews, and the supporting documents, please then rate the nominee, as Strongly Recommend, Recommend or Do Not Recommend for the Immroth award based on your findings and personal opinion of the candidate's achievements.
Include your own name in the written report as the compiler.
Fourth Quarter (April - June)
Committee chair will notify the award recipient, the recipient's nominator, and anyone else who submitted a nomination
Committee will draft a press release about the award recipient and submit it to OIF for distribution (previous Hodges News)
Announcement is also posted in the IFRT newsletter
Committee will draft copy and graphics to promote the award recipient on social media and submit to OIF and the Communications and Publication Committee
Committee will write a column about the year's activities for the IFRT Report and submit to the chair of the Communications and Publication Committee by their deadline
Committee chair will formally invite the award recipient to the awards reception and make any necessary arrangements
notify recipients and their nominators and/or guests so they can make arrangements to attend ALA conference or have someone attend in their place
Committee chair will coordinate the plaque order and the check request with OIF staff liaisons
Committee chair will act as host to the award recipient during IFRT award reception and at any other IFRT events or meetings the winner attends.
Committee chair will give a brief speech about the award recipient, thank the committee for their work, and present the plaque and award check to the recipient at the IFRT awards reception at ALA's Annual Conference.
Committee chair will offer to ship the plaque to the recipient and coordinate with OIF staff liaisons