Reorganization of NAAUG and SMUG

Reorganization of NAAUG and SMUG (old documents)

NEW: Approved version of the ELUNA Constitution and Bylaws (posted 04 October, 2005)

  • Forging a new User Group – Presentation at NAAUG/SMUG 2005 by Larry Woods
  • Ex Libris User Group Organizational Structure session – Presentation at NAAUG/SMUG 2005 by Christina Meyer
  • Latest version of the proposal for reorganization
    ELUNA Update: NAAUG-SMUG Merger Transition Plan (updated 13 October, 2005)

During the NAAUG/SMUG meeting in June, 2005, the proposed plan for the reorganization of North American user groups for Ex Libris’ products was discussed formally in several plenary sessions and informally in many other venues.

As a result of those discussions, two major changes in the proposal have been made:

    Elimination of the proposal to have two types of membership.

  • Support for a single type of membership was strong.
    Elimination of references to the Aleph enhancement process from the document, and thus from the Constitution and Bylaws to be developed for the new organization.

  • At this point, Ex Libris does not intend to develop a formal enhancement process for its other products. The NAAUG and SMUG Steering Committees believe that: 1) the already planned Aleph enhancement process for this year should go forward, and 2) the Aleph Product Group that will be part of the new organization needs to develop formal procedures for the ongoing Aleph enhancement process in collaboration with Ex Libris. Obviously, procedures, however formal, could be modified as needed more easily than bylaws, and many members of the new organization will not be concerned with Aleph enhancements.

These changes are reflected in the revision of the draft reorganization plan posted above. The revision also reflects an attempt to distinguish somewhat more clearly between Product Groups and Special Interest Groups within the new organization.

A Transition Task Force has been formed to carry out the work needed to form the new organization. Its members are:

* Nina Davis-Millis, MIT
* Donna Hirst, University of Iowa
* Bob Gerrity, Boston College
* Christina Meyer, University of Minnesota
* Jim Mouw, University of Chicago
* Carlen Ruschoff, University of Maryland
* Larry Woods, University of Iowa

This group will be providing information to the NAAUG and SMUG membership as their work progresses over the coming months.

Christina Meyer, July 2005