On January 11 Cindy Chick requested that each of the candidates for AALL
office communicate to the membership his or her position of the issues of
public domain databases and citation formats, as well as the AALL Board's
proper role in these matters. Mark Estes answered that night, contending
that for the candidates to respond might constitute "campaigning," which
AALL policy precludes them from doing. On January 12 I communicated with
all eight of the nominees, asking them to hold off until further notice, and
I contacted the other members of the AALL Board's Executive
Committee--Margie Axtmann, Gayle Webb, and Pat Kehoe for their views. I
have also talked to Roger Parent and Peter Beck to see what communications
vehicles are open to us.
The Executive Committee believes that a candidate's response about an issue
before AALL does not constitute campaigning. Therefore, if a candidate
chooses to respond to a member's questions on any issue, either in person or
by any other means, he or she is of course free to do so without violating
AALL's policy precluding campaigning. Nevertheless, the Executive Committee
advises the candidates for the 1995 election that in light of the
impossibility of communicating any statements at this late date to the
entire AALL membership, we think it would be fair and prudent not to respond
to requests for position statements on specific issues.
The deadline for the February AALL Newsletter passed more than a week ago,
and Peter Beck says there is no way copy can be added at this time. The
March Newsletter will not reach members until after the time when many will
have already submitted their ballots. The cost of sending out a special
mailing to all members is prohibitive, and so many of our members do not
have Internet access that it would be unfair to them to publish important
information by that means.
We must also consider what is fair to the candidates. When they agreed to
run for office, they were given the rules of the game. These included
submitting a statement in October to appear in the December Newsletter.
They were not asked to comment on specific AALL issues, but of course could
do so if they chose. We think it would be unfair to them at this late date
for us or anyone suddenly to ask them to state publicly their position on
one specific matter although there are many other potential issues that
members might wish to have addressed. During a three-year term a Board
member is called upon to study and form an opinion on many
controversial issues and has an opportunity to be informed by the debate
with fellow board members. A pre-election position may not necessarily
indicate how a board member will eventually vote on an issue after having
had an opportunity to learn more about it.
With the concurrence of the Executive Commitee, President-Elect Pat Kehoe
will charge the new AALL Nominations Committee with considering a procedure
for next year's election in which candidates might all be given in the early
fall a set of questions on specific issues to be addressed in their official
statements for the Newsletter. Then everyone would be on an equal footing,
and all members could receive the information in a timely fashion. Cindy
Chick's request has simply come too late for us to do something of that sort
this year. The newsletter deadlines have been made known to all members for
months, and using LAW-LIB as our sole communications medium would unfairly
deprive a large percentage of our voting membership of information provided
others. The Executive Board will welcome members' views about possible
options for the future.
Carol D. Billings
AALL President
cbilli@nomvs.lsumc.edu
Law Library of Louisiana
301 Loyola Ave., Room 100
New Orleans, LA 70112
phone: 504-568-5705
fax: 504-568-5069
email: nolawlib@new-orleans.neosoft.com
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