[[January]]\n\n[[July]]\n\n[[September]]
It's not the end of the world if you don't contact your committee until September, but they will appreciate hearing from you sooner.\n\n\n\n[[When should you first contact your committee?]]
Oops! You've lost half an ALA year. Go back.\n\n\n\n[[When should you first contact your committee?]]
It is imperative to establish early, frequent, and consistent communication with your committee in order to complete the work required for your committee. There are some minimum requirements for communication, but you should reach shared expectations with your committee for what additional communication will help. You will be chair of the committee from 1-4 ALA years, which run from the end of the Annual Conference, with the Midwinter conference as a mid-point. If you don't start working with your committee until Midwinter, you've lost half an ALA year! So make sure you get started sooner.\n\n\n\n[[When should you first contact your committee?]]
Congratulations! You are now a chair of a LITA committee or interest group. Explore your new role though this interactive story.\n\n\n\n[[Communicate]]
Emerging Leaders 2013 Team I
A Guide for New LITA Committee and IG Chairs
Correct!\n\n\n\nYou are now officially chair of the committee. Be sure to introduce yourself to the members of the committee and get to know something about them. Find out what type of communication works best for them.\n\n\n\nWeekly or monthly throughout the year (depending on committee): Send a message to your committee mailing list with project updates or discussions.\n\n\n\nBetween August-October: Have a conference call, Google Hangout, or some other type of group communication to make sure projects are on track for Midwinter.\n\n\n\nJanuary: Midwinter meeting.\n\n\n\nBetween March-May: Have a conference call, Google Hangout, or some other type of group communication to make sure projects are on track for Annual.\n\n\n\n[[Communication Methods]]
It's very important that you post all meeting minutes and other official documents to ALA Connect. Plan to use your committee mailing list for most committee work in between meetings. In addition to ALA Connect and the mailing list you have access to the LITA blog, LITA-L, LITA Facebook, Twitter, and Wiki sites/feeds, and the Litachair email list (which includes both committee and IG chairs). You should attend the Committee and IG Joint Chairs Meeting (always scheduled for Saturday from 8:00 to 10:00 at Midwinter Meetings and Annual Conferences). Links to these communication tools and instructions for setting up your committee's email list can be found on [[the orientation tip sheet page|http://www.ala.org/lita/about/committees/tipsheet]]\n\n\n\nThat said, your committee members may have other ways they like to communicate. Do what works, but make sure that you document these discussions where others can access them in order to maintain openness and transparency in LITA and ALA.\n\n\n\n[[Communication with LITA staff and leadership]]
LITA is unlike other ALA divisions in that it has a fairly flat hierarchy. You can ask questions of any officer on the board, including the president, and feel free to show up to any meetings unless they are explicitly closed.\n\nThe board structure and duties are here:\n\n[[http://www.ala.org/lita/about/manual/litamanualsection2]]. The board consists of\n\n- President\n\n- Vice-President/President-Elect\n\n- Executive Director\n\n- Immediate Past-President\n\n- ALA councilor\n\n- Seven directors\n\n- Parliamentarian\n\nTo keep up to date on what the LITA board is doing, keep an eye on this page: [[http://www.ala.org/lita/about/board]].\n\nAnother handy and not well enough known page to read over is the LITA History:\n\n[[http://www.ala.org/lita/about/history]].\n\nThis will explain why things have evolved the way they have, and help newer members to know what more long term members have done in the past.