I waited until the last minute . . . well, actually past the last minute, to write this issue’s column. I had a couple of conferences plus the SIS Leadership Retreat to attend just before deadline, and I was hoping to receive inspiration from the retreat. I think the filament in the light bulb above my head may have been broken, but I’ll tell you a bit about the retreat anyway.

SIS Leadership Retreat Statements SIS Purpose Statement A self-selecting groups of members with a common interest that serves as a forum, contributes educational value, serves as a resource of expertise, advocates, and provides leadership growth opportunities. SIS Impact Statement Enriched and committed members benefit from creating and participating in a strong, multifaceted, and vibrant community that is the core of their professional lives.

What do the following have in common: “brain floss”, play-doh, a drawing of quilts and fountains, finger puppets, and a styrofoam Captain America-type hat (Margie, can I have the negative of that picture you took of me in that thing??)? These are some of the props and tools used by 12 SIS Chairs, 1 SIS Vice-Chair, the current and past SIS Council Chairs, an AALL Board member, the AALL President, the AALL Director of Programs, and the AALL Executive Director during the retreat. We enjoyed the setting of The Lodge at McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, shared meals and breaks, laughed, and argued over word usage. In the end, we accomplished the goal set out by the retreat planners and brought home statements and plans: The SIS Purpose Statement and the related Impact Statement (see below), a Leader Profile, personal action plans, and specific actions that we each chose to ensure accountability, continuity, and consistency for what we’d accomplished in a day and a half. I wouldn’t say that we broke new ground with any of these, because we didn’t attempt to radically alter anything about SISes, but we cultivated the ground by articulating the purposes and impacts of the sections. The two statements reflect our composite thoughts on the current and hoped-for roles of the sections.

The Leader Profile is also a composite, based on our own perceived leadership gifts. Each of us had to check off from a list the three traits we believed we employ the best in our positions. All the traits were categorized, then we all voted on those we felt were most important for an SIS leader. In short form, an SIS “Leader”: pursues the vision, administers the ‘programs’, builds relationships, leads by example, and motivates.

TS-SIS Ad Hod Strategic Planning Committee The Ad Hoc Strategic Planning Committee has been formed and given the charge of developing a proposed strategic plan for the Section. A specific deadline for completion of the work has not been set, but the Board will expect a report at next July’s Board Meeting and Business Meeting showing significant progress toward that end. Please give your full support and cooperation to the committee as it goes about this task. I give them my gratitude and appreciation! Caitlin Robinson, Chair (University of Iowa) Julia Daniel (Plunkett & Cooney) Lady Jane Hickey (St. Mary’s University) Thu-Mai Hoang (Howrey & Simon) Richard Jost (University of Washington) Julia McBride (Nixon Peabody, Boston) Kent Milunovich (Washoe County Law Library) David Turkalo (Suffolk University) Eloise Vondruska (Northwestern University)

The last activity we did was go around the room and tell what lessons we’d learned from the retreat. When it was my turn, I had to pass. My brain was fried! Twelve hours of that kind of thinking can be grueling, at least for me. So, I had to let it simmer for a while. Many of us may be able to point to someone and declare him or her a “natural-born leader”, but that’s more rare than common. One of the things I learned is that leading, especially good leading, is deliberate and intentional. But I have to admit that something about the Leader Profile bothers me. I think it’s that I’m afraid that those five characteristics will be the only ones considered when Nominating Committees or officers look for candidates and volunteers. Or maybe it’s because those traits trigger for me specific images of how they are acted out, and that I don’t fit those images. I still need to learn that, like people, leadership traits come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps that’s something you need to learn, too.

Several of us at the retreat agreed that it was great to get together and do “the vision thing”, but we also found it frustrating because we had to go back to work and accomplish those specific, detailed tasks involved with being SIS officers. So, getting to “the action thing”, I want to tell you that we have heard from the 2000 AMPSC the terrific news that we have one workshop and seven sponsored or co-sponsored programs approved for next year’s annual meeting. We now have an officially-formed Ad Hoc Strategic Planning Committee (see the sidebar), and it’s almost time for recruiting members to the Nominating Committee (I’m open to hearing from volunteers!). This last paragraph has been a good segue for a quote from the retreat which I’d like to leave you with.

Vision without action is dreaming.
Action without vision is random activity.
Action and vision can change the world.