Past President

Submitted by Douglas Morrison

Annual Report

6/22/2009

This year was a busy one for the position of Past President, we had several
nominations for this years’ Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award. From the
ten nominations received four were sent in for the same individual. This years’
winner announced at the ALAO Annual Conference in October 2008 was
Ms. Marsha Krautter-Suter from the University of Toledo. She was an outstanding
candidate and was honored for over 15 years of service to ALAO and the greater
academic community in Ohio.

Another activity of note was the amount of work it took to get a sufficient number
of candidates to participate in the 2009 ALAO elections this year. The first call
for nominees went out in November 2008 and from this point until the first week
of April 2009 I was still seeking candidates. Part of the problem was
that we took so long to find appropriate and willing participants that some of those
who had earlier agreed to run had to remove themselves from contention due to
family or work issues. We lost 4 potential candidates in this manner who would
have been excellent board representatives. After four separate calls for nominees
and personal contact with other potential and interested candidates we were able
to put a nearly full slate of candidates together for the election which ran from late April
until early May. We utilized a two week period for the election and held it online as
we have done the past couple years. Garnering less numbers of votes than we have since
elections started being held this way.

Elected to terms on the ALAO executive board were:

• Rocki Strader - Vice President/President-Elect - Ohio State University
• Gaynelle Predmore - Treasurer - Bowling Green State University
• Don Appleby - Board Member-at-Large, 1st year - University of Akron
• Gregory A. Martin - Board Member-at-Large, 1st year - Cedarville University
• Nicole Robinson - Board Member-at-Large, 1st year - Muskingum College

Their terms will begin with this Junes ALAO Leadership Retreat and will serve for a
minimum of two years. ALAO is fortunate to have such dedicated and willing members
ready to step forward and work on behalf of the organization. We have a good mix among
the incoming board members of those with past experience on the board and of
those new members representing fresh ideas and enthusiasm of service.

It has been a great learning experience for me to serve ALAO through the
Vice President-to-Past President cycle over these past three years. I think we’ve
made good progress toward helping to position ALAO as a viable association in
the coming years and I’ve been proud to be a member of that effort. “Thank you”
goes out to everyone who I’ve served on the board with these past three years
and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the Academic Library
Association of Ohio.

Respectfully submitted,

Douglas Morrison
2008-2009 ALAO Past President