of Law Libraries
Special Interest Section
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American Association of Law Libraries |
Social Responsibilities Special Interest Section |
In This Issue:
Holoch Travel Grant
Pro Bono
Chair Column
Standing Committee Corner
Minneapolis SR-SIS Meetings
Perpetually Responsible
Social Responsibilities Special Interest Section Election
Letter to the Executive Board about Cincinnati
A Letter from the President
SR-SIS Standing Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues Announces Alan Holoch Memorial Travel Grant
The Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues of the Social Responsibilites SIS is pleased to announce the establishment of the Alan Holoch Memorial Travel Grant. Two $500 grants will be awarded for travel to this year's annual meeting in Minneapolis.
The grants are funded by a generous bequest to the Standing Committee from former Ohio State University Law Library Director and AALL Treasurer Alan Holoch, who died in 1991. Those whose lives he touched will long remember and treasure Alan. These grants, given in Alan's memory, are a tribute to his spirit and to his vision of making AALL better through member involvement.
Information about the grants is available on the SR-SIS webpage on AALLNET (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/srsis/). The page provides links to the grant application from that page. In addition, interested members should feel free to contact Carol Alpert, Chair of the SIS's Holoch Memorial Travel Grant Committee, at 212/998-6316 or alpertc@juris.law.nyu.edu.
>>>> Back to Top <<<< by Camille Broussard
Pro bono publico, providing legal service to those in need of such services without the requirement or expectation of remuneration, lies at the philosophical and ethical roots of the legal profession. Rule 6.1 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct calls upon lawyers to "... aspire to render at least (50) hours of pro bono publico legal services per year." 1 How well the legal profession meets its pro bono obligation is the subject of considerable debate. Many lawyers do a remarkable amount of volunteer legal work, but does the profession fall short of rule 6.1? This question is important to law librarians.
A 1985 survey by the Legal Services Corporation revealed that perhaps as high as 93% of the civil legal problems of the nation's poor were going unserved.2 To facilitate the collection of additional information, the ABA commissioned the "Comprehensive Legal Needs Study" from the Institute for Survey Research at Temple University.3 The results of the survey were striking. In 1992, 40 percent of low-income households developed a legal need and 47 percent experienced either a new or continuing need. In response, the legal/judical system became involved in only 29 percent of these needs, and in 38 percent of the cases, no action was taken at all.4 Although recent editions of the ABA's annual "Directory of Pro Bono Program's" show an increase in the number and sophistication of pro bono programs, the figures and discussion also reveal that a significant shortage of legal services remains.
According to the American Lawyer's "Annual Survey of Law Firms -- 2000," lawyers in the Am Law 100 firms performed thirty-six hours (approximately eight minutes a day) of pro bono work per lawyer per year.6 The American Lawyer began to count pro bono hours in its annual survey in 1992. In that first year, the average time devoted to pro bono was fifty-six hours per lawyer per year. The current figure of thirty-six hours represents a 35 percent decline in pro bono hours. The magazine's December 2000 issue dovotes several articles to pro bono work, many of which discuss possible reasons for the sharp decline reported by firms in the annual survey.
On a state by state level, the figures on pro bono contributions are not necessarily more encouraging. In April 1999, the New York Office of Court Administration released its survey of the pro bono activities of New York lawyers in 1997.8 One finding of that survey showed that 47 percent of New York lawyers reported doing pro bono work. Only 27 percent of those surveyed reported that they performed more than twenty hours a year of pro bono service during the year.9 A review of general legal news articles shows that many other states report similar findings.
Law librarians have ethical and societal obligations to identify options to aid in the pro bono effort and to set up the appropriate infrastructures to help fulfill them. We must reach out to other legal professionals to offer our expertise and services. Possibilities for active pro bono involvement vary. Besides participating in "traditional" activities, many opportunities exist to offer information services to other members of the legal profession. Our training as information professionals uniquely qualifies us to offer an array of services to help close the gap between the need and the availability of legal services.
At the 1989 AALL annual meeting, SR-SIS sponsored "Pro Bono Work in Law Firms and Its Impact on the Library." The program provided a forum for discussing the issues involved in providing pro bono services. In 1990, LISP-SIS prepared guidelines for starting a research based pro bono program.10 The two groups joined in July 2000 to present the program "Taking the Lead in Pro Bono" at the Philadelphia annual meeting. The program discussion encouraged participants to think beyound the traditional about ways librarians can contribute to pro bono work.
In Philadelphia, Margaret de Marteleire, Executive Directory of the Philadelphia Volunteers of the Indigent Program and Carl Mitchell, Director of Library Services for Community Legal Services of Philadelphia talked about the many (and varied) legal needs of our communities. Both speakers encouraged law librarians to "take the lead" in not only identifying ways to contribute but also in approaching our colleagues in the legal profession to offer our services.
Based on the discussion during the educational programs, the guidelines prepared by LISP and a review of the literature, a list of possible pro bono activities is presented below. The list is not comprehensive and not all activities would be appropriate to every law library setting. These suggestions are merely ideas upon which to base a discussion, organize a program or found a commitment.
References
American Bar Association. Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Chicago, IL: American Bar Association. (1998).
American Lawyer, [special reports on pro bono activities of the Am Law 100] (July 2000) and (August 2000)
Born, Brooksley. Serving the Poor, 75 ABA Journal 144 (Mar. 1, 1988)
Carlson, Margaret & H. Maria Enright. "Pro Bono '88: What's Hot -- What's Not," The State of Pro Bono, reprinted in 22 Clearinghouse Review 952 (January 1989).
Cassino, Anthony P. Pro Bono Survey Yields Mixed Results, 221 N.Y. Law Journal 2 (April 15, 1999).
Directory of Pro Bono Programs. Chicago, IL: American Bar Association, Center for Pro Bono, (Annual).
Findings of the Comprehensive Legal Needs Study. Chicago, IL: American Bar Association. (1994). [Study conducted by the Institute of Survey Research at Temple University for the Consortium on Legal Services and the Public]
Legal Information Services to the Public, Special Interest Section, American Association of Law Libraries. Starting a Pro Bono Program: Chapter Guidelines. (1990).
>>>> Back to Top <<<< Disjointed Ramblings from the Chair....
Greetings all. Once agin Prano has called for my column, and, as before, I shall now subject you to my stream of consciousness as I muse about past, present and future events... (I bet you all miss Bruce's columns where there was a thoughtful point to each and every one).
Important SIS doings
Ballots -- Remember to return the ballot. I know it's an uncontested election, but it's important to voice your support for Alison Alifano and her future leadership as SIS Chair. Mark Mackler will march onward as our Secretary/Treasurer for one more year, thank you Mark.
Annual Meeting -- Please make a note of the times of our business meetings and the Standing Committee Reception on your annual meeting calendars. It's important to see everyone at the meetings and the reception, so that we all meet face to face at least annually. The next newsletter will preview the programs SIS members are presenting and give more details on the reception, projects and business meetings.
Cincinnati Rejected -- As some/many of you may know, Cincinnati has been rejected by Headquarters as a possible meeting site for 2006, due to their charter amendment prohibiting laws protecting gays and lesbians. In her column, Laura Whitbeck describes how the vigilance of Michael St. Onge led the SIS to act quickly and send a letter to headquarters to apprise/remind them of the amendment. We've reporduced the letter to AALL and also included President Bob Oakley's letter to Laura and me, assuring us that Cincinnati was no longer under consideration, and summarizing how they go about selecting potential meeting sites.
Opportunities
Holoch Travel Grant -- If your employer is reluctant to fund all or part of your travel to the annual meeting, please consider applying for the grants (two this year); the deadline is May 4. Information on the grant and an application form are included in this issue of the newsletter.
Perpetually Responsible -- Carol Billings (incoming Chair, who will no doubt do FAR more than I have) is already calling for volunteers. She highlights several opportunities: the program committee (it's never too soon to get rolling on program ideas for the 2002 meeting); an article for Spectrum and an exhibit at the annual meeting; and to help create and coordinate another drive (the third annual effort) to gather books and help in public school libraries. If you'd like to get involved in any of these projects or have programs ideas, please contact Carol or me.
Prisoner access to unpublished decisions -- Several weeks ago (Feb. 21) I received an email from Jane Morris, Director of the Shepard's product group at Lexis-Nexis. She and others at Lexis-Nexis ask for our assistance in ideas on how to provide information to prisoners and prison librarians. As you will see in her message, it raises an issue that also applies to many other people who do not have access to Lexis (or Westlaw) or the Internet:
Dear Ellen--
Thanks for including the questions I've posed to you in the SR-SIS newsletter. As we've discussed, I'm hoping that the SR-SIS could help us better understand some prison-related questions.
The questions center around a phenomenon I'm sure SR-SIS members are well aware of: the growing number of unpublished/unreported decisions that are being cited in court decisions. As the number of these unpublished/unreported decisions (especially at the federal level) continues to increase, and as Shepard's expands its coverage to include more and more citations for unpublished/unreported decisions, we are increasingly fielding calls from prison library staff members who cannot locate these decisions for their inmate patrons. They are telling us that courts frequently cite to unpublished cases by Lexis-Nexis (or Westlaw) citation, and that they have great difficulty obtaining copies of these decisions through the research services with which they contract.
Because many prison libraries--and certainly most, if not all, inmates--do not have ready access to the internet and other online servcies that have transformed how legal researchers find caselaw, we're seeking guidance on how Shepard's and Lexis-Nexis might better serve this special-needs segment.
We would welcome input from SR-SIS members on resources already available to prison libraries and whether there are ways in which Lexis-Nexis and Shepard's might be of assistance. Please e-mail Jane.Morris@shepards.com or telephone Jane at 800-743-7393 x7408.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Jane W. Morris, J.D.
Director, Shepard's Product Management
Lexis-NexisMiscellaneous musings
As we start to plan for next summer's nearly certain blackouts here in California, it makes you realize just how much work done in today's law library and how much of our lives are dependent on electrical power. And to be perfectly honest, it just seems really weird to live in a state which is the 10th (or 6th depending on what you read) largest global economy and not know if you'll be able to do anything once it gets dark, except go to bed early. I find George Ws smug attitude pretty irritating, especially when Texas is an even bigger energy hog than California (and by the way, Californians rank 47th in per capita energy consumption), and when last I checked, this was one nation where much of our taxes go east and never return. Ah, but I digress.
Now, back to work ... not only will it be too dark to read in the building by 7 or 8 pm, not too mention too hot to think (the chillers are the first to go on campus when we reach a stage 3 alert), but so much of our work is dependent on power, the campus network (email, internet access, all software), the catalog, phones that we'll have to try to plan our workdays based on the weather reports and the warnings issued by the ISO that administers the power grid .... I mean, let's face it, you can only do so much cleaning. I guess we'll have to beef up those hand outs and call number/subject guides so we can do reference without the catalog, check materials in first thing each morning, and use paper cards to check materials out...wow, retro librarianship right here in Silicon Valley.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out.... Even if consumers conserve, there are a lot of businesses in the Valley that use a tremendous amount of energy for cooling, like server farms, that won't be able to make too many cuts and keep their businesses (and other businesses elsewhere in the country) running as usual. The process is predicted to take several years while more power plants are built, hopefully it rains more in the Northwest than this year and dotcommers learn to conserve enrgy in their air conditioned monster homes filled with every electrical device known to humanity. So, while we figure this out, don't deregulate energy in your state and get ready for energy shortages in your neighborhood too.
More ranting and rambling later,
Ellen
>>>> Back to Top <<<< From the Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues Chair
I am proud to announce our progress on the Holoch Bequest and our achievement in getting AALL to discontinue its consideration of Cincinnati as an Annual Meeting location in 2006. Although we have accomplished quite a bit with these two items, we still need volunteers to help us move forward with the bibliography and to serve as officers of the Standing Committee during 2001-2002. I would also like each of you to begin thinking about the inclusion of "bisexual and transgendered" in our mission statement. This will be one of our discussion topics at the Standing Committee Business Meeting on Monday, July 16th from 5:15-6:15 p.m.
Holoch Bequest
The Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues will this year award the first Alan Holoch Memorial Travel Grant. Thanks to the leadership and work of Carol Alpert and the work of the Holoch Bequest Committee (Alison Alifano, Jim Braden, Scott Burgh, Camille Broussard, John Davey, James Duggan, George Jackson, Mark Mackler, and I), the travel grant application has been prepared and is being distributed to listservs, newsletters and websites.
The interest on Alan Holoch's ten thousand dollar bequest to the Standing Committee following his death ten years ago will be used to fund two $500 travel grants for the 2001 American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting. In subsequent years, a single $500 travel grant will be awarded.
If your place of employment does not fund your expenses to AALL, please apply for the Alan Holoch Memorial Travel Grant. More information and a grant application are included in this newsletter and at the Social Responsibilities Special Interest Section website the through http://www.aallnet.org/sis/srsis/
NO to Cincinnati in 2006
Many thanks to Michael St. Onge for informing us that AALL was considering Cincinnati, Ohio as a possible Annual Meeting site for 2006. Michael informed us that Cincinnati passed in 1993 a city charter amendment that prohibits the city from adopting any laws protecting gays and lesbians, a law that is still on the books because it has never been legally challenged. For more information in this issue, please see Mark Curnutte's article, "Gay Rights Making Quiet Gains: Lost Business, Olympic Bid Could Revive Issue 3 Fight," Cincinnati Enquirer, June 11, 2000, available at http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/06/11/loc_gay_rights_making.html
We drafted a letter and circulated it to the officers of both the SR-SIS and Standing Committee for comments. The final version, included in this newsletter, was mailed to the members of the AALL Executive Board, as well as AALL Executive Director Roger Parent and Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries (ORALL) president Richard Humphrey on December 5, 2000.
The response from AALL President Bob Oakley, also included in this newsletter, was very positive. AALL will not go forward "with a site that was found to be unfriendly to gay, or, indeed, to any group of our [AALL's] members." He also thanked us for the information regarding Cincinnati and outlined some of AALL's steps in consideration of possible meeting locations.
We contacted Stonewall Cincinnati, (http://www.stonewallcincinnati.org/), one of the opponents to Issue 3, to let them know of our support of their work against this ordinance.
Bibliography on Sexual Orientation and the Law
The amount of available material on sexual orientation and the law since the bibliography was last published in 1994 (Sexual Orientation and the Law: A Selective Bibliography on Homosexuality and the Law, 1969-1993, 86 L. Libr. J. 1 (1994)) has grown immensely. The committee is currently working on guidelines and a means of defining the scope of the project. Please contact Camille Broussard (cbroussard@nylaw-07.nyls.edu) if you would like to volunteer.
Standing Committee Reception
As they have for the past two years, Lexis will again this year be a major sponsor of the Lesbian and Gay Standing Committee Reception. Please personally thank your Lexis-Nexis Librarian Relations Consultants (formerly known as Regional Information Managers or RIMs) when you see them, and be sure to thank Judy Floyd-Evans, the Director of Librarian Relations Group, Marketing Programs, when we get to AALL in Minnesota. George Jackson is currently working on the details for our reception, and further information will be available in the next issue of this newsletter and/or on the website.
Elections
If you are at all interested in the work of the Lesbian and Gay Standing Committee, please consider giving me a call or sending me an e-mail. The Standing Committee needs people who are interested in leading the group as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Secretary and Treasurer. Please don't be shy about saying that you are interested in running for office.
We all enjoy getting together with other lesbian and gay librarians at the reception, but as a Standing Committee we also have a responsibility to contribute to the Social Responsibilities/SIS and to be a visible and active group in AALL as a whole. I think that lesbians and gay men can easily feel isolated, as librarians sometimes do, within our larger organizations. We may be the only lesbian or gay person, or the only librarian, in our work environment. The Standing Committee can be more than simply a means of connection to other lesbian and gay librarians, but we need people to volunteer their time in order to keep the Standing Committee vital.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered
Speaking of a sense of connection, many other lesbian and gay organizations have expanded their missions, and their names, to include bisexual and transgendered individuals. Bisexual and transgendered librarians might want to be recognized as part of our group and might need to have the same sense of connection and community that many of us felt upon joining the Lesbian and Gay Standing Committee. The discussion points at the annual meeting will focus on whether we should 1) expand our current mission to include "bisexual" and "transgendered", 2) change our name to include "bisexual" and "transgendered," and 3) remain as we are.
Some organizations, such as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, are inclusive through their mission statements but not their names: "NGLTF is the national progressive organization working for the civil rights of gay, lesbian, and transgendered people." Many other groups, such as the American Library Association Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table, have made name changes to reflect those included in their missions.
Please think about these ideas and voice your opinions at the Standing Committee Business Meeting on Monday, July 16th from 5:15-6:15 p.m. If you will be unable to attend AALL this year, please feel free to talk to me on this issue, and I will bring your opinions to the meeting for discussion.
Communications
My personal thanks go to Rebecca Alexander for her work on our website (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/srsis/), and to Prano Amjadi for her work on this newsletter and her extreme patience with me!
Looking forward to seeing you all in Minnesota!
Laura Whitbeck, Chair, Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues
Bryan Cave LLP
202-508-6058
mailto:lawhitbeck@bryancave.com>>>> Back to Top <<<< It is never too early to start scheduling. Please hold these times available during the annual meeting.
SR-SIS Business Meeting
Sunday, July 15, 5:30-6:30 pm
Gay and Lesbian Standing Committee Business Meeting
Monday, July 16, 5:15-6:15 pm
Gay and Lesbian Standing Committee Reception
Tuesday, July 17, 6-10 pm
Institutionalized Residents Standing Committee
Time to be announced.
>>>> Back to Top <<<< by Carol Billings
When I tune in A Prairie Home Companion every Saturday evening, Garrison is still talking about ice fishing and Pastor Ingqvist (had to look on the website to see how to spell it) of the Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church wintering in Florida. But our July visit to Minneapolis really isn't all that far away. In Lake Wobegon the Catholic Church is called Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, a gentle reminder that it's time for us the Socially Responsible to get moving.
Last summer in Philadelphia at our Social Responsibilities business meeting we agreed that we should begin our planning for the new year early. Having an agenda in place when we get to Minneapolis should enable any regular and ad hoc committees to hit the ground running. Before long we'll have a new vice-chair-elect in place gearing up to receive your ideas for program proposals. Typically there are only a few weeks between the Annual Meeting and the deadline for submitting formal proposals to the AALL Program Selection Committee. Ideally we should have some well-thought-out prospective programs in mind when we arrive--as well as a program committee of eager volunteers. That's a subtle hint.
Our SIS can be proud of the many important issues we've focused upon over the years both by presenting educational programs and by speaking out and publishing our views for our fellow AALL members to consider. Many of us old-timers probably have stories to tell or even memorabilia to show. (I still have my "Another Mother for Choice" button given me more than ten years ago by the wonderful Diana Vincent-Daviss, one of our great advocates for international human rights.) Not too many years back Ann Puckett organized a terrific program that recounted the history of AALL's involvement in various social issues. I think many of us were surprised and impressed by the actions of both our forebears and contemporaries. Newer members of our association very likely have not yet been exposed to the stories we can tell. I think it would help us to recruit more SR-SIS members if we collaborated on a Spectrum article describing what we're all about. Similarly our SIS exhibit in the Activities Area in Minneapolis can be another opportunity to keep the saga alive. To do both of these projects we need to have your recollections of favorite events, controversies, unforgettable characters, etc. Can we have some volunteers to contribute memories for an article and help assemble our exhibit?
Finally, I hope that we can continue a project initiated by Jim Heller in Washington two years ago and adopted by our SIS. Prior to both the Washington and Philadelphia Annual Meetings Social Responsibilities invited other AALL members to join us in contributing children's books to public school libraries in the host city. A local member made contact with a school library administrator in each city, who arranged for us to deliver the books to public schools where we also volunteered for several hours. Although our numbers have been modest, those of us who participated felt that the teachers and school librarians whom we met were very grateful that we cared about their needs and commiserated with them about their problems. Our efforts definitely seemed to gain momentum in Philadelphia as more AALL members learned about our book drive. I sincerely hope that we can continue this project in Minneapolis and invite some of our members in the area to step forward to give us leadership.
It looks like we have a busy spring and summer ahead. But Hey! Being responsible is what we're all about.
>>>> Back to Top <<<< Social Responsibilities Special Interest Section Election
Alison Alifano, Associate Director of Library Services, Sullivan & Cromwell, New York, NY, November 2000 - present; Director of Library Services, New York County Lawyers' Association, September 1991 - November 2000; Associate Directory of Library Services, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, New York, NY, 1988-1991.
Education: MLS, Long Island University Palmer School of Library and Information Science, 1987; Paralegal Certificate (ABA Approved), Adelphi University, 1982; BA, Dowling College, 1981.
Professional affiliations: American Association of Law Libraries: Member 1988 - ; Private Law Libraries SIS, 1989- ; Social Responsibilities SIS, 1991 - ; SCCLL: Member 1992-2000.
Other professional activities and library affiliations: Law Library Association of Greater New York: Member 1985- ; Board Member, 1992-1994; Treasurer 1994-1998; Financial Advisor, 1998- . Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.: Member 1995-2000; New Jersey Law Librarians Association: Member 1994-2000; New York Unified Court System Oral Interview Panelist for Law Librarian and Senior Law Librarian Positions January, 1998.
Presentations: AIC Conferences Inc., Reengineering the Law Firm Conference, 1995. Topic: Redefining your library resource requirements; Center for Immigrants Rights, Inc., Paralegal Training -- Curriculum 1996. Topic: Basic Legal Research, 1996; State of New York Unified Court System, New York State Unified Court Law Libraries and the Association of Clerks of the Family Courts Annual Seminar, 1996. Panelist: Impact of Technology of Court Libraries, 1996. Fordham University School of Law, Advanced Legal Research Panelist, 1996 and 1998. New York County Lawyers' Association CLE Technology Courses: Spreadsheets for Legal and Non-Legal Staff, 1997-1998. AALL Annual Meeting, 1998. Information Economics: Choosing Sources and Formats. Topic: Information Economics in a Membership Library (July 12, 1998). Practising Law Institute, Managing the Law Library 1999. Topic: Librarian and Management in Partnership: Establishing Strategies for an Effective Management Team and Maintaining an Open Door Policy (February 5, 1999). New York County Lawyers' Association CLE Technology and Research Courses on various subject specific topics from 1998-2000.
Publications: Locating New York Legislation Is Not An Impossible Task, New York Law Journal, July 10, 1995, S4, col. 1; Monthly column: New York County Lawyer, October 1991-2000. I have also been interviewed for various publications, including Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, the National Law Journal and the Research Advisor.
>>>> Back to Top <<<< Letter to the Executive Board about Cincinnati
November 30, 2000
Executive Board
American Association of Law Libraries
53 West Jackson Blvd., Suite 940
Chicago, IL 60604RE: Request to disregard Cincinnati, Ohio, as a potential AALL meeting site
To the members of the American Association of Law Libraries Executive Board:
We, the members of the Social Responsibilites Special Interest Section and the Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues, respectfully request that the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Executive Board postpone or cancel its consideration of Cincinnati, Ohio, as a potential meeting site for the AALL until such time as the city of Cincinnati expressly rescinds or repudiates as a matter of the law the provisions of Article XII of the Charter of the City of Cincinnati that no special class status may be granted based upon sexual orientation, conduct or relationships.
On November 2, 1993, Cincinnati voters approved the Issue 3 charter amendment that removed the city's Human Rights Amendment provision protecting people from discrimination on the basic of sexual orientation in housing or employment. Despite five years of court challenges to constitutionality of the charter amendment, it has been upheld. The text of the amendment is as follows:
The city of Cincinnati and its various Boards and Commissions may not enact, adopt, enforce or administer any ordinance, regulation, rule or policy which provides that homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual orientation, status, conduct or relationship constitutes, entitles, or otherwise provides a person with the basis to have any claim of minority or protected status, quota preference or other preferential treatment.The language of this amendment is in direct conflict with Article III of the AALL Bylaws, which states:This provision of the City Charter shall in all respects be self-executing. Any ordinance, regulation, rule or policy enacted before this amendment is adopted that violates the foregoing prohibition shall be null and void and of no force or effect.
Added by Ord. 314-1993, effective August 25, 1993; election of November 2, 1993Antidiscrimination.
Membership in the Association or in any of its Chapters, or participation in any activity of the Association or it Chapters, shall not be denied or abridged to any individual on account of race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin or sexual orientation.The amendment is also in direct conflict with the AALL Annual Meeting Site Selection Policy Criteria, "AALL Annual Meeting sites will be held in locations that are appealing to members, potential registrants and exhibitors."
We do not believe that AALL should hold an annual meeting in any location where laws or charter provisions exist that directly contradict and/or conflict with AALL bylaws and policy. Selection of Cincinnati as the 2006 annual meeting site will be interpreted by AALL members and the general population as signaling AALL approval and support of discrimination based on sexual orientation. This is an unacceptable action by AALL, and will certainly result in many AALL members feeling both discriminated against and devalued.
According to a June 1, 2000, Cincinnati Enquirer news article, "A yet-to-be-released analysis by the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that the city has lost $63.7 million in convention business since Issue 3 passed because of a boycott by gay-friendly organizations." (Mark Curnutte, "Gay Rights Making Quiet Gains: Lost Business, Olympic Bid Could Revive Issue 3 Fight," Cincinnati Enquirer, June 11, 2000, available at http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/06/11/loc_gay_rights_making.html.)
We request that AALL pospone or cancel its consideration of Cincinnati, Ohio, as a potential meeting site for the AALL until such time as the city of Cincinnati expressly rescinds or repudiates as a matter of the law the provisions of Article XII of the Charter of the City of Cincinnati that no special class status may be granted based upon sexual orientation, conduct or relationships. In addition, we request that AALL contact the City of Cincinnati and the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau and specifically state that we are withdrawing our consideration of the city as a possible annual meeting site because of this ordinance.
Sincerely,
Ellen J. Platt
Chair, Social Responsibilities SISLaura A. Whitbeck
Chair, Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues
cc: Roger H. Parent, Executive Director
Richard Humphrey, Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries>>>> Back to Top <<<< A Letter from the President...
Regarding Cincinnati1/17/2001
Dear Ellen & Laura:
Thank you for your letter urging the Association not to consider Cincinnati, Ohio as a potential meeting site for future annual meetings, based on that city's charter provision specifically preventing the city from adopting any measures to protect gays and lesbians.
I have discussed this issue with Martha Brown who makes the initial inquiry into possible locations and who also makes a site recommendation to the Board. It is true that Cincinnati has been in the pool of candidates for 2006, but Martha is very much aware of its checkered history regarding discrimination, and she has informed me that we would "never" go to a city that has such discriminatory policies. She considers this to be a non-negotiable matter. Several steps are taken to assure that we only go to places where our members are comfortable:
- First, all cities under consideration have to provide information about non-discrimination. (Admittedly, not everything might be disclosed from this inquiry, so the information in your letter is extremely helpful.)
- Second, we send a copy of Article III of the AALL bylaws to the city, so they are aware of our policies.
- Third, we include language in all contracts (convention center, hotels, etc.) that allows AALL to cancel without penalty if the Association's ability to abide by Article III of the Bylaws might be compromised by legislation enacted between the time of signature and the meeting date.
As you probably know, the Association once did, by action of the Executive Board, actually change a site (from Denver to Anaheim) after the selection had been made because of the passage of a law that was unfriendly to gays. This is a matter that Board takes very seriously, and I can assure you that neither the Board, nor Martha, nor I, as President, would let us go forward with a site that was found to be unfriendly to gays, or, indeed, to any group of our members.
Again, thank you very much for your letter. It contained some detailed information about Cincinnati that we are glad to have in the record. If there is anything further that you would like to discuss about this issue, please don't hesitate to give me a call at 202-662-9161.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Oakley
President
c: Martha Brown
Roger Parent
Comments to: Rebecca Alexander
Last updated
June 26, 2001