AFSCME local 3933 has scheduled it's first membership meeting of 2007.
When: Friday, June 8th, 6:30pm
Where: APLM, Large Auditorium
All members are welcome to attend. The newly elected members of the APL Board of Trustees have been invited to attend the first portion of the meeting. Hope to see everyone there.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Trustee Election Results
Dennis Gaffney, James Gallagher, Mary Ellen O'Connor and Leonard Ricchiuti have been elected to the Albany Public Library Board of Trustees. I offer my congratulations to them all. I would also like to thank Deborah Williams-Muhammad for her several years of loyal service to APL. In particular her leadership on the Facilities Committee and the Affirmative Action Committee will continue to shape the future of APL well into the future.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Questionnaire response from Leonard Ricchiuti
Coming Soon. Here's his biographical statement from the APL Website:
Occupation, Special Skills:
Police Sergeant currently assigned to the Albany Police Athlectic League, Inc. as the Executive Director. PAL is a juvenile crime prevention program which brings kids and cops together to build a brighter future.
Biographical Statement:
I was born and raised in Albany’s South End. I attended Giffen Elementary School, Cathedral Academy, Bishop Maginn High School and Hudson Valley Community College. As a child, I spent many of my after school hours at the John A. Howe Library participating in a reading club and a filmmaking club. I am married to the former Mary Ernst for 20 years. I have two daughters, Sara and Amy.
Why are you running for Library Trustee?
As an advocate for youth, I would like to see the library play a bigger role in the development of our youth. The library needs to develop a plan to bring its services closer to Albany’s diverse population. As such, the library would become a primary advocate for literacy for both our youth and adults.
Occupation, Special Skills:
Police Sergeant currently assigned to the Albany Police Athlectic League, Inc. as the Executive Director. PAL is a juvenile crime prevention program which brings kids and cops together to build a brighter future.
Biographical Statement:
I was born and raised in Albany’s South End. I attended Giffen Elementary School, Cathedral Academy, Bishop Maginn High School and Hudson Valley Community College. As a child, I spent many of my after school hours at the John A. Howe Library participating in a reading club and a filmmaking club. I am married to the former Mary Ernst for 20 years. I have two daughters, Sara and Amy.
Why are you running for Library Trustee?
As an advocate for youth, I would like to see the library play a bigger role in the development of our youth. The library needs to develop a plan to bring its services closer to Albany’s diverse population. As such, the library would become a primary advocate for literacy for both our youth and adults.
Questionnaire response from Dennis Gaffney
1) Do you use the library? How often? What for?
As a father, a reader, and a professional writer, I use public libraries constantly. As a free-lance journalist, I use library databases, books, and magazines to research pieces I write for venues such as The New York Times, Mother Jones, and for PBS Web sites such as Antiques Roadshow and American Experience. I also use the library to borrow books for my book club, audiotapes for long drives, and DVDs for evening entertainment. I’m proud to say my daughter, now seven, has learned to read using library books.
2) Have you ever been involved in a union? What was your experience?
I am a member of the National Writers Union (NWU). I was also commissioned by New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the statewide teachers’ union, to write a history of the modern New York State teachers’ union movement. The book, just published by SUNY Press, is called Teachers United. As a unionist (I also was a member in the union at WGBH, Boston’s public television station), I know first-hand that unions protect our rights and our incomes and give us places to grow as professionals. I believe that continued librarian involvement is essential in our library’s renaissance.
3) What do you like best about APL? What will you do to improve upon that?
I was impressed that our library leaders involved the community—neighborhood residents and librarians—so thoroughly in the Branch Improvement Plan. As a community activist—I am a parent leader at my daughter’s public school and an organizer of the Spring Spree, a celebration of New Scotland businesses—I will work to expand community use of the libraries and community involvement in programming.
4) What do you like least? What will you do to change that?
Teens, who make up about 25% of all library users, are underserved. We need to find ways to welcome teens into our libraries and expand programming for them. The teen rooms planned for each library will help do that.
5) What is your opinion of the Branch Improvement Plan?
I believe the plan is a wise and reasonable one born out of an open, democratic process. The branch rebuilding begins a long-overdue renaissance of Albany’s library system. I believe new branches will spur economic development, attract people to Albany, and serve as exciting community centers where we can meet, learn, and exchange ideas. What I liked most about the plan was the democratic process that led up to it.
6) Why do you want to be on the APL Board of Trustees?
I want to bring my skills as a leader, an activist, and a devoted library user to the job of rebuilding our city’s libraries. These are my goals: citizen input into library design; stronger programming, especially for teens; and keeping the rebuilding project on-budget.
As a father, a reader, and a professional writer, I use public libraries constantly. As a free-lance journalist, I use library databases, books, and magazines to research pieces I write for venues such as The New York Times, Mother Jones, and for PBS Web sites such as Antiques Roadshow and American Experience. I also use the library to borrow books for my book club, audiotapes for long drives, and DVDs for evening entertainment. I’m proud to say my daughter, now seven, has learned to read using library books.
2) Have you ever been involved in a union? What was your experience?
I am a member of the National Writers Union (NWU). I was also commissioned by New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the statewide teachers’ union, to write a history of the modern New York State teachers’ union movement. The book, just published by SUNY Press, is called Teachers United. As a unionist (I also was a member in the union at WGBH, Boston’s public television station), I know first-hand that unions protect our rights and our incomes and give us places to grow as professionals. I believe that continued librarian involvement is essential in our library’s renaissance.
3) What do you like best about APL? What will you do to improve upon that?
I was impressed that our library leaders involved the community—neighborhood residents and librarians—so thoroughly in the Branch Improvement Plan. As a community activist—I am a parent leader at my daughter’s public school and an organizer of the Spring Spree, a celebration of New Scotland businesses—I will work to expand community use of the libraries and community involvement in programming.
4) What do you like least? What will you do to change that?
Teens, who make up about 25% of all library users, are underserved. We need to find ways to welcome teens into our libraries and expand programming for them. The teen rooms planned for each library will help do that.
5) What is your opinion of the Branch Improvement Plan?
I believe the plan is a wise and reasonable one born out of an open, democratic process. The branch rebuilding begins a long-overdue renaissance of Albany’s library system. I believe new branches will spur economic development, attract people to Albany, and serve as exciting community centers where we can meet, learn, and exchange ideas. What I liked most about the plan was the democratic process that led up to it.
6) Why do you want to be on the APL Board of Trustees?
I want to bring my skills as a leader, an activist, and a devoted library user to the job of rebuilding our city’s libraries. These are my goals: citizen input into library design; stronger programming, especially for teens; and keeping the rebuilding project on-budget.
Trustee Questionnaire
Here are the questions we asked all of the Trustee candidates:
1. Do you use the library? How often? What for?
2. Have you ever been involved in a union? What was your experience?
3. What do you like best about APL? What will you do to improve upon that?
4. What do you like least? What will you do to change that?
5. What is your opinion of the Branch Improvement Plan?
6. Why do you want to be on the APL Board of Trustees?
As of today, we have received responses from 15 of the 17 candidates. Their responses follow in alphabetical order.
1. Do you use the library? How often? What for?
2. Have you ever been involved in a union? What was your experience?
3. What do you like best about APL? What will you do to improve upon that?
4. What do you like least? What will you do to change that?
5. What is your opinion of the Branch Improvement Plan?
6. Why do you want to be on the APL Board of Trustees?
As of today, we have received responses from 15 of the 17 candidates. Their responses follow in alphabetical order.
Welcome to The APL Employees Blog!
Hey Everyone!
Welcome to AFSCME local 3933 online, such as it is.
I hope that with this blog, we'll all be able to communicate better within the union. Being scattered over 7 locations, we don't all often get to see each other and discuss our experiences of working at APL. I'd like to see that change and I'd like that change to start here. In the future, I'd like this blog to be a project we can all contribute to, instead of having it maintained solely by the union leadership. I'm not so tech-savvy, so perhaps we could have a few volunteers to maintain this site?
The first several posts that you'll see here will be the responses we've gotten to a questionnaire we sent out to the 17 candidates for the 4 trustee seats up for grabs next Tuesday.
Hope all's well. Please don't hesitate to post comments here giving your impression of the blog and of the union overall.
Cheers,
Joe Burke
Welcome to AFSCME local 3933 online, such as it is.
I hope that with this blog, we'll all be able to communicate better within the union. Being scattered over 7 locations, we don't all often get to see each other and discuss our experiences of working at APL. I'd like to see that change and I'd like that change to start here. In the future, I'd like this blog to be a project we can all contribute to, instead of having it maintained solely by the union leadership. I'm not so tech-savvy, so perhaps we could have a few volunteers to maintain this site?
The first several posts that you'll see here will be the responses we've gotten to a questionnaire we sent out to the 17 candidates for the 4 trustee seats up for grabs next Tuesday.
Hope all's well. Please don't hesitate to post comments here giving your impression of the blog and of the union overall.
Cheers,
Joe Burke
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