The LITA Program Planning Committee (PPC) is the committee that collects, reviews, and schedules LITA-sponsored programs for the ALA Annual Conference. The illustrious Jason Griffey is the chair of the committee for the 2008-2010 term. I was lucky to be appointed to the committee this year, at a time of significant transition for the program planning process.

For the upcoming ALA Annual Conference 2010, Jason Griffey and the LITA Program Planning Committee decided to switch the program proposal process from a paper form and in-person interview to an electronic exchange: a Google Form and email correspondence this year, and hopefully a conference planning system by next year. (The PPC ProgramProcess TaskForce recommends the Open Conference System, an open source application from the Public Knowledge Project.)

With generous help from Ranti Junus, Systems Librarian at Michigan State University Libraries, a senior member of the committee, and Chair of the PPC ProgramProcess TaskForce, I learned that the process used to be very involved:

1. The chair, co-chair, or vice chair of the Interest Group (IG) sponsoring the program would fill out the paper form and make many copies for each PPC member to read. (The information requested on the paper form was exactly the same as that requested on the Google Form this year.)
2. The IG would arrange an appointment and meet with the PPC for 20-30 minutes.
3. Feedback from the PPC was immediate: clarifications, potential audience, etc. PPC sometimes suggested the IG collaborate with other IGs within LITA or with other divisions. Typical collaboration usually entailed asking the other IG/division to co-sponsor to share information about the program with their own members. Time slots were also discussed. (Usually, the PPC chair had the timetable with her so she could check with the conflicts.)
4. The PPC would then come to a consensus.
5. A PPC liaison who was assigned to the IG would take over communication to the IG proposing the program after ALA Annual. The liaison was the go-to person for the IG for all PPC-related communications and was responsible for making sure that the IG would get the information they needed in a timely manner. Liaisons were also responsible for reminding the IGs about turning in other information such as the names of the speakers, communicating PPC discussions related to the respective IGs, and informing PPC about the IG’s progress preparing the program.

This year, with the use of Google Docs, Griffey was able to set up a Google Form for program proposals. The information from the Google Form was funneled into a Google Spreadsheet shared by all the members of the PPC. This was the process so far this year:

1. Griffey put out a call for proposals on the LITA Blog on June 24, 2009. This included a link to the Google Form (now defunct), a link to the form on ALA Connect, and an announcement that program proposals no longer need to be sponsored by an IG.
2. The committee met at ALA Annual 2009 and discussed the new procedure and intentions to change the LITA Manual by ALA MidWinter 2010. The program planning process no longer includes IG liaisons or required meetings with submitters at MidWinter. (View our Meeting Minutes.)
3. After the program proposal deadline on July 31, 2009, the PPC members read all the submissions and rated each on a scale of 1-10. These ratings were based on interest, the reflection of the program on LITA, its likelihood to draw a crowd, its currency, etc. Comments were also made and recorded on the spreadsheet regarding improvements or questions about the program. The ratings were averaged for each program proposal.
4. Every submission that received an average of 7 or above was approved, a 4-6 was marked as “maybe,” and a 1-3 was rejected.
5. Junus then plotted a schedule of LITA programs for Annual 2010 with the requested times of approved and “maybe” programs on a Google Spreadsheet. This was so our committee could better visualize what program belonged when. (We didn’t want programs that would draw a similar audience have to compete with each other.)
6. The PPC met on gTalk to discuss the outliers a few days later. Emails were sent to some submitters for clarification on their program proposals.
7. In mid-September, Griffey met with other Program Planning Committee Chairs at ALA in Chicago to discuss and arrange the preliminary schedule for ALA Annual 2010. (Hear more about the ALA Conference Planning Committee at Griffey’s blog.) Luckily, LITA was able to get through the scheduling without having to change much.
8. Pretty soon we’ll be volunteering to email approved submitters our congratulations and suggestions for improvement.
9. More to come as we get closer to Annual…

It has been an interesting experience so far, helping to shape the ALA Annual Conference 2010 and understanding how conference planning is done from the inside. I’m very excited for many of the programs LITA is sponsoring, but, secretly, I wish every day of Annual could be an unconference.