We're still the Special Libraries Association, Inc.

At today's Annual Business Meeting, members first voted for which name they would prefer for the association. Then, they voted for whether to change the bylaws to adopt the new name, thus voting whether to actually change the name of the association.

The results of the votes:

In favor of just the abbreviation SLA were 87. 867 voted against that choice.
656 voted in favor of Information Professionals International. 343 opposed it.

890 total votes were cast for whether to change the bylaws to reflect the new name. A 2/3 majority was needed to change the bylaws, which means that at least 594 votes were needed to adopt the selected name Information Professionals International. Only 521 voted in favor of the change. 369 voted against it, so the bylaws will not be changed. The organization's name is still the Special Libraries Association.

(Why Information Professionals International was the overwhelmingly preferred choice during the first vote and then lost by a slim margin during the second vote is left to speculation. Because the meeting ran long, many people left after casting their vote during the first part. That may have effected the results of the second part. Perhaps people also didn't understand that they really needed to stay to vote for the change officially in order for it to take effect.)

Madeleine Albright's speech was absolutely amazing. She responded to some tough questions during the question and answer session and spoke against the USA Patriot Act.

I forgot to say earlier that the Newsday tour on Saturday was terrific, though the bus trip lasted about an hour longer than estimated.

The computer lab I'm using now is closing in about 7 minutes, so I'm going to sign off now. It won't be open again during the conference, so I may not be able to post here about the conference again until after I return home on Thursday or Friday. It's been another great conference. Linda Henderson deserves big kudos for her amazing planning effort.

I hope at least one person besides Liz and Pete have read the blog during the conference and have benefitted from learning about what's happening here.

Please don't forget about the Webcast session at 4 pm EST this afternoon.

--Jessica Baumgart