[Reading-hall-of-fame] greetings and thank you

[jim hoffman]

Thank you for your support in electing me to serve as President of 
the Reading Hall of Fame.  Due to a conflict with a project in South 
Africa I will not be attending the IRA conference this year in 
Toronto.  I have been in contact with Rob regarding agenda for our 
meeting, but I thought I would write directly concnerning a couple of 
issues that are ahead for our group.

Let me begin by offfering congratulations to our recently elected 
colleagues. We look forward to your active participation in the 
organization.

There seems to be a general consensus within the RHF to become even 
more active in trying to shape policy (both within the profession and 
on the political front). The recent symposia sponsored by the ROH 
refect this strong interest.

I have made a proposal to IRA for a regular column in Reading Today 
that would be used by the RHF to communicate our position on 
important issues facing the profession. Alan is in consultation and 
considering the proposal .  I have proposed a trial year to begin in 
the Spring or Fall of 08. IRA would evaluate the effectiveness and 
contribution of the column at the end of the first year to make a 
long term determination.

Reading Today reaches a broad audience and offers a fairly "rapid 
response" forum for important ideas. It seems to offer the perfect 
match for our 'expertise'/perspective (within the ROH) and the needs 
within the profession.

If IRA responds positively to this proposal I would convine a small 
group to prepare a proposal for a process to prepare these columns. 
We would come back to the full HOF membership for approval on the 
process.

I don't want this to sound too large-scale or ambitious (we would be 
on a much much smaller scale) but I would envision a process 
something along the lines of what the national academy does with 
topical issues.  We use a census process to identify and prioritize 
topics to write about; we put writing teams together, we circulate 
for approval and we publish.

As soon as I hear more from Alan I will update you . .  . but in the 
meantime, you are welcome to post comments.

I hope that someone will volunteer to take the lead on a session for next year.

And finally,  we need someone to take on the role of "historian" for 
the group . . volunteers?  It's not an elected position so I will 
just invite the first person to respon to this message.

Hope all is well and enjoy Toronto.

jim