Leadership Position Descriptions

ELD Officers, Committees and Appointed Positions

ELD Officers

Secretary/Treasurer

After election, the Secretary-Treasurer takes office immediately following the Annual Business Meeting at the next annual conference. The Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for taking minutes at the Extended Executive Meeting later in that conference and at the Annual Business Meeting at the following year’s conference. These two sets of minutes constitute the first and last official duties for the Secretary-Treasurer.

The Secretary-Treasurer is expected to attend the ASEE new officer orientation session during the annual conference after being elected.

The Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for coordination, management and reporting of the Division’s budget, including deposits of membership dues and sponsorship funds, and requests for reimbursement. The busiest financial work for the Secretary-Treasurer is immediately following the annual conference when accounts are reconciled for the end of the fiscal year. The other active time of year is during the months immediately prior to the annual conference, when invoices are written for and delivered to sponsors and when sponsorship funds are received and deposited. ASEE operates on an October – September fiscal year.

The Secretary-Treasurer writes an annual report of the budget and presents it to the membership in the last newsletter to appear before the annual conference, and updates it, if needed, during the Annual Business Meeting.

Program Chair

The primary responsibility of the Program Chair is to organize and coordinate the ELD program for the following annual conference.

The Program Chair takes office immediately following the Annual Business Meeting at the annual conference, then presides over the second half of the Extended Executive Committee later during that conference. The Program Chair is also expected to attend the ASEE new program chair orientation during the annual conference at which he/she takes office and attend the meeting of the PIC of which ELD is a member at the following year’s conference.

Ideas for the conference program are gathered during and after the current annual conference and are briefly discussed during the second half of the Extended Executive Committee meeting. The Program Chair is responsible for working with these ideas to develop session topics, issues calls for papers, and identifies session moderators, and may choose to constitute a program committee to assist with these efforts.  Speakers are identified through submitted papers and guests identified by session moderators. The Program Chair works in coordination with the Publications Committee Chair to review and accept or reject submitted abstracts and to review and accept or reject papers. The Program Chair is expected to nominate one paper from the Division for consideration as the best paper of the PIC of which ELD is a member.

The Program Chair provides regular updates to the Division membership on conference planning via the newsletter and/or the Division e-lists, and trouble-shoots during the conference to make sure all elements of the ELD program run smoothly.

The Program Chair writes an annual report and presents it to the membership in the last newsletter to appear before the annual conference, and updates it, if needed, during the Annual Business Meeting.

The Chair

Provides leadership and direction for ELD and is the primary representative of the Division to ASEE.

The Chair takes office immediately following the ELD Annual Business Meeting at the annual conference, then presides over the first half of the Extended Executive Committee (EEC) meeting later during that conference. During the following year’s conference, the Chair presides over the Annual Business Meeting and is expected to attend the meeting of the PIC of which ELD is a member.

The Chair determines which committee chair terms are expiring that year, calls for volunteers, and works with the Executive Committee to select new chairs.

Near the end of the fiscal year, the Chair is responsible for submitting the ASEE annual report which is used to update ASEE about new division officers and determines who is eligible to post to the eld_div mailing list.

The Chair provides regular updates on Division-related activities to the membership via the newsletter and/or the Division e-lists.  The Chair also writes an annual report and presents it to the membership in the last newsletter to appear before the annual conference, and updates it, if needed, during the Annual Business Meeting.  The Chair also reminds committee chairs, editors, etc. to write and submit annual reports relative to their positions.

The Division Chair represents ELD to the ASEE Interdivisional Township Hall. Terms of service as the Delegate begin and expire each year at the close of the ASEE Annual Conference (per ASEE ITH committee structure guidelines).

Directors

As two of five members of the Executive Committee, Directors help establish and support policies and an overall direction for the Division. They infuse new ideas, keep the Division on a positive track, and work to ensure the vitality of the organization.  In addition, Directors serve as members of the Development Committee.

During the first year of the term, a Director organizes the ELD Welcome Reception.  Responsibilities include coordinating funding with the Chair of the Development Committee and appropriate sponsor representatives, selecting a venue, and overseeing all aspects of the event.  In addition, the first year Director assists in the planning of the ELD Annual Banquet.

During the second year of the term, a Director plans the ELD Annual Banquet.  Responsibilities include coordinating funding with the Chair of the Development Committee and appropriate sponsor representatives, selecting a venue, and overseeing all aspects of the event.  In addition, the second year Director may be asked by the Chair of the Division and/or the Executive Committee to provide leadership for various other projects and initiatives.

[back to top]

ELD Committees and Appointed Positions

Unless otherwise specified, the following apply to all appointed positions (committee chairs, editors, delegates, archivist, web committee chair, voting administrator):

• Appointments are made by the Executive Committee to a two-year term, renewable indefinitely, unless otherwise specified. In the event that a committee chair must withdraw from being chair, the Executive Committee will appoint a replacement, for the remainder of the term.
• The appointee shall represent their position/committee on the Extended Executive Committee.
• The appointee shall provide reports of their position/committee’s activities to the Executive Committee as necessary, prepare an annual report of the committee’s activities to be published in the Division Newsletter immediately prior to the Annual Meeting, and provide an update at the Annual Meeting, if necessary.
• If a budget is necessary, the appointee shall develop a budget and provide a report of expenditures or receipts to the Division Secretary/Treasurer for Committee activities involving Division or Society funds.

Unless otherwise specified, the following also apply to committee chairs:

• The chair shall, with the advice and consent of the Executive Committee, appoint such members of the committee as seems desirable to accomplish the work of the committee. The chair shall annually review the composition/membership of the committee and make adjustments deemed desirable to accomplish the work of the committee. Committee members shall serve one-year terms, renewable indefinitely.
• The chair may, with the advice and consent of the Executive Committee, appoint subcommittees as necessary to carry out the work of the committee.  Membership of such subcommittees may be drawn from the membership of the committee or of the Division at large.
• The chair shall establish timelines for committee activities, as necessary, and provide sufficient notice of upcoming deadlines to the members of the committee or when appropriate the membership at large.

Accreditation and Standards Committee

The Accreditation & Standards Committee of ELD serves two functions: to enhance and strengthen the library’s role in achieving the programmatic outcomes of engineering programs, and to develop standards or benchmarks for library services and collections.

The duties of the Accreditation & Standards committee shall include:

• supporting and informing the role of libraries in achieving the programmatic outcomes of engineering/technology programs and curricula
• supporting and informing the role and activities of libraries in the accreditation process
• raising awareness of the library resources, facilities, and information training that support engineering programs’ success in meeting ABET criteria, particularly with groups such as the ASEE Accreditation Activities Committee (ASEE/AAC), the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), and the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) of Engineers Canada.
• strengthening the language related to specific information competencies within ABET criteria
• developing standards/benchmarks/frameworks that can be used to measure the strength of engineering libraries and serve as foundation for building the role of libraries within engineering/technology programs and curricula (eg., ELD’s Information Competency Standards for Engineers)

Archivist

The Archivist shall coordinate the collection and preservation of the historical records of the Division. These ELD materials will be processed, maintained, and accessed through the Archives and Special Collections of the Claire T. Carney Library of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
The duties of the Archivist shall include:

• Collecting all non-current Division materials from the retiring officers and chairs
• Answering requests for information contained in the Archives (in coordination with the Archives and Special Collections staff).
• Serving as a consultant to ASEE in matters relating to Society archival materials

Awards Committee

The Awards Committee is responsible for the the process of selecting recipients for the Homer I. Bernhardt Distinguished Service Award, the Best Publication Award, the Innovation in Access to Engineering Information Award, and the ELD Best Poster Award. Definitions, conditions, and honors associated with any proposed additional awards must go through ASEE as outlined in Section 7.0 of the Society Awards Program Policies & Procedures Manual.
The duties of the Awards committee shall include:

• Calling for nominations for the Bernhardt, Best Publication, and Innovation in Access to Engineering Information Awards
• Selecting winners shortly after the close of nominations
• Notifying winners through personal email and announcing winners through ELD-L, ELDNET-L, and social media.
• Insuring that certificates are printed for presentation at the Annual Meeting

Communications Committee

• Soliciting articles/news from officers and members, ensuring the collection of material sufficient for publishing four issues per year.
• Producing a pdf document for each quarterly Newsletter and submitting these to the ELD Webmaster for publication on the ELD web pages.
• Notifying the membership via the ELD-L listserv when the Newsletter is available online.

Development Committee

The Development Committee coordinates all ELD fundraising activities, and solicits in-kind support for ELD activities, primarily but not exclusively the ELD activities and functions at the annual ASEE conference. The Development Committee works with the Executive Committee to assess the financial needs of ELD and then formulate necessary fundraising programs. Members of this committee serve as liaisons to sponsors to accomplish fundraising activities. This is done through the cultivation and nurturing of a positive, long-term relationship between sponsors and ELD. Further details can be found in the ELD Development Committee manual.

Duties of the Development Committee shall include:

• Contacting and working with sponsor(s) for the purpose of supporting ELD development activities and functions.
• Negotiating the specific needs and wants of sponsor(s) with the Development Chair, Program Chair and, if necessary, the Executive Committee.
• Negotiating a specific monetary amount and agreement with the sponsor, in writing.
• Sending invoice(s) (using the invoice template) for a pre-agreed amount to sponsor(s).

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee promotes the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Engineering Libraries Division of American Society of Engineering Education.

The duties of the DEI Committee shall include:

• Partner with and support the work of the ASEE CDEI
• Facilitate communication and understanding among different constituencies, and serve as a division resource.
• Engage members to assess needs related to DEI; propose strategies for assessing progress.
• Draft and maintain the Engineering Libraries Division Diversity Statement to identify challenges and strengths in achieving DEI goals; and make recommendations to the chair and extended executive committee regarding ways to achieve DEI goals.
• Work with Awards and Publications Committee to select ELD nominee for ASEE Best Diversity Paper and ELD Best DEI Paper Award
• Select the ELD delegate to the ASEE CDEI. The Delegate shall serve a two-year term with no limitations on serving consecutive terms other than ELD DEI committee membership. The Delegate could be any of the ELD DEI committee members or the DEI Chair if no volunteers can be found. Terms of service begin and expire each year at the close of the ASEE Annual Conference (per ASEE CDEI committee structure guidelines).

Division Delegates

Delegates represent the ELD in ASEE Commissions and Committees. Unless otherwise specified, terms of service begin and expire each year at the close of the ASEE Annual Conference. 

• ASEE Interdivisional Town Hall
  The Division Chair represents ELD to the ASEE Interdivisional Town Hall.
• ASEE Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI)
  The DEI Committee selects the ELD delegate to the ASEE CDEI. The Delegate shall serve a two-year term with no limitations on serving consecutive terms other than ELD DEI committee membership. The Delegate could be any of the ELD DEI committee members or the DEI Chair if no volunteers can be found. 
• ASEE Commission on P-12 Engineering Education (CP12)
  Any current member of ELD may serve as delegate to CP12. If no volunteers can be found, the Past Division Chair will represent ELD to the CP12. 

  ---

Electronic Discussion Lists Editor(s)

The Electronic Discussion List Editor(s) routinely forwards appropriate items to all list subscribers. For items deemed “spam”, the Editor(s) discards those item.  For items deemed inappropriate, the Editor explains to the sender why the item won’t be forwarded to list subscribers.

The duties of the Editor(s) shall include:

• operating and maintaining the Division’s electronic discussion lists;
• maintaining current lists of subscribers;
• promoting the use of the e-lists; and
• with the approval of the Executive Committee, determining what is appropriate content for distribution to each list.

Membership Committee

The committee is responsible for recruitment of new members and hospitality.

The duties of the Membership committee shall include:

• sending invitations to prospective members and new subscribers to the public ELD listserv,
• sending welcome letters to new members and soliciting new member biographies for the ELD newsletter,
• reminding lapsed members to renew and return,
• notifying appropriate persons of membership updates for electronic discussion list,
• watching for new members at the conference, including them in social activities, and arranging for special identification for them, e.g. badges, ribbons, etc.
• Answering questions regarding membership and assisting ELD members’ questions regarding membership issues as necessary,
• retrieving ELD member numbers for use in annual ELD voting
• administering the Recognition of Long-Term ELD Members program

Membership Directory Editor

The Membership Directory Editor ensures that ELD’s Directory of Membership is organized and updated with the most current membership information and is made available to all ELD members in a timely manner.

ELD Directory of Membership is an electronic directory.  It contains a list of current ELD officers, a committee members, and task force members, an ELD organization chart, an alphabetical list of all ELD members, and a geographic index of all ELD members.

The duties of the Editor shall include:

• Receiving updates on new and lapsed members from the chair of the Membership Committee, using information from the monthly roster of ELD members provided by ASEE.
• Organizing and updating the ELD Directory of Membership throughout the year.
• Providing an electronic copy of the ELD Directory of Membership to the Membership Committee Chair, the ELD Webmaster, the Editor of the ELD Newsletter, and the ELD Listserv Editor shortly after the annual business meeting.
• Announcing the availability of the updated Directory through the ELD Newsletter and the ELD-L listserv shortly after the annual business meeting.
• Supplying individual members with a pdf of the Directory upon request.  The Editor does not provide access to the Directory to non-members.
• Using the annual business meeting and convention as an opportunity to solicit corrections to the Directory.

Nominating Committee

The Immediate Past Chair typically chairs the Nominating Committee; as such, the chair serves a one year term. The Voting Administrator serves as an ex officio member of the Nominating Committee.

The committee performs its duties according to the provisions of the ELD Bylaws, Article VII. Typically the positions to be filled are Secretary-Treasurer and one Director.

The duties of the Nominating Committee shall include:

• soliciting nominations for officer candidates, including self-nominations
• considering the current membership and determining people to ask to run for office
• preparing and announcing the slate of candidates by the established deadline
• gathering candidate statements and photographs to post on the ELD website during the election
• preparing and announcing to the division membership the availability of the ballot by the established deadline
• announcing the results of the election by the established deadline

Professional Development Committee

• Supporting librarians’ professional development through all stages of their careers
• Recruiting librarians to act as mentors
• Creating mechanisms to match mentors with mentees, such as the Conference Buddies Program, Bring-A-Student, etc.
• Developing members’ writing skills through a friendly review service
• Providing information on mentoring
• Coordinating professional development opportunities within ELD

Publications Committee

The Publications Committee coordinates and participates in much of the formal review of papers submitted for publication in the proceedings of the annual ASEE conference, according to the current policies and timetable established by ASEE and ELD.  The formal review determines which papers will be published and provides suggestions for those that require improvement in order to be published.

The duties of the Publications Committee Chair shall include:

• assigning each submitted conference paper to 3 reviewers
• recruiting additional ELD members to serve as reviewers when necessary
• conferring with the Program Chair to select a division Best Paper
• serving on the PIC IV Best Paper selection committee

Scholarly Communication Committee

The Scholarly Communication Committee supports ELD’s role as a proactive agent in facilitating change as this topic impacts engineering education. The working scope of scholarly communication includes intellectual property, publishing practices, economics, legislative action, technological developments, and academic expectations for promotion, tenure, research, and publication.

The duties of the Scholarly Communication committee shall include:

• Developing strategies and actions that will advance ELD’s efforts to facilitate change.
• Tracking and sharing local, national, and international developments within the broad area of scholarly communication, in particular those areas that directly impact engineering education, research, and libraries.
• Stimulating discussion, generating supporting material, and developing venues for communication and education.
• Coordinating ELD’s educative efforts in the area of scholarly communication, both within ELD and in the broader engineering education and engineering library community.
• Seeking collaborative ventures with other organizations.
• Exploring and identifying possible initiatives that ELD could either launch or support.
• Identifying potential faculty/college/school partnerships for demonstrations/discussions of alternatives to traditional scholarly communication venues.
• Advising the ELD Executive Committee on actions and initiatives that should be taken and resources needed.
• Acting as a resource to all of ASEE on questions regarding aspects of scholarly communication.

Voting Administrator

ELD annual elections are conducted using an online voting application that ensures (1) only ELD members receive instructions on accessing the ballot and voting, (2) the ‘one person, one vote’ principle is adhered to, and (3) the votes cast are accurately counted.

The Voting Administrator serves as an ex officio member of the Nominating Committee.

The duties of the Voting Administrator shall include:

• Receiving the slate of candidates from the Chair of the Nominating Committee
• Preparing the ballot to reflect all candidates for both offices
• Requesting from the Chair of the Membership Committee email addresses for all current ELD members and loading them into the voting application
• Testing the application to be sure that votes are being counted correctly
• Receiving the votes cast by ELD members prior to the established deadline
• Sharing the final results of the voting with the Chair of the Nominating Committee

The Voting Administrator does their work primarily during the months of February through April each year, when the slate of candidates is being set, the election is conducted, and results announced, all in accord with the timeline presented in the ELD Bylaws, Article VII. They administer additional votes as necessary.

The Voting Administrator has no formal reporting expectations, as the work done by this individual is in support of annual elections, which are announced by the Chair of the Nominating Committee. The outcomes of any additional votes are reported by the committee requesting the vote.

Web Committee

The ELD website is an integral part of the communication network for the Division. Social media tools are also employed to share information with the membership and the community at large.

The duties of the Web Committee shall include:

• operating the Division website
• creating and maintaining web pages for the Division and the architecture for those pages within the website
• providing server space for the site
• responding to new suggestions and projects from the membership
• communicating with ELD Officers and Committee Chairs regarding appropriate content
• communicating with ASEE Headquarters so that the links between the Division and Society sites are accurate
• posting publications generated by the Division, including but not limited to, newsletters, membership directories, conference programs, archival documentation, surveys.
• managing social media tools and guidelines for their use.

The Webmaster and Web Committee ensures that all relevant information is accessible on the ELD website and makes any decisions regarding the design and functionality of the website.

[back to top]