Today was CILIP Members' Day, marked not only by the events at SOAS and Ridgmount Street, but also by Ken Livingstone unveiling of a plaque to Bob Marley, Marley and the Wailers apparently having stayed in Ridgmount Gardens a few steps away from our profession’s HQ (not sure it's much to celebrate myself: I always thought of them as reggae-lite, and their Rastafarianism was just plain obnoxious).
I chose a morning workshop run by John Wooley and Louisa Myatt on CILIP's portfolio of products and services, and new ways of managing membership. It was, I must say, not so much of a workshop, more of presentations with not very much time for questions.
John gave a very upbeat view of CILIP enterprises, a major income source for the organisation, he claimed, made up of recruitment services, publishing, training and development, conferences and events. They have more than 35,000 customers, including growing international sales and £3.5m turnover from six businesses. He reminded us of the relaunched Gazette, Update's new special features, changes to lisjobnet.com, more training and development courses and commercial conferences.
The recruitment market is changing, and hard copy advertising revenues falling everywhere, John said. According to ABC figures 50% of recruitment advertising is now online and 12 million of us look for our next job online. Spending on online advertising is just under £1b, and is expected to exceed £2b by the end of this year.
For advertisers, a niche recruitment market is the Holy Grail and CILIP cannot afford to lose our advantage. There are new opportunities to bring in money. The new format of Gazette, designed by the Press Association Design Services cut print costs by 15%, and meets the new Royal Mail size requirements; advertisements have been moved to back, and can now be in full colour. New editorial content concentrates on recruitment and CPD, products and software, with a closer focus on CILIP activity and people and there are special features on major shows.
Lisjobnet.com [not always up to date, in my experience-TR] contains all the vacancies in the Gazette and those available through Infomatch and has around 500,000 hits a month, and 35,000 visits. They offer e-mail updates, [though mine have mysteriously stopped...and why no RSS feeds?-TR] Online only advertising would be a tenth of the price of print.
On editorial, he said that the Gazette works to a strict word count, including nothing over more than 750 words, Update, on the other hand is aimed at the whole LIS sector. They now use specialist freelance correspondents. Update is highly rated as a membership benefit, but brings in no revenue.
He said he was frequently asked why we don’t restrict access to lisjobnet.com to members, but he felt this would be counter-productive and that we should maintain open access.
Infomatch, the recruitment agency is reviewing operations and will offer an enhanced programme [does this mean they might actually put me forward for something-TR]
On the publishing front, Gazette will be offering a new Buyer's Guide while Facet publishing now have more than 200 titles, with thirty new titles every year, chief among them the New Walford and some new media titles.
Training and development have new branding and are now offering short courses outside London, in Glasgow Sheffield and Birmingham, as well as bespoke onsite training which is to be relaunched.
Are they good value for money? They are gaining market share from TFPL and Aslib and, at the CILIP members' rates are 40% cheaper than tfpl, 28% less than Aslib.
Conferences and events used to run at a loss, but now help CILIP's cash flow, as sponsorship income and delegates' fees come in first before bills have to be paid. They also have new income streams from sponsorship, commercial conferences, executive briefings, suppliers’ showcases the new lunch and learn. They have generated £50k of new business from sponsors and delegate numbers are up. He concluded by listing the results of a review of affinity benefits.
Questions covered the relationship between Update and Gazette, the possibility of holding events aimed at CEOs and other senior managers CILIP wants to influence, as well as the relationship between income generation and services
While we have a loyal membership base, said Louisa Myatt, there is a small and slowing overall decline in membership, so we need to make it easier and quicker to join, to respond to membership more promptly. Members now expect more and expect answers more quickly. A new membership database went live on. on 9 October and allows CILIP to store data on individual members interests and preferences, and to compare out information with external sources for example postcode data. Only 25% of members pay by direct debit, and the aim is to increase this proportion. For the first time there will be rolling renewal, so the membership year will run for twelve months from the date of joining, and the membership form will be simplified, There will also be reform of the subscription system, moving to a flat rate in 2008 and simpler subscriptions that more accurately reflect the cost of and value. The prompt payment discount is to be abolished, as it has proved too popular, around 14,000 members taking advantage of it and rates for affiliates and retired members will increase, in the case of the former to become harmonised with other members, in the case of the latter to reflect the true cost of serving them. There will however be a prize draw for ten free memberships.
CILIP's marketing effort has been aimed at clarifying the organisation's message and articulating the benefits of membership: access to knowledge, support for career, recognition and status, networking and community, promoting standards and excellence. These have been summed up by Grimwood Associates in the slogan, "CILIP membership, investment in your professional future". This will be adapted for the different sectors of the profession. The membership web pages will be redesigned. To promote better awareness of CILIP, some targeted campaigns are planned, including using existing members to sell the benefits of membership to others. One problem is that many potential members, particularly those in non-traditional roles, don't know we exist. There are plans to influence employers. CILIP held its first graduate open day recently, at which 100 delegates turned up out of 170 registrations. They continue to have a presence at Online, at the Library & Information Show and at Internet World. On the Saturday before Online, the Guardian will, in its Work section, carry a CILIP feature. Our awards, Carnegie and Greenaway are both approaching significant anniversaries.
Someone asked about advocacy, to which Louisa answered that advocacy and PR went together, both being essential to change
Several people there were worried about the prices of CILIP courses, especially for the unwaged. An unwaged rate is not always available or advertised, a point with which I find myself in much agreement. The reply was that everything CILIP does now has to bring in income (or be cash-positive in the jargon). John felt that the courses run by groups, which were cited as examples of cheaper offerings, were not of the same standard ads CILIP courses and that "you get what you pay for". Franchising hadn't worked, and online only training would be very expensive. Someone suggested sponsorship as a solution.
A member who was both librarian and a local authority councillor suggested that we were poor at lobbying in local government. There was enthusiasm for an online yearbook and directory of libraries, though John pointed out that there we might lose income (I pointed to the example of Health Libraries Group and the Health Library and Information Services Directory, formerly a dead-tree directory.
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