We’re excited to share how we’re restructuring following Ellen Popit’s retirement. The changes reflect the distinct nature of the Associate Director role. Before her promotion in 2018, Ellen served as Membership Director. The Associate Director position, which was not full-time, allowed her to continue as Membership Director and to oversee all member-facing services, such as delivery, SHARE, grants, and consulting, with support from an additional Membership staff member as the department continued to grow.
Now that Ellen has retired from IHLS, we have begun implementing our succession plan, which includes Cassandra Thompson’s promotion to a similar dual role as IHLS Associate Director/SHARE Director at the beginning of December. Cassandra will also be responsible for leading IHLS’s overall resource-sharing program and delivery, though the Delivery department will remain under the Delivery and Facilities Director, Colleen Dettenmeier.
Cassandra will continue leading SHARE, with some reorganization and delegation, including Jennifer Baugh, in the newly created role of SHARE Assistant Director to help manage the daily workflow. Jennifer will also remain in charge of the SHARE Bibliographic Services department.
A few of our administrative departments will also undergo some reorganization. The Marketing and Communications team is merging with the Membership team to form the Membership and Outreach Department, led by their new director, Leah Gregory. In this role, Leah will be taking over the other half of Ellen’s work at IHLS.
Additionally, a few other staff members in Membership and Outreach are receiving promotions or title changes. Kate Kite is our new Public Library Liaison, and Sarah Taylor will be our Member Services Coordinator. We will seek to fill the now-vacant, restructured Continuing Education Coordinator role in the coming months.
Please join us in congratulating Ellen on her well-deserved retirement, as well as Cassandra, Jennifer, Kate, Leah, and Sarah on their new roles!
The Rationale
Overall, these changes are part of an effort to better align our resources with the organization’s priorities. The staff realignment addresses three of our Strategic Plan Goals:
- Goal 1.2: Enhance internal and external communications to facilitate awareness and ensure member engagement.
- The merger that created the Membership and Outreach Department demonstrates our commitment to allowing these two integral teams to function seamlessly.
- Goal 2.1: Provide high-quality continuing education content both in-person and online.
- We have restructured the Continuing Education Coordinator job description to focus more on learning content.
- Goal 3.2: Aim for a flexible organizational structure to optimize leadership and respond to emerging needs.
- All of these changes represent our efforts to streamline staffing, utilize employee strengths, and maintain an organizational structure that meets our members’ needs.
A Note on Budget Impact
The restructuring within IHLS and SHARE will affect both overall budgets. As you might have noticed, we are reorganizing and promoting, not hiring a new IHLS Associate Director. The IHLS Associate Director’s salary will be split evenly, with 50% coming from the SHARE fund and 50% coming from the General fund, so SHARE members will not see an increase in expenditures due to the promotion.
With these changes, we expect the personnel line item in the SHARE budget to be reduced by $19,879. Additionally, even with these and the other promotions within IHLS, the personnel line item in the IHLS General fund will be reduced by $48,122. Altogether, the organization will save $68,001.
