The Governing Board met on Friday 6 November 2020 to follow up on the General Assembly that was held the day before at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Having to do something that’s never been done before is becoming usual this year, and it was a tremendous effort to make this virtual General Assembly happen. The Board was very pleased about how smoothly it went and congratulated everyone involved for their great work, especially Barbara Lison, President-elect, for chairing the meeting; Tonia Arahova, Treasurer, for attending;  Gerald Leitner, Secretary General for all his work; the IFLA staff who did such a great job with the presentations and organisation; and Lily Knibbeler, the Director of the KB who hosted and also acted as proxy holder. We are very grateful for her support and that of the KB.

Because we reached a quorum, the Governing Board noted the decisions of the General Assembly 5 November 2020. There were two motions voted on at the General Assembly:

  1. that the General Assembly authorises the Governing Board to convene the General Assembly to coincide with the next IFLA World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) which shall take place in August 2021. In the case of an unavoidable delay the General Assembly may be convened at a later date, but no later than 30 November 2021. The motion was approved.
  2. proposing to the Governing Board to investigate alternative and sustainable ways to conduct future World Library and Information Congresses and arrange WLIC as a global event only every third year. The motion was carried and approved.

The Governing Board will undertake further work and investigations into sustainable ways to hold the WLIC and will carry out extensive consultations exploring the pros and cons of a change in the frequency of WLICs, and will keep members informed about the progress.

The Governing Board will meet again in the week beginning 7 December 2020.

Christine Mackenzie
IFLA President 2019-2021