NOTE: a version of this message was sent by the IFLA President on 5 November 2024 directly to all IFLA Members and affiliates, including directors and presidents of library associations. It was also sent to all IFLA volunteers.

I am pleased to provide you with an update on the activities of IFLA and the outcomes of the Governing Board meeting held on 1 November 2024.

Looking forward to WLIC 2025 and beyond

We’re aware that there is a lot of anticipation for the World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) in Astana in August 2025. In particular, I know that our volunteers are keen to know more about the structure of the programme and other information necessary to plan for great sessions.

Now that we’ve been able to recover from all the work for the Information Futures Summit, the planning committee for Astana has started a busy programme of meetings. Some of the lessons from the Information Futures Summit will be considered, including the different session formats, spending more time together, and more.  You can expect to be hearing a lot more about WLIC2025 in the coming weeks!

We also received an update on the cities which have expressed an interest in hosting WLICs in the coming years. These come from a good range of countries, and are a positive sign for the future. We will be holding a webinar for these cities in the coming weeks, while the formal call for future hosts will come once our WLIC Review process concludes next month.

Balancing the Budget

The Board also approved the  2025 budget., which forecasts a small surplus. The Board recognised that this is possible due to project grants offered by key partners, which allow us to do more to support the field than we could have otherwise. The budget makes conservative assumptions about revenue from membership and our Congress, which we hope we will exceed of course!

We are also looking to update the way we account for the staff time we allocate to different activities, in order to help us plan better for the future. An increase in membership fees in line with inflation was approved, in accordance with the approval received from the General Assembly for the years 2022-2025.

A significant factor in this budget is the funds paid to cover IFLA costs under the contract signed between SIGL and IFLA in 2016 – this is known as the Joint Account Agreement. According to this agreement, a share of IFLA’s staff and other costs is paid by SIGL, for the duration of the Legacy Grant awarded by the Gates Foundation to IFLA. This funding is linked to work done to support staff and overhead costs around projects under the Legacy Grant, and represents a significant part of IFLA’s overall income.

Not included in our budget documentation are the funds directly paid by SIGL in order to support non-staff expenses associated with activities, such as workshops, grants for emerging leaders, and research to benefit libraries and the communities they serve. These are part of a budget to be agreed separately with SIGL, in line with the overall goals of the Legacy Grant.

The GB also received  an update of our 2024 budget as at the end of Q3.It shows that  a reduced deficit should be achieved in comparison to the approved budget. A full update of the 2023 budget will be shared once it is finalised.

Changes in the Governing Board

We received the news that our Treasurer, Jaap Naber has resigned. Jaap is now working outside the library and information sector and this influenced his decision to resign.. For over two years, Jaap has been a great colleague. Key achievements during Jaap’s term as Treasurer has been providing greater clarity in our financial reporting, supporting the achievement of ANBI (charity) status,, and the projected balanced budget for 2025. He leaves us in a better place than when he joined the Governing Board.

Following Jaap’s resignation, advice from the Parliamentarian Martyn Wade was sought. In accordance with Article 15.6 of the IFLA Statutes, the IFLA Governing Board is responsible for ensuring that arrangements are made to cover the duties of the Treasurer. Based on the Parliamentarian’s advice, I am pleased to advise that Stuart Hamilton has agreed to take on the role of Acting Treasurer. These acting arrangements are effective immediately. Given that IFLA is about to commence an election process, further advice on how best to fill the role until August 2025, will be sought from the Parliamentarian. Further updates will be provided to members on this matter.

Update on other activities

Beyond these issues, we also took a first look at a paper on plans for IFLA100 in 2027, and will discuss our planning approach at our December meeting. We also welcomed progress on agreeing a new phase of the Knowledge Rights 21 Programme, which we have now signed, and how to make sure that this engages IFLA members and units optimally.

Outside of the Governing Board, there’s of course plenty of other work progressing, and you can find the latest version of my IFLA President’s Priorities dashboard on my page on the IFLA website. Volunteers and staff continue to go above and beyond in order to deliver on plans for the end of the year – thank you!

The next couple of months will of course be busy, and not just with our in-person meeting in December. Some key processes will be coming to conclusion, including our WLIC Review, and we’ll start preparations for others, such as our governance review. We’ll be talking more about how we can further boost the transparency of our work, and also looking back at what was achieved across our 2019-2024 Strategy, as well as plans for a dashboard for our new one.

I’m looking forward to sharing more with you then!

Regards,

Vicki

Vicki McDonald
IFLA President 2023-2025