The Professional Practice Committee will promote positive professional practices among the members of the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association (MLA).  This will be accomplished via activities related to assessment, mentoring, marketing, and promotion; continuing education opportunities; research; advocacy of health sciences libraries and its professional information staff; and the development or dissemination of credentialing information.

The Professional Practice Committee will serve as a conduit between the Medical Library Association and its Midwest Chapter's members regarding continuing education and credentialing activities.  assistance will also be provided to Midwest MLA Conference Coordinators for continuing education programs and planning.

The Committee will make recommendations to the Midwest MLA Executive Board on all policies relating to professional practice.  The Committee is responsible for documenting professional practice policies and procedures on the Chapter website and in other relevant publications.  The Committee Chair will prepare and submit a report to each Executive Board meeting.  The chair will also submit appropriate documentation for the Committee's activities and reports to the Chapter Archives.

The Professional Practice Committee shall consist of at least five Midwest Chapter MLA members who are appointed to serve a two-year term by the Chapter President.  The committee chair and one member must be appointed in odd-numbered years; two members must be appointed in even numbered years.   

A member of the Committee will be appointed by the Committee Chair to serve as the liaison to the MLA Continuing Education committee.  A different committee member will be appointed to serve as liaison to the MLA Credentialing Committee.  Other members may be appointed to serve as an MLA liaison as appropriate.

Published at https://mcmla45.wildapricot.org/professional-practice-committee 

Chair Responsibilities

• Send letter of thanks to outgoing committee members.
• Submit reports listed under Timeline
• Attend Chapter board meetings 

Committee Members' Responsibilities

• Collect information about continuing education offerings at annual meetings.  
• Coordinate a periodic continuing education interest survey.
• Submit items of interest to the Communications Committee.
• Submit documents to the Archivist.
• If appointed as an MLA committee Liaison, participate on that MLA committee too 
• Advertise, judge, and announce Chapter annual meeting Research Awards for papers and posters
• Keep current the chapter web page(s) under the Professional Development tab 

Timeline

Notes

Specific MLA Liaison Roles & Responsibilities

MLA Chapter Credentialing Liaison

(copied from mlanet AHIP web pages 1/10/14) Chapter Credentialing Liaisons (CCLs) promote the Academy of Health Information Professionals in their respective chapters by sharing information about the academy and encouraging membership. 

Qualifications

• Be an academy member.
• Be enthusiastic about the academy.
• Demonstrate good written and verbal communication skills.
• Use email.
• Demonstrate organizational skills, such as paying attention to detail and consistently following up with questions and requests for information.
• Preferred: willingness to attend MLA annual meetings to learn about updates to the academy.

Responsibilities

• Encourage chapter members to pursue academy membership.
• Answer questions about the academy.
• Read MLA and Credentialing Committee (CC) communications about the academy.
• Subscribe to the Credentialing Committee mailing list (mla-credexec) and participate in discussions.
• Foward issues raised by chapter members to Credentialing Committee.

Recognition

The academy recognizes the work done by CCL by awarding them 10 points per year of service, which count toward the five-point MLA activities requirement at the distinguished level.

CCL Activity Suggestions

• Contact new chapter members to discuss the academy.
• Refer difficult academy questions to MLA HQ (Kathleen Combs) for triage.
• Assist members to locate forms and instructions for applying to academy.
• Agree to be listed as local contact on CC's "Who's Who in the Academy" web page.
• Agree to be listed as local contact on chapter's website.
• Agree to be listed as local contact in chapter newsletter.
• Assist CC in testing and refining new web pages.
• Exhibit at chapter meetings.
• Hold an academy clinic at chapter meetings.
• Call current academy members who are about to renew and offer assistance.
• Write articles for chapter newsletter.
• Present academy information at local library schools.
• Speak about the academy in chapter forums.