President Eric Samuelsen's president's address at the 2008 AML annual meeting (which can be found
here) takes a light-hearted approach to the idea of mission statements. He ends his address with
Quote:I’m calling for more inclusiveness, in a paper that started out by dismissing mission statements as meretricious rubbish. But my larger point is that if even mission statements can be profound so can any other literary form. And if language, and the skilled use of language by genuine craftspeople can accomplish that, then there’s nothing that’s beyond our capabilities. As Glen Hansard, winner of an Academy Award for best song put it in his acceptance speech: “make art! Make art!” That’ll do for a mission statement, at least until something better comes along.
Well, I'd like to discuss AML's purpose, whether we come up with a better "mission statement" or not.
I've been reading
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath (after reading William Morris'
review on Good Reads), and I think it has some useful ideas.
So I'd like to ask, if AML were to come up with something short (and sweet and simple) like "Make Art!" (or "Make Mormon Literature" perhaps?) as a "mission statement," how is what AML is doing achieving that "mission" and how is what AML is doing detracting from it?
I'd also like to ask if there is a better way to describe what AML is really trying to do, since AML really doesn't "Make Mormon Literature" on it's own. Does it encourage other people to "Make Mormon Literature" instead?
Here is a list of some of the things AML does (if I've left anything out, please feel free to add to the list):
1--AML List and AML Discussion Board
2--
Irreantum3--AML website
4--AML review archive
5--AML awards
6--AML annual meeting
7--AML writers conference (in the past--we're not doing one this year)
8--occasional readings, theater attendance as a group, meet-and-eat lunches, and other more informal get-togethers
Which of the above encourages people to "Make Mormon Literature?" What else do the above do, in addition or instead?
I believe that when AML was first started, it was more scholarly and academic than it is now, so instead of "Make Mormon Literature," it may have had a mission more like "Discuss Mormon Literature" or "Analyze Mormon Literature" or maybe even "Define Mormon Literature." The annual meeting still does that, I think, and so does the AML List and Discussion Board, each in their own ways.
But since then AML has added
Irreantum, the website and the review archive as well as things like the writers conferences and get-togethers. Do those analyze or define Mormon Literature so much, and is analysis and definition their main purpose?
I'd like to suggest that AML has evolved a bit and maybe it's purpose is a corollary of "Discuss Mormon Literature." Maybe it is (or should be?) closer to "Tell people about Mormon Literature" or "Share Mormon Literature." I don't know if the AML List and the AML Discussion Board and the AML annual meeting do those kinds of things very much because they don't reach very many people, but if AML's purpose is to "Share Mormon Literature," then maybe AML needs to find ways to reach more people, to tell them about the 1000+ reviews in the AML review archive, to let them know about
Irreantum, to have more informal gatherings and to invite more people to attend them.
We're really trying to get the AML website updated so that the AML review archive is easier to keep up-to-date and available, and so that other information can be made available to people who really do want to know about what's available in Mormon Literature.
What I'd like to know is whether or not "Share Mormon Literature" is AML's mission, or are one of the other things I've mentioned really its mission? Or is its mission something else?
I look forward to other's ideas on this subject, and I'm sure other members of the AML board do as well.
