I am the current chair of the Technology for Young Adults Committee. I had scheduled a meeting outside of All Committee (where all of the committees meet for 2 hours in the morning on Saturday at conference) in case we needed it to be able to continue our work. It turned out we didn’t, but one of the committee members had a conflict for the morning meeting so she and I planned to meet in the afternoon. When we both got to the scheduled room there was a pleasant surprise. About eight people we had never seen before were there!

I immediately let the guests know what the Technology for Young Adults committee was all about and then specifically talked about the tasks we were focusing on. It turned out that one person was a brand new member to YALSA and she was seeking out other opportunities to learn about committees outside of all committee meeting, where there are lots of people. Another person was member of a state association and wanted to find out what the committee was doing. It really made me think about how having meetings outside all committee (if possible) might attract a wider variety of people for varying reasons and increase accessibility.

As far as some of the highlights of what the Technology for Young Adults Committee has done for the past six months, and is working on now (and this is truly a reflection of all the members work-they are a very enthusiastic group and I think it’d be accurate to say none of us consider ourselves extreme tech gurus)

• wrote an article for YAttitudes and a blog post about the first ever Teens & Technology poster session which took place in Anaheim2008 annual
• worked with the Teen Tech Week committee to contribute program ideas to the wiki for this year’s Press Play @ Your Library celebration
• volunteered to serve on the Peter Lehman Memorial/Sage Scholarship for New Media Jury which will start in April (note: we weren’t picked since they had enough people)
• worked on developing panel presenters  and ideas for a session at annual on downloadable and streaming technologies for teens (stay tuned for this one!)
• showcased podcasting technologies at a table for the YALSA Mixer & Tech Playground
• submitted a request for board action to consider an award for technology innovation
• are working on developing a resource, such as a core competencies document for librarians working with teens and technology, based on results from the member survey and the strategic plan (which by the way is running a great ideas contest for all YALSA members)

There are several committees related to technology (well technology is part of every committee in one way or another) but the two closest ones are probably Teen Tech Week and Web Advisory. If you’re thinking of submitting a form, just know there are a variety to consider that might best fit your interests.

I enjoy reading about the amazing work other committees/task forces/interest groups are doing. Please feel free to post!