Tag: Fall Exec

YALSA Executive Committee Report

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Two weekends ago the YALSA Executive Committee met in Pittsburgh simultaneously with the YALSA Symposium. During a marathon Saturday meeting, the members of the Executive Committee (President Sarah Hill, who led the meeting; President-Elect Sandra Hughes-Hassell; Immediate Past President Candice Mack; Fiscal Officer Nick Buron; Secretary Crystle Martin; yours truly YALSA Division Councilor Todd Krueger; and Executive Director Beth Yoke) discussed many matters affecting the division.

One of the things that we discussed at length was making sure that the youth divisions (AASL, ALSC and YALSA) are well-represented in ALA governance, i.e. ALA Council and the ALA Executive Board. Because there are a number of YALSA members running for ALA Council this coming spring, we have high hopes that there will be more representation from members of youth divisions on ALA Council in the coming years. When the ballot arrives, be sure to access http://www.ala.org/yalsa/workingwithyalsa/election and check out the YALSA members running for Council. As the Division Councilor, I will be working with my companion Councilors in ALSC and AASL to make this objective a reality. It is a benefit to YALSA to have former president Jack Martin serving on the ALA Nominating Committee for 2017, which puts forward nominees for ALA President and Council for the following year. If you are interested in either of these positions, please contact me or Jack for more information.

A discussion about the future of ALA conferences and the ALA committee that is determining the scope and size of the conferences followed. Due to the way that YALSA has scheduled its meetings to avoid conflicts, any changes to future ALA conferences will likely not affect YALSA or its members in a negative way.

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Quick update from YALSA Executive Committee

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It’s been a bit busy since October, but I still wanted to get this posted, especially since it impacts a lot of what the YALSA Board does at Midwinter, and Midwinter is fast approaching!

In October YALSA’s Executive Committee gathered in Chicago for two and a half days of meetings. The first day was a great chance to work across divisions, roundtables and ALA with presidents, president-elects, and past presidents, as well as ALA staff. Like YALSA, ALA is currently doing strategic planning, and that was the focus of our work together. The new plan from ALA will focus on three areas: advocacy, information policy and professional development. You can learn more and join the discussion in ALA Connect.

Once that was done, the Executive Committee focused on issues impacting YALSA. That included:

  • Moving to an outcomes based approach to planning and assessment in YALSA
  • Getting the new Margaret Edwards Trust up and running and discussing its potential for funding literacy related projects
  • Prioritizing next steps for the association based on the recommendations in the report, “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: a Call to Action”
  • Talking about best practices in change management and how to incorporate them into the work of the Board
  • Reviewing a report from the Student Member Engagement Taskforce
  • Analyzing YALSA member survey results and discussing implications the results have on YALSA’s next round of strategic planning
  • Reviewing a draft of YALSA’s upcoming Programming Guidelines, which we anticipate will be finalized by February
  • Making preliminary plans for strategic planning activities for the Board and for members at the ALA Midwinter Meeting

The full agenda and accompanying documents are available in the Governance section of the web site for you to review. No final decisions were made, as the Executive Committee isn’t a decision making body, but these discussions will help inform future Board meetings and decision making. Many of these same topics will be on the Board’s agenda for Midwinter. In some cases the Executive Committee might choose to write up a request for Board action about an issue or idea that came out of the October discussions.

Right now, YALSA’s Board is developing the agenda for our meetings at Midwinter, and I’m busy asking Board members to complete documents or help address agenda items. If you have any ideas for agenda items or requests for board action, please contact me by the end of December. Once the agenda is finalized in January, I’ll share a blog post with you highlighting some of the issues and topics on the agenda.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

YALSA President’s Report: October 2009

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Accomplishments

  • Each fall YALSA’s Executive Committee meets in Chicago to discuss plans for the coming months. The meetings this year took place October 23 and 24 and the group talked about a range of topics including supporting and recognizing members in a recession, providing training for YALSA leadership, YALSA’s selected lists portfolio, and evaluation of the spending of Morris Endowment funds. Plans covered at the meetings are now being discussed by the full YALSA Board and will help in developing upcoming YALSA programs, services and opportunities. Continue reading

Post Fall Exec – Now What?

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In a previous post I wrote about ALA/YALSA Fall Exec, the time when the Executive Committees from ALA Divisions meet (individually) to plan for the upcoming months and year. Last weekend was the 2009 Fall Exec weekend and I wanted to follow-up the previous blog post with some information about discussions and plans. (As a reminder, all of the documents for Fall Exec are available to YALSA members in the Members Only section of the Association web site.) Continue reading

Fall Exec: What’s That?

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Every fall the executive committees of ALA divisions meet in Chicago in order to plan for the upcoming months and year. The weekend of meetings is often referred to as Fall Exec and this year’s meetings take place this weekend.

For YALSA, the Executive Committee (made up of the president, president-elect, immediate past president, secretary, fiscal officer and division councilor) meets on Friday morning and all day Saturday. On Friday afternoon YALSA’s Executive Committee members join with other division leaders at a large group meeting to talk about ALA’s strategic plan. Continue reading

YALSA President’s Report: September 2009

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During the past month I have continued to work with YALSA’s Executive Director, Beth Yoke, the Executive Committee, and Board members on programs and services of the Association.

Accomplishments

  • As a part of ALA’s strategic planning process Division Executive Directors and Presidents, Roundtable representatives, along with ALA Executive Board members and some ALA staff members participated in a strategic planning retreat. The planning was facilitated by Paul Meyer of the Tecker Consulting Group. During the retreat sessions participants discussed ALA’s mission, vision, and goals for the future. Over the next few months ideas developed at the retreat and at follow-up ALA meetings will be released for feedback to members and member groups.
  • Each fall members of ALA Division Executive Committees meet in Chicago to discuss plans for the coming year. Over the past few weeks I’ve worked with YALSA Executive Director Beth Yoke on the agenda and support materials for meetings of YALSA’s Executive Committee. Continue reading