President’s Report

YALSA President’s Report: September 2009

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 YALSA President’s Report: September 2009

YALSA President’s Report: July 15 – August 31, 2009

There’s been a lot of activity at YALSA since Annual Conference. In my six weeks as the President, I’ve had the chance to speak with many members, work on projects with fellow Executive Committee and Board members, and plan for future events and programs.

Accomplishments

Following discussions at Annual about BBYA in particular and modernizing YALSA’s selected lists in general, the YALSA Executive Committee discussed, via phone, next steps in developing a proposal, to be fine-tuned at Fall Executive Committee Meeting. An overview of the information from that conversation is available as a pdf file.
The work of YALSA’s committees/juries/taskforces goes on year-round. Continue reading YALSA President’s Report: July 15 – August 31, 2009

A Month in the Life of a YALSA President

In late July, a second round of A Day in the Life of a Library, launched. As I read posts librarians wrote for this project about how they spend their days as librarians, I started thinking how I spend my time as YALSA President. And, while it’s not a 9 to 5 job as is that of many librarians, it is something that I spend at least a bit of time on every day. I thought to myself, what about a blog post on a month in the life of a YALSA President?

It’s just over a month since I took on the job of YALSA President, and I can’t quite believe both that it’s been that long and all the conversations I’ve had about YALSA with a variety of people in that time. Don’t worry, this post isn’t going to go through every day of my first month as YALSA President, Continue reading A Month in the Life of a YALSA President

YALSA Endowment

As I mentioned briefly in my January President’s Report, YALSA’s new Endowment received quite a boost at the recent Midwinter meeting when several Past-Presidents led the charge at the All-Committee meeting to help us reach our $10,000 goal for creating an Endowment Fund. The response was overwhelming at that meeting and has continued in the weeks since Midwinter, too. Just to update everyone on where that fund stands, we have now surpassed that initial $10,000 goal and have received a total of $11,300 to date! The funds will go toward establishing leadership programs such as scholarships and institutes.

Thanks to all the members who have supported this effort and to so many of YALSA’s dynamic and dedicated Past-Presidents and leaders for giving our division the push and support to make the Endowment a reality. Please check the YALSA webpage and this blog for more information as we move forward on this important project in the coming months.