As I’ve posted before, as YALSA President Elect this fall I’m responsible for appointments to YALSA’s selection committees.’ For me this week that means making phone calls to committee chairs to get their feedback on how the work of their committee is going.
These phone conversations have been great. Yesterday I talked with 5 of the chairs and everyone I talked with was really open and honest about their committees.’ They gave me really good information on what they see as working, and on what YALSA might think about in terms of improvements to the committee process.’ In particular, I ended up with lots of good ideas for ways in which YALSA can work on the committee appointment process so to make it even more seamless for those who want to volunteer. (Thanks to everyone who talked to me yesterday and thanks in advance to those I’m going to talk to in the next week or so.)
On that topic of the committee appointment process, one of the things that’s been surprising to me since I started to get this inside look at things, is how few people actually submit a committee volunteer form.’ I keep looking at the Google Doc we created to manage the appointment process and think to myself, “Where are all the people?”‘ So, this is a reminder, if you are interested in volunteering for a YALSA Committee please fill out a volunteer form. It’s the best way to make sure your name will be known by someone like me who is making the appointments.
And, on the topic, of knowing people’s names, I’ve also been struck over the last month about how many people in YALSA I do and do not know.’ In talking with the committee chairs and going over committee member lists I’ve realized that in an organization of over 5000 it is of course impossible to know everyone. But, the volunteer form works in that way too. I don’t have to have met you for you to be appointed to a committee.
YALSA is working hard to make the committee appointment process as seamless and transparent as possible.’ We’ve started a new page on the wiki filled with information on how to get involved in the Division. And, there’s a sub-page on the committee appointment process that I’m going to be updating throughout my year as President-Elect.
Feel free to contact me if you have questions about committees and how they work. You can email me at lbraun@leonline.com or send me a message on twitter @lbraun2000.
