YALSA’s Board of Directors met recently at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting. Listed below are just some of the key decisions the Board made. A draft of the full minutes of the meeting will be posted on the Governance section of YALSA’s web site by the end of the month.
- At both Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting, the YALSA Board receives an update on the Association’s financial health. This update is provided by YALSA’s Fiscal Officer, Mary Hastler, and Executive Director, Beth Yoke. The report at Midwinter included suggestions that help guarantee that during financially difficult times, YALSA remains financially secure. The YALSA Board will continue to consider ways to control expenses and maximize revenues while meeting member needs. The full financial report is available from the Governance section of the YALSA web site (Midwinter board document #21).
- The Board approved a set of policies and procedures for YALSA’s new Readers’ Choice Committee. They can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2fdugut
- The Board directed the President to establish a member taskforce to evaluate the changes made to YALSA’s awards and selected lists, specifically the changes to the Alex Award, narrowing the focus of BBYA to fiction and the establishment of a Nonfiction Award that produces a winner, finalists and an official list of nominees.
- The Board directed the President to establish a Continuing Education Advisory Board that will assist YALSA’s Program Officer for Continuing Education with identifying timely topics as well as qualified instructors for e-courses, webinars and institutes.
- The Board voted to put a proposal on the 2011 ballot for members to consider that would re-envision the way YALSA seeks qualified candidates for elected positions to governance roles and award committees. The proposal would sunset the one-committee structure and create two new committees: one that would focus specifically on award committee positions and another on governance.
- The Board approved a proposal for a YALSA Writing Award that will go on to the ALA Award Committee for final approval. The writing award will have three categories: feature article, research article and blog post.
- The final draft of YALSA’s teen services evaluation tool was approved in concept and after final edits will be available from YALSA’s web site.
- A new white paper was approved by the Board and will be available from YALSA’s web site by the end of the month. It is an issue paper entitled “The Importance of a Whole Library Approach to Public Library Young Adult Services.â€
- YALSA’s Board approved the concept of conducting a self-assessment annually for Board members in order to develop a learning plan that will help them build targeted leadership and governance skills.
- The Board adopted a new policy on corporate sponsorships, which will be posted in the Handbook on YALSA’s web site by the end of the month.
There were several discussion items on the Board agenda that there was not enough time for during the weekend meetings. The Board will discuss these on their workspace in ALA Connect and, based on the discussions, move forward as appropriate. The next meeting of the Board will be via conference call on March 2nd from 2:30 to 3:30, eastern. The purpose of the meeting will be to review and discuss quarterly Chair reports (to be submitted in Feb.). If you have any questions about the YALSA Board, the way it works, how decisions are made and/or how to sit in on the next meeting, feel free to get in touch with me at kimpatton@kclibrary.org.
-Kimberly Patton
