On April 17th YALSA’s Executive Committee met by conference call for its semi-annual meeting to discuss several ongoing and two new issues. The agenda and related documents for this meeting can be found in theGovernance section of YALSA’s web site. Some highlights from the meeting include:
- Talking through possible next steps in order to advance YALSA’s strategic planning effort. YALSA will be putting out an RFP to identify a consultant who can support YALSA leaders as we work to become more outcomes focused and to develop a new plan for YALSA that aligns with the Futures Report
- Thinking about how the work of the relatively new board standing committees can be organized to best support the mission of YALSA and increase the impact of the great work that member committees, juries, taskforces and advisory boards do
- Discussing the draft FY16 budget and talking about how best to prioritize activities and align resources in order to best support members in the coming fiscal year
- Reviewing the recommendations from the Selection Committee Evaluation Taskforce, whose work has focused on examining the six award committees to look for opportunities to improve or streamline processes in order to make the work of these groups easier and more coordinated.
There were two items we did not have time to get to, but that we plan to explore in our virtual work space: determining an oversight process for YALSA’s upcoming teen programming database and thinking about targeted member recruitment. The minutes of this meeting can be found in the Governance section of YALSA’s web site. It’s important to note that YALSA’s Executive Committee is not the decision making body of the organization, and that no decisions were made during the meeting. The Committee may, however, decide to advance some of the discussions and/or make some recommendations to the board for their meeting in June. YALSA’s Board of Directors has just begun to explore the topics and issues they feel are a priority to discuss at their June meeting, If you have any recommendations for areas of focus for the board, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. It’s an exciting time for YALSA and I’m grateful to be able to work on behalf of such enthusiastic and creative members!
