President’s Report – November & December 2015

Happy Winter!

Can you believe it’s already February?!

It’s been a whirlwind since ALA Annual, and here’s what I’ve worked on in November & December 2015:

Accomplished

Attended YALSA’s inaugural YA Services Symposium in Portland, OR, and welcomed participants at Opening Reception, Author Luncheon for Jack Gantos (who I like to call the “Johnny Cash of YA Lit”) and Closing Ceremony Poetry Slam
Solicited feedback and topics for the Fall Executive Meeting from Board members.
Recruit board members to take the lead on various proposals, discussions, and more
Participated in, coordinated and led discussions at YALSA Fall Executive Meeting, which was held in Portland, OR, after the YA Services Symposium
Assigned Executive Committee members to blog about different topics from the YALSA Fall Executive Committee Meeting and Strategic Planning sessions
Called for discussion and vote on adoption of YALSA’s revised Board Meeting Guidelines
- Motion passed, the guidelines have been adopted and will be added to the YALSA Handbook
Called for discussion and vote on
Hosted first YALSA Member Townhall Tweet-up of the year on November 30th, 2015
Hosted second YALSA Member Townhall Tweet-up on December 18th, 2015
Filled chair and member vacancies on YALSA’s Financial Advancement Committee (Thanks so much, Jane Gov, Alida Hanson and Tiffany Williams!!!)
Filled vacancy on 2017 Alex award committee (Thank you Diana Tixier Herald!)

Works in Progress

Preparing for YALSA Strategic Planning at ALA Midwinter
Working on President’s Program collaboration with ALA ethnic caucuses, ALA GLBT Round Table, ASCLA, and more
Working with colleagues at Wattpad, National Writing Project, Connected Learning Alliance, and DeviantArt on design challenge partnership in conjunction with Teen Tech Week 2016’s theme: Create It @ Your Library
Working with colleagues at Connected Learning Alliance on possible IMLS grant proposal to design tools to evaluate outcomes of connected learning in libraries

Media & Outreach

Emceed various programs and was a guest panelist on “Lessons from Learning Spaces: Challenges and Opportunities for Maker Programming in Libraries” program at YA Services Symposium

Important YALSA News & Reminders

Feb. 1st – Submit a program proposal or paper presentationidea now for our 2016 symposium, Empowering Teens to Increase your Library’s Impact taking place in Pittsburgh, PA, November 4-6, 2016. Submit a program proposal here or a paper presentation here
Feb. 1st – Deadline to Apply for National Library Legislative Day Travel Funds
Feb. 5th – YALSA Member Town Hall meeting on Friday, Feb. 5 from noon – 1PM EST. Use #yalsachat to participate and following along on twitter!
Feb. 8th – First day of Reading with a Critical Eye: Evaluating YA Literature: E-Course (Feb. 8 – March 20, 2016) $155 YALSA Members/$215 Non-Members
This course is designed for individuals who wish to read books more deeply and critically. Participants will learn about the basic elements of literature, consider form and format, as well as related topics (i.e., multicultural books, blogging, reviews, resources, etc.). Whether serving on a YALSA selection committee or just interested in becoming more familiar with critical literary evaluation, this course is for you! Register here.

Relevant Stats & Data

THANK YOU

Many thanks to Teen Read Week Committee Chair Amanda Barnhart and the rest of her team for all of their work in making “Get Away @ Your Library” happen!
Thank you to everyone who attended, spoke at, and assisted at our inaugural YA Services Symposium in Portland, especially to Jane Gov, the truly amazing Chair of the YA Services Symposium Taskforce 2015 and now ex-officio YALSA Board member and Chair of the Financial Advancement Committee! We can’t wait to see you later this year for our YA Services Symposium in Pittsburgh, PA!

Respectfully submitted,