If you attended ALA’s Annual Conference, I hope you’re safely home and recovering from all that is conference! If you have never been to this event, members can apply by December 1st for a travel grant from YALSA to go to the next one in New Orleans!
The YALSA Board was very productive in Chicago, and you can see the actions of the board on this page. Some highlights include:
- Agreed to provide more support to YALSA interest groups and to encourage more of them
- Agreed to create a new member opportunity, a YALSA Liaison to ALA Groups, with responsibilities as listed in Board Doc #18, and with up to $1,000 in funding to attend conference, if needed.
- Agreed to work with REFORMA and ALSC to explore expanding the Pura Belpre Award to ages up to 18 and to create Best of Latinx-themed literature list on the Hub
- Approved the FY18 Implementation Plan
- Agreed to pilot the use of eARCs/ebooks for award committees and selected list bloggers beginning with groups that start work in 2018, and to indicate on all lists/awards whether titles are readily available in languages other than English or in other formats, like Braille or large print.
- Approved the plan to move YALS to an all digital format
- Adopted a board member self-assessment for self/mentor use, as well as a board assessment for use by the Board Development Committee to plan professional development
- Adopted an exit survey to be distributed to all members at the end of serving on a committee/task force/jury
- Agreed that the short-term three month length of juries will continue with a few alterations (like the chair serving for an extra month)
- Agreed in concept with the idea to evolve Teen Read Week and Teen Tech Week into a month-long public awareness campaign beginning in 2019 and to provide more year-round programming resources for members
The board will continue to explore:
- ways to market YALSA’s member grants and awards
- new grants and awards that might need to be created to meet the needs of our members
- how to build capacity to support the implementation plan
- best practices regarding measures of outcomes of volunteer contributions
- the possibility of creating a month-long public awareness campaign about teen services, as well as investigating how to support members in year-round teen services efforts
Look for the official minutes from our Annual meetings coming soon. At the conclusion of our board meetings, I officially handed the gavel over to the awesome YALSA President Sandra Hughes-Hassell, and the new board members were seated. Check out our current roster for some new and familiar faces.
The Board’s next meeting will be at the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting from February 9-13, 2018. We’re looking forward to seeing YALSA members in Denver!
And remember, YALSA’s YA Services Symposium will be in Louisville, Kentucky, November 3-5, 2017. Early bird registration is going on now!
Thanks for all that you do to make YALSA an amazing association and thank you for the tremendous opportunity to serve as the association’s President. It was an honor and a privilege to work with you all this past year!
