What is the YALSA Board? What do they do? Who is on the YALSA Board? These could be questions you may have and if they are you’ve come to the right place. Each month, two YALSA Board of Directors are interviewed and their responses are shared here in order to help members get to know more about the Board members, the Board itself and things the Board is working on.
YALSA’s board of directors has the principal responsibility for fulfillment of YALSA’s mission and the legal accountability for its operations. The board has specific fiduciary duties of care, loyalty, and obedience to the law. As a group they are in charge of:
– establishing a clear organizational mission
– forming the strategic plan to accomplish the mission
– overseeing and evaluating the plan’s success
– hiring a competent executive director
– providing adequate supervision and support to the executive director
This month meet Derek Ivie, Youth Services Coordinator for the Suffolk Cooperative Library System
What drew you to the Board?
I have been a part of YALSA since I was a student in library school and have always wanted to be involved. As a student, I used it as a resource to stay on top of trends in library services for teens. Once I graduated and became a full-fledged librarian my roles have been solely on Award and Selection committees – once chairing Quick Picks and most recently as a member of the 2016 Michael L. Printz Award committee. Just this past year I realized that I wanted to be more involved in bringing those things I found so valuable to fruition and decided to run for a position.
What do you do on the board?
My role on the Board is Board Member at Large. I participate in monthly online chats, meetings at Annual and Midwinter, am part of the Advocacy Standing Committee, and act as Liaison to two different taskforces: the YA Symposium Taskforce and the Annual Conference Marketing & Local Arrangements Taskforce. So far it has been a great learning about what is happening nationally in libraries and services for teens. Being Board Member at Large is a fantastic way to connect with YALSA members from throughout the country.
What is the board doing for its members?
YALSA’s Board and staff are constantly working on bringing powerful programming to its members (virtually and in person at ALA Conferences and at the Literature Symposium), creating helpful tools (like our Advocacy Toolkit and brand new Teen Literacies Toolkit), as well as working hard to advocate on behalf of young adult librarians and the importance of our services to teens on a national level (see how you can get involved in District Days).
What I’m Reading:
I am currently listening to Avenged by Amy Tintera which is the sequel to the fantasy Ruined.
