Dear YALSA members,
Each fall, the President-Elect of our organization joins the YALSA Executive Director to attend a leadership event to better understand the tenets of leading a nonprofit organization and how leadership styles may mesh and what improvements can be made to ensure a seamless transition and continuity for YALSA. Earlier this month, Executive Director Anita Mechler and I had the opportunity to attend ASAE‘s CEO Symposium in Washington DC, led by representatives from Tecker International. Tecker has worked with ALA and many of its divisions over the years to help with decision-making, strategic planning and training.
Held at the historic Watergate Hotel, this year’s event was of particular importance to YALSA leadership, as it was the first time that Anita had attended the event, so both of us were new to the training. Before the program started on Thursday, we took the opportunity on Wednesday afternoon to meet with local partners. Anita met with the ALA Washington Office and discussed matters of advocacy affecting YALSA and teens in general. Then the two of us connected and met with Kelcy Shepherd, Tim Carrigan and Sarah Fuller of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) where we had a very fruitful meeting discussing potential grant opportunities and partnerships that our organizations could jointly tackle. Finally, it was our great pleasure to meet with Abby Kiesa of 22×20 to further establish our working relationship. More information about all of these relationships will be forthcoming.
The ASAE CEO Symposium brought hundreds of nonprofit leaders from various fields together to discuss Board and leadership issues, trends, and behaviors. Key to the two-day event was the time that Anita and I spent speaking one-on-one on how our backgrounds and knowledge inform our decision-making and leadership styles. We took a modified Myers-Briggs test and learned our strengths and potential pitfalls as individuals and as partner leaders. Responsibilities of Board members, fiduciary issues, governance models, and case studies were all covered in this whirlwind learning opportunity. As the next YALSA Strategic Plan will be determined in the coming months, the timing of this event was fortuitous to create a strong understanding between the Board leadership and our Executive Director. An added bonus was to spend time with fellow attendees ALSC Executive Director Aimee Strittmatter and ALSC President-Elect Cecilia McGowan. The four of us talked at great length about potential partnerships, both official and unofficial, between our divisions and simply enjoyed getting to know each other.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Todd Krueger, YALSA President-Elect
todd.yalsa@gmail.com
