Welcome to YALSA’s new Executive Director

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YALSA is thrilled to welcome Tammy Dillard-Steels as our new Executive Director. Tammy’s first day will be Tuesday, April 23.

She brings to YALSA experience as executive director of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), as well as extensive experience at the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), where she served as Regional Director, leading the Chapter Performance Excellence Team and managing the “CEO Circle” of products, benefits, membership and budget.

Other positions have included Director, Constituent Services, Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) and Executive Director, Urban Sustainability Authority (Urban Sustain). At the AGD she was appointed by the Board of Directors to restructure the Leadership Development Forum.

Tammy Dillard-Steels has an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management and a Master of Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a Certified Association Executive, through the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and a Scholar from ASAE’s Diversity Executive Leader Program, as well as Association Forum of Chicagoland’s Diversity Workforce Initiative.
She is active professionally, as Chair of the Professional Practice Committee (Association Forum of Chicagoland) and member of the Foundation and Development Committee (ASAE). She is an Alumni Council Member at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.

I hope you will all join me in welcoming Tammy when she starts next week!

Here is the link to the official ALA announcement: http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2019/04/ala-welcomes-new-yalsa-executive-director-tammy-dillard-steels

 

YALSA Executive Director

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Anita Mechler, our Executive Director, has tendered her resignation, effective March 11, 2019. She has helped us move the mission of YALSA forward. We wish Anita the best of luck in her future endeavors.

YALSA’s Board has begun implementation of YALSA’s succession plan and will be working with ALA leadership to find YALSA a new Executive Director.  We will provide updates to the membership periodically as the process progresses.

I am confident that as a community YALSA will be able to move forward in a productive and unifying manner.

If you have questions, please reach out to me or to any of the other Board members.

President’s Report – January 2019

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Hello Colleagues,

As you may know, the YALSA Board works year round. In January the Board spent its time preparing for Midwinter, Strategic Planning and creating, discussing & voting on Board documents virtually. On Friday and Saturday of Midwinter the YALSA Board began its Strategic Planning process for this year. The Board will work with the same consultants through May to create a plan to be used for the next three years. Keep an eye out for ways to participate in the Strategic Planning process.

The Board also reviewed a document brought forward by the Awards Oversight Committee. The document posed questions that had arisen over the past year and that needed clarification in the manual. A board subcommittee was set up to explore these questions and will report back to the Awards Oversight Committee by April.

The Re-envisioning TRW/TTW Taskforce also presented a report to the Board, which was reviewed at Midwinter. The Board liked the proposal for a one month celebration of the importance of Services for and with Teens in Libraries. The Taskforce was asked to continue its work to create the first new celebration.

Finally, the Board had a vacancy and voted to appoint Dorcas Wong to fill the available spot, until the term June 30th, 2019.

Thank You!

  • Thank you to Linda Braun for editing the Spring 2019 Issue of YALS!
  • Also, a big thank you to the members of the Awards Committees (Alex, Edwards, Odyssey, Morris, Non-Fiction, and Printz) for all your hard work in the lead up to and at Midwinter!

Relevant Stats & Data

  • December Membership: 4,516 (-5.29% from December 2017)
  • Funds raised for November: $2,053

Don’t Forget!

Best,
Crystle Martin
YALSA President 2018-2019

President’s Report – December 2018

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Hello Colleagues,

As you may know, the YALSA Board works year round. In December the Board was very busy creating, discussing & voting on Board documents virtually. The Board has approved a change in the Board make up to replace a Member-at-Large for an Advocacy position. This will require a Bylaws Change, which will be available for the YALSA membership to vote on in March.

The Board has also created a new volunteer form. The new form will help the President-Elect appoint more diverse committees. The new form will also make it easier for members to select committees that are best suited for their interests.

The Board has also approved a change to the statement of the function of the Executive Committee. The change in statement aligns with the current function of the Executive Committee, creating transparency in the role of the Executive Committee.

The Organization and Bylaws committee created a new policy that establishes a process for rescinding awards. The policy has been approved by the Board and is now posted on YALSA’s website.

The final document that the Board has worked on has been to select a new site for the 2020 Symposium, which will take place in Reno, NV.

Thank You!

  • Thank you to Allison Renner for her two years of service as the YALSblog Member Manager!

Relevant Stats & Data

  • November Membership: 4,601 (-4.31% from October 2017)
  • Funds raised for November: $3,570
  • Funds raised at Symposium: over $3,000

Don’t Forget!

Best,
Crystle Martin
YALSA President 2018-2019

2018 YA Services Symposium – Wrap Up

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This year YALSA had a very successful YA Services Symposium in Salt Lake City. It was well attended with 500 attendees from across the US and Canada. The Symposium had a great variety of talks and 33 authors attended across the conference, with 26 authors being part of the Book Blitz. YALSA raised over $3000 to benefit Friends of YALSA. Friends of YALSA supports $14, 095 in grants, awards, and scholarships. For a great description of the content of the Symposium check out this blog post by Rebecca Weber. The call for proposals is now open for the 2019 YA Services Symposiums. Submit a proposal by February 1st! Come join YALSA in Memphis next November!

YALSA President’s Report – October and November 2018

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Hello Colleagues,

As you may know, the YALSA Board works year round. Since September we have been creating, discussing & voting on Board documents virtually. The Board made recommendations to change the Quarterly Report form for committees to a Committee Impact Report.

The Board approved revisions to the Mission and Vision and developing an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Plan, as recommended by the Advancing Diversity Taskforce. This document is posted in the Midwinter 2019 Meeting Agenda and the EDI Plan is published on Issues and Current Projects.

The Board is making progress with Strategic Planning and is in the final phase of hiring a strategic planning consultant.

The Board also created a taskforce for YALSA’s participation in the 22×20 Campaign.

The final document that the Board has worked on has been to appoint Dora Ho has YALSA’s new Fiscal Officer.

Thank You!

  • Thank you to Sharon Deeds, Joella Bagshaw, and Christina Walsh for their work as the Symposium Local Arrangement Committee in Salt Lake!
  • Thank you to Tess Wilson for guest editing the fall issue of YALS on Year Round Teen Services. It will be available to read very soon.

Relevant Stats & Data

  • October Membership: 4,638 (-3,23% from October 2017)
  • Funds raised for September and October: $5,335

 Don’t Forget!

Best,
Crystle Martin
YALSA President 2018-2019

YALSA Wants to Know What You Think: Library Community Survey

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As YALSA embarks on forming its next Strategic Plan, we would like to get feedback from the library community about their interests around services for and with teens and the direction of the organization. The feedback you provide will help us to design the next iteration of YALSA to best suit your needs.

You do not have to be a member. All survey responses are strictly confidential and will not be shared beyond YALSA. The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. Please complete the survey by Dec. 15.

Thank you for helping us to improve YALSA.

Mark Your Calendars! Giving Tuesday is Nov. 27!

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Save the date for Giving Tuesday on November 27!

This year, YALSA’s goal is to raise funds to support Friends of YALSA. We encourage everyone to give early on Tuesday, Nov. 27 for the most impact. So far in 2018, FOY has raised $5,629 towards its goal of $15,095 needed to provide our annual member grants, awards and scholarships. Our Giving Tuesday goal is to raise the remaining $9,466. Help YALSA reach its annual goal for Friends of YALSA (FOY) so that it can fund its member grants and stipends. The grants and stipends support our members in serving their teens.

Check out this infographic to see where Friends of YALSA funds go, and please help get the word out to family, friends, colleagues and library supporters about YALSA’s Giving Tuesday efforts.

Learn more about FOY and save the date for Nov. 27 for Giving Tuesday!

YALSA President’s Report August-September 2018

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Hello Colleagues,

In August, YALSA welcomed our new Executive Director, Anita Mechler. We are very excited to have her with us as we embark on a new round of Strategic Planning.

As you may know, the YALSA Board works year round. Since July we have been creating, discussing & voting on Board documents virtually. The Board decided to pilot holding the Edwards Celebration at the YALSA Symposium starting in 2019.

The Board finished up revisions to the Mission and Vision and developing an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Plan, as recommended by the Advancing Diversity Taskforce. This document will be posted soon and the EDI Plan will also be published as a standalone document.

We have created a Strategic Planning timeline. The board will be keeping members updated as we make progress through blog posts.

The Board also created a taskforce to Reenvision Teen Read Week and Teen Tech Week into a larger advocacy initiative. This taskforce is already working and will have its recommendations to the Board in April.

The final document we have worked on since July is the Committee Impact Report, which initiates the revamping of our quarterly committee report. This will help celebrate the work of committees and make their work more transparent.

Thank You!

Outreach

YALSA staff and members have had booths at the following conferences:

Relevant Stats & Data

  • September Membership: 4,622 (down 3.6% over September 2017)
  • Funds raised in August: $12,450

 Don’t Forget!

  • The 2018 YALSA YA Services Symposium will take place in Salt Lake City, UT, November 2-4, 2018, at the Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel with a theme of: Zeroing In: Focusing on Teen Needs.Registration is open now and the preliminary program is online.
  • Take a moment to read the full Advancing Diversity Taskforce Report, which is now available!
  • The YALSA Board approved a new version of YALSA’s Competencies. Make sure to check out the YALSAblog to learn more about these competencies. Find out about the upcoming free webinar competencies series here.
  • The Public Library & School Library Collaboration Toolkit, the result of a three-year collaborative effort with members of AASL, ALSC and YALSA, provides information, research, and examples to will help facilitate and incorporate collaborative initiatives. Make sure to check it out!
  • Check out the The Hub for the the latest on YA resources!
  • Check out the Current Projects page to stay updated on what’s going on!

Best,
Crystle Martin
YALSA President 2018-2019

Call for Volunteers for the Reenvisioning TRW/TTW Taskforce

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On September 24th, the YALSA board approved a Board Document that calls for the formation of a taskforce to re-envision the Teen Tech Week and Teen Read Week initiatives and create a larger advocacy/awareness campaign to promote the importance of year-round teen services. If you are interested in being a part of the discussion and creating a new awareness campaign to elevate the importance of year-round services to teens, please contact me to volunteer crystle.martin@gmail.com.

The TTW ning site will be deactivated on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018 and all resources on the site will be moved to the YALSA site and wiki.

To learn more, please read the re-envisioning TTW and TRW board document, along with board document #32 from last year. If you would like to be kept in the loop about the re-envisioning process, please sign up here.