The first annual YALSA Past Presidents’ Lecture was scheduled for Saturday, January 8, at the 2011 Midwinter Meeting. Unfortunately, the speaker, Mary K. Chelton, was unable to attend the Meeting and could therefore not present her lecture. However, Chelton was able to record her speech and it is provided here in its entirety.
YALSA’s Board of Directors met recently at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting. Listed below are just some of the key decisions the Board made. A draft of the full minutes of the meeting will be posted on the Governance section of YALSA’s web site by the end of the month.
- At both Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting, the YALSA Board receives an update on the Association’s financial health. This update is provided by YALSA’s Fiscal Officer, Mary Hastler, and Executive Director, Beth Yoke. The report at Midwinter included suggestions that help guarantee that during financially difficult times, YALSA remains financially secure. The YALSA Board will continue to consider ways to control expenses and maximize revenues while meeting member needs. The full financial report is available from the Governance section of the YALSA web site (Midwinter board document #21).
- The Board approved a set of policies and procedures for YALSA’s new Readers’ Choice Committee. They can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2fdugut Read More →
This Midwinter conference, I attended a meeting of the Youth Council Caucus (YCC). There were well over forty people that came from the three ALA youth divisions. The momentum was exciting as ideas and information sharing buzzed throughout the room.
A few months ago, when a few of my colleagues told me that it was important to have youth member representation on such entities as ALA Council or to attend the Youth Council Caucus, I thought it was a good idea in principle. Meaning, it made sense to me on the level that I work with youth every day and am passionate about what I do. But beyond that, I didn’t completely understand how such representation helps. Until now. Read More →
On Sunday, January 9, YALSA hosted Coffee with the Candidates. This new approach to getting to know the candidates running for YALSA Board, in an informal setting, was an excellent way to learn about those on the 2011 YALSA slate.
This is how it worked. Candidates running for each position sat together at tables. In other words Board candidates Christian Zabriskie and Sandra Hughes-Hassell sat together, candidates for President Jack Martin and Mary Hastler sat together, Fiscal Officer candidates Penny Johnson and Jerene Battisti sat together, and candidates for Secretary Sarajo Wentling and Krista McKenzie sat together. Those attending the session sat at each table for 15 minute Q and A sessions. After a 15 minute period attendees moved to another table to sit with another set of candidates. Read More →
Our blogger meetup at Midwinter, originally scheduled for Sunday from’ 1:30-3:30, unfortunately conflicts with the teen feedback session for Best Fiction for Young Adults–which we are, in fact, live-blogging. Any bloggers, new or returning, planning on attending the meetup should come to the Best Fiction location (conference center room 14) instead. I’ll be there starting at noon, and we’ll keep the agenda informal as usual to accommodate folks coming in from other meetings.
In related news, join us for live coverage of the teen feedback session, Sunday from 1:30-3:30! If you’re not at Midwinter you can hear what the teens have to say and join us in discussing nominated titles. As always, we’ll do our darndest to stream live video from the session. You can join the session directly from the blog, or you can participate by using the #bfya hashtag on Twitter. You can also log in with your Facebook or Twitter profile to include your profile picture with your comments.
YALSA will also be liveblogging the Youth Media Awards on Monday morning, so if you can’t get into the official ALA broadcast, join the discussion with us!
At this time of year I always think, How can Midwinter already be here? Of course it is a bit earlier than usual this year, but still, how can Midwinter already be here? I’m actually going to ALISE which means I’m leaving in less than a week. Oh my gosh.
That’s enough about how soon I’m leaving. There are lots of things that I’m looking forward to at Midwinter 2011 and I hope to see some YALSA Blog readers at various events, meetings, and so on. (By the way, don’t forget that you can keep up with YALSA at Midwinter even if you aren’t going to be there. Follow the hashtags #yalsa and #alamw11 on Twitter and make sure to check-out the recap on Paper.li every day during Midwinter.)
As the YALSA Past President I’ll be spending time in a variety of meetings, including YALSA Board meetings. Don’t forget that YALSA’s Board meetings are open and that means you can attend. Read President Kim Patton’s recent post on what the Board has coming up for vote and discussion this Midwinter. Why not find a time to sit in for at least a little while to see how the association works? It is a great way to learn what’s going on and to get more involved.
Before I focus on some of the events and meetings at Midwinter that I’m looking forward to (outside of Board meetings that is), I have to mention one event that I’m unfortunately not going to see take place live. It’s something I’m definitely looking forward to seeing after the fact. I’m going to be on a plane on Tuesday morning, January 11, when the Today show is scheduled to have a segment on the Youth Media Awards, but when I get off that plane I’m going to make sure to check out the clip. YALSA Past President, Sarah Debraski, will be on the show to talk about the Awards and the winners. If you are in New York City you might want to cheer Sarah on outside of the Today show studios at Rockefeller Plaza. If not, make sure to check-out the segment either live or when it’s available on the Today show site. (We’ll be sure to link to it here on the blog.) Read More →
Have you always wanted to go to San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) but could never pull it off? Is ALA Midwinter the closest you are going to get to living that Comic-Con dream? If so, you can actually get pretty close to giving yourself the SDCC experience by taking back to your hotel room, and eventually home and maybe to your home library, SDCC in a Bag (Donated by YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels Committee). The bag will be filled with a lot of great graphic novel items. Including:
- Great Graphic Novels for Teens booklist nominees (some signed and some ready for you to get signed)
- Snacks (to tide you over as you wait in those long lines for high profile panels in Hall H)
- A gift certificate to a lovely restaurant or cafe near the San Diego Convention Center Read More →
January 7 is fast approaching and YALSA’s Not-So-Silent Auction will get your Midwinter experience off to an exciting start. Taking place on Friday from 8 – 10 pm in Convention Center room 7, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to bid on one-of-a-kind items such as a signed copy of science fiction author Cory Doctorow’s latest collection of stories, With a Little Help.’ What’s so unique about this book is that it is only one of 250 that are being printed in hardcover.’ Each copy has an embossed number on the spine and is hand bound at Wyvern Bindery in London.’ In addition, the end papers are actually “original paper ephemera donated by various writer friends.†Read blogger Hal Stern’s reverential description of opening his copy—and wonder about the surprise in yours. Read More →