YALSA’s Literacies Resource Retreat Toolkit Creation

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The set up

At the end of November, seven librarians were asked to participate in YALSA’s first resource retreat. The mission of the retreat was to create a literacies toolkit, expanding on the discussion that began in the 2014 report: “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action”. We were asked to create a document that was user friendly and accessible to both librarians and library staff who work directly for and with teens. The rest was really up to us, which was both exciting and a little daunting.

The retreat was scheduled for the Friday of Midwinter. Since this was YALSA’s first time trying a resource retreat, everything new to us was also new to YALSA. We were given a stipend to help defray travel and lodging costs and were asked to attend one phone conference before Midwinter to plan out a few logistical elements. In the phone call, we realized we needed a Google doc to keep our ideas in one place. This document proved to be a crucial element of our success during the retreat. We were glad we had done some leg work ahead of time to make the actual day of writing go a tad smoother.

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YALSA Board @ Midwinter: Bylaws Change Proposal

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The YALSA Board has been hard at work looking at the new Organizational Plan and determining ways that we can move the organization forward and best serve our members. One of the items that has been discussed is standardizing the way members come to serve on the various Awards Committees. Currently, the Alex, Morris and Odyssey committee members are appointed to the committees; while Edwards, Printz and Nonfiction members are a mix – some members are appointed and others are elected by YALSA members.

At Annual 2016, the Board directed the Organization & Bylaws Committee to develop a proposal that would change the bylaws so that all award committee positions would be appointed, instead of some appointed and some elected. The rationale for these changes is:

  • The current structure of having some appointed and some elected positions on half of the award committees is confusing, especially because the timelines for appointment are different from the election
  • This change levels the playing field for members, as it creates just one path to the award committees. Each member will now go through the same appointments process at the same time
  • Making the change so that all award committee positions are appointed, not elected, creates efficiencies for the President-Elect, members, and staff, because it eliminates the need to go through the entire process of developing a slate, vetting potential candidates, supporting candidates, etc. This change would eliminate the need for an Awards Nominating Committee as well as the second round of appointments that now happens after the election is over
  • This change will cut down on eligibility issues, because oftentimes members put their name forward both through the nominating committee process and via the Committee Volunteer form. In the past, the nominating committee has not always known what other award committees the candidate may have signed up for

If the Board accepts the proposal from the Organization & Bylaws Committee, the issue would then go to the membership for a vote on the upcoming 2017 ballot.

Organization and Bylaws has submitted the following board doc, (http://www.ala.org/yalsa/sites/ala.org.yalsa/files/content/BylawsAwardCommittees_MW17.pdf, which will be discussed at the Board I meeting, held on Saturday, January 21, at the Georgia World Congress Center, Room A406. If you have any questions about this board document or any others, please contact YALSA President Sarah Hill at gsarahthelibrarian@gmail.com or Executive Director Beth Yoke at ​byoke@ala.org

Melissa McBride is Chair of Organization & Bylaws and a Board Member.

Questions for Coffee with the Candidates

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This year’s candidates for YALSA leadership will talk with members and share ideas for YALSA’s future during the Coffee with the Candidates event on Sunday, Jan. 22 from 10:30 – 11:30 in GWCC B202.

We hope to spend a good deal of this year’s candidate discussion hearing from members about your ideas/challenges for YALSA.  If you can’t make the Midwinter event in Atlanta, take a minute to review the 3-year organizational plan and post your questions for the candidates here on the blog.  We will be sure that the candidates take the time to address the questions received by those attending in-person and also any posted to the blog in advance of Sunday morning’s event.

Measuring Your Impact

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In April the YALSA Board adopted a new and ambitious organizational plan with three goal areas:

Leading the transformation of teen library services
Advocacy to policy makers at all levels to increase support for teen library services
Funder and partner development

In the past, YALSA has relied on members volunteering to work on committees for one or two years to accomplish our goals. Every quarter, committee chairs are are required to submit a chair report to inform YALSA about the work they have accomplished and what they are working toward on the horizon. The Board is excited that as we have moved the new plan forward, we have started to change the way members can work with YALSA, developing new volunteering opportunities that include more short-term projects. With a new organizational plan, and a new way of working, it has become clear that we also need a new way to measure the impact of YALSA volunteers.

At Midwinter, the Board will explore what outcomes of volunteer work are the most important to measure, and what methods are needed to best measure our performance.

  • What are our biggest needs and priorities around outcomes measurement that should be tackled first?
  • What measurements would best help the Board monitor and assess our progress toward fulfilling the goals of the Organizational Plan?
  • How can we best monitor the progress of and measure the impact of different groups, including:
    • The Board
    • Appointed groups (committees, juries, advisory boards and taskforces)
    • How can the Quarterly Reporting Form be leveraged to monitor progress? Should there be an annual report from a chair at the end of the committee term to identify outcomes and accomplishments of the committee over the past year? (as suggested by committee chairs at the November Strategic Committee Chair Chat)
    • Bloggers and the content experts on the Hub
    • New volunteer activities, especially those that are short-term and opt-in
    • The members’ front line activities that directly support YALSA’s work, such as participation in District Days, National Library Legislative Day, Teen Tech Week, etc.?
  • What sort of trend analysis related to volunteer work and impact, if any, is needed? What pieces of data? And how often?

If you have any ideas or thoughts about the questions above, please leave them in the comments! Or send them directly to me.

If you are wondering what the board is up to at Midwinter,  you can see the schedule of board meetings and agenda. If you are attending ALA Midwinter and you see a board member (look for our YALSA Board Member ribbons) please come up and say hello! We would love to hear from you!

Kate McNair is a YALSA Board Member. Come see her at the YALSA booth #709 on Saturday, January 21 9-10:30am.

Three Modes of Board Work

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The YALSA board is always looking to grow and improve. We use monthly board chats as a way to deepen our skills in governance and discuss trends and best practices impacting non-profit boards around the country and how we can bring those ideas to make YALSA the best association it can be.

In January, we met to discuss the article “Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of the Nonprofit Board” with past board member Maureen Hartman. Maureen is the Manager of Strategic Services for the Hennepin County Library. She and her team lead the library in strategic planning, learning and development, diversity and inclusion, and change management. I can think of no person more qualified to lead a discussion about the three modes of board work.

Governance boards spend most of their time in one of three modes:

  • Fiduciary: When the board is being a good steward of association resources. In this mode you might see or hear the board discussion financial reports or going through expected costs for an upcoming event. For YALSA, this role is carried by the whole board, but the Executive Committee takes on special responsibilities to care for our assets.
  • Strategic: My home library board is often in Strategic mode! Here the board is setting priorities, reviewing the strategic plan and monitoring progress. You have probably seen this mode from YALSA in the past, but recently we have been spending a lot of time in the third mode…
  • Generative: With the formation of the new organizational plan, the YALSA Board has spent a lot of time in this third mode. The Generative mode is when the board is deciding “what to pay attention to, what it means, and what to do about it.”

I don’t think these modes are exclusive to boards, I know I recognize these modes in conversations and meetings we have at my library. I bet you see them in your workplace too. As a board, we work to balance these three modes, which can be a challenges. Sometimes in the board cycle, like the recently organizational planning process we went through, will call for more time in the generative mode. Now the board, has to switch back to more time in the strategic and fiduciary modes as we work to operationalize the plan and move forward toward our goals.

To end the discussion, we all identified a goal or action item that we can work on at or leading up to the Midwinter meeting. Two goals clearly rose to the top as priorities for the board: communicating with members both in person, and virtually about the new organizational plan of YALSA and all the work we are doing, and helping the Executive Director and Staff balance their work to help achieve the goals of the new plan.

If you are wondering what the board is up to at Midwinter,  you can see the schedule of board meetings and agenda. If you are attending ALA Midwinter and you see a board member (look for our YALSA Board Member ribbons) please come up and say hello! We would love to hear from you!

Kate McNair is a YALSA Board Member. Come see her at the YALSA booth #709 on Saturday, January 21 9-10:30am.

YALSA at ALA Midwinter 2017 in Atlanta

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CONFERENCE SEEKING PARTICIPANTS

You: A youth services librarian in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area surrounded by young adult patrons who have a lot to say about the books they are reading. Or, maybe you are a youth media specialist who lives a littler further afield but are planning on attending the ALA Midwinter meeting in Atlanta AND you happen to know 5 kids with a lot to say about A Study in Charlotte.

Us: YALSA Local Arrangements committee.

The YALSA Local Arrangements committee for ALA Midwinter in Atlanta, GA is recruiting youth participants for a Best Fiction for Young Adults feedback session. As you know, YALSA takes input from the youth very seriously. Not only does it allow us to shape and support our organizational goals, but also it creates a unique and valuable experience for all participants – those speaking and those listening.

For Atlanta we are interested in hearing 50 local teens tell us what they did or (especially) did not like about the books on the BFYA nomination list. The session will be held on Saturday, January 21, from 1pm – 3pm. But that is not all, these lucky teens and sponsors will also get to tour the exhibition halls that morning and have a lunch party before the session even begins.

All interested parties should submit an application for their groups here: https://ugeorgia.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_e8umnTXWMKd8dH7

Please direct any questions to Micki Waldrop at waldropmicki@gmail.com