Tag Archives: Governance

Monthly YALSA President’s Report – August 2011

Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on.

Completed Tasks

• Committee Chairs:
  • Had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs.
  • Participated in conference calls with the chairs of Strategic Planning and 2011 Awards & Lists Marketing Taskforce.
  • Had a phone conversation with Linda Braun, chair of the Financial Advancement Committee, about ways to build up the’ Leadership Endowment.
  • Participated with ALSC and AASL Presidents in preparing and sending a letter to the chairs of the three divisions’ intellectual freedom committees/interest groups. Read More →

Monthly President’s Report – July 2011

My first month as YALSA President has been a busy one. Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on.

Completed Tasks

• Presented two webinars for new chairs of ‘ process committees, task forces, and juries about their roles and responsibilities.
• Presented (with Beth Yoke) a webinar for new board members about the relationship of YALSA and ALA.
• Had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the upcoming work of their committees.
• Had phone conversation with Lesley Farmer, YALSA’s IFLA representative, about the upcoming IFLA Conference and about what information about YALSA she should share there.
• Set up the @yalsapresident Twitter account, and began tweeting information about YALSA activities and linking to articles on teens and libraries.
• Filled a vacancy on the Best Fiction for Young Adults committee.
• Appointed members to a task force charged to write a manual for the Odyssey Award Committee.

Read More →

April was a month of celebrations as we acknowledged and celebrated School Library Month along with both National Library Week and National Volunteer Week during the week of April 10-16, 2011. And as always we celebrated Support Teen Literature Day on the Thursday of National Library week with the announcement of the 2011 Teens’ Top Ten nominations and the launch of the ‘ Teen Read Weekâ„¢ website.

Along with thanking all of our hardworking members and library workers this month, I also want to send out a special thank you to the 2011 Summer Reading TF chaired by Charli Osborne. This newly appointed group, not only came together to begin their task, but quickly organized themselves, reviewed and judged the’  entries submitted for the Dollar General Summer Reading Grants. These $1,000 grants were given to 20 YALSA members who were recognized for an outstanding proposal of teen-focused summer reading programs.’ ‘ ‘  Read More →

Teen Tech Week kept us all busy in March as we explored and shared the joys of technology with our teens. Thank you to all the YALSA members who participated in Teen Tech Week activities with the teens in your libraries!’ â€¦and speaking of YALSA members, have you ever wondered just who it is that makes up the YALSA membership? Here is a’ snapshot that shows just who your fellow members are:

Total membership: 5,416 (1.3% increase over this time last year)

11% are academics

24% are students

26% are school librarians

37% are public librarians

2% are other (retirees, friends, etc.) Read More →

Happy Teen Tech Weekâ„¢, YALSA members! Thanks go out to the Margaret Edwards Trust for funding the TTW mini grants, and thanks to the TTW Committee for the great e-resources they created.’  Many thanks also to Stephanie Kuenn, who submitted the application for a Carnegie Whitney Grant. Our application was successful and we received an ALA Carnegie Whitney Grant to self-publish a book focused on summer reading programs to be edited by Kat Kan. Thank you also to the WrestleMania Reading Challenge Jury for judging submissions and announcing the regional winners of the WrestleMania Reading Challenge. Details on the contest, winners and the next round of the challenge can be found here.’  Thanks to the Mattel Foundation and WWE for funding the program. Read More →

December is always such a busy month and this one was no exception. As soon as the holidays were over and done with, many of us were all off and running (or flying as the case may be) to San Diego for the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January. ‘ Most of December was so busy with Midwinter prep work that there wasn’t much time for anything else, but we did see one fantabulous new edition that kicked off just before the holidays.’  The Hub, ‘ YALSA’s new blog specifically dedicated to young adult literature was launched by blog Member Manager Sarah Debraski! Many thanks Sarah for leading YALSA’s successful new blog venture!

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