YALSA President’s Report – September 2021

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The Rolling Stones performed a live concert in my town last month (September). The night before they played, Mick Jagger was captured in a photo standing outside a local (and quirky!) establishment completely unnoticed. The photo actually made national news because he looks so unassuming. Hiding in plain sight.  (Note-the photo in this post is not the photo discussed!) It made me think-if you were hanging out at the park with your pet, shopping for groceries down the street, or out to eat somewhere-which author would cause you to change expression if you saw them and recognized them? Jason Reynolds? Jacqueline Woodson? David Levithan? What about a YALSA member or a potential YALSA member? Those rock stars in their own right who’ve won a scholarship? Put together a program you’ve admired? Presented at a conference in a way that made you feel seen? We never know who we’re crossing paths with all the time but the potential for something-a connection, recognition-is always there.  That’s a bit how I felt with all the great interactions (albeit virtual) I’ve had with members in September. In addition to meeting regularly with the YALSA Executive Director, Board and Executive Board I also:

    • Made an appointment of  YALSA representative to the PLA Committee on Family Engagement
    • Appointed a Director-At-Large position to fill a gap on the YALSA Board
    • Speaking of rock stars – sent a request for a memorial resolution to YALSA’s ALA Liaison for Teri Lesesne
    • Responded to Board Liaisons regarding August Quarterly Chair reports
    • Appointed YALSA Liaison to ALA EDI Assembly
    • Participated with YALSA Staff in the ALA Virtual Volunteer Fair
    • Held first meeting of Implementing the President’s Theme Task Force (still seeking members!)
    • Connected with 2021 YALSA Spectrum Scholar, Cordiah Hayes
    • Along with Tammy Dillard-Steels, YALSA Executive Director, shared the YALSA 2022-2025 Strategic Plan with members and potential members (link coming soon!) in webinar format
    • Issued a statement supporting the selections from YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens list
    • Met with AASL President Jennisen Lucas
    • Appointed a YALSA representative with ALA for USBBY
    • Put a call out to members for participating on the Teen Programming HQ Advisory Board
    • Took a virtual tour of Reno with Carla Jamison, YALSA Program Officer, and representatives from the Nevada area (public, university library, etc.) for the YALSA Symposium (super excited!) in November

Any questions or comments, feel free to post below or email: kellyczarnecki1@gmail.com.

 

2020-2021 YALSA President-Elect Kelly Czarnecki

 

 

 

Kelly Czarnecki (she/her)
YALSA President
2021-2022

Photo credit: “Silhouette at a Sigur Ros Concert” by Tom Olliver

YALSA President’s Report – August 2021

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Tweet Greetings! August was the first month where the new Board met after Annual for our monthly Board Chat! The highlight of the month was rolling out the new YALSA Strategic Plan to YALSA Chairs. Thank you so much all that were able to attend and be part of helping give shape to our new direction. Stay tuned at the end of September for a Snack & Chat (9/30 at 1p CST) where there’s an open discussion for all regarding the Strategic Plan.

In other highlights:

    • Sent request for memorial resolution to ALA Liaison for members Ann Pechacek and Sandra Payne
    • Shared news and call for volunteers for Social Media Marketing Strategic Committee shift from a Taskforce (based on Board action at Annual)
    • Shared news and call for volunteers for Updating Core YALSA Toolkits Taskforce (based on Board action at Annual)
    • Connected online with 2021 YALSA Spectrum Scholar, Vidhya Jagannathan
    • Read August Chair Quarterly Reports. Working on connecting with liaisons to best support our amazing Chairs 
    • Drafted a job description for Board Fellow Ex Officio position (based on Exec Board discussion prior to Annual)
    • Confirmed appointment for YALSA representation with the Accessibility Assembly with RUSA
    • Updated President’s Theme Taskforce. Called for Board vote. Quorum met and will share more details in September
    • Started a shared sign-up sheet with the Board on how we can be even more transparent with the membership. A look ‘behind the curtain’ on what we’re working on and who we are. So excited to see this roll out!

Stats and Financials (reminders)
YALSA Membership Stats – the Membership Report from Annual has our most recent data

YALSA Fiscal Report – the Fiscal Report from Annual has our most recent information on YALSA’s financial standing.

Thank you all for checking in and being a part of YALSA. With the start of the new school year during the pandemic, and for some of us going back to the office for the first time in awhile- there no doubt continues to be heaviness on our shoulders. Be good to yourself and take a minute to acknowledge the great work you’re doing on a daily basis with the youth you serve in whatever capacity we can do at this time.

Any questions or comments, feel free to post below or email: kellyczarnecki1@gmail.com.

2020-2021 YALSA President-Elect Kelly Czarnecki
Kelly Czarnecki (she/her)
YALSA President
2021-2022

President’s Report – September 2020

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Greetings YALSAblog readers and youth advocates,

I’m pleased to share this month’s activities, as plans become further developed from conception to execution. The big items on this past month’s docket for the YALSA Board include providing input for our association’s Strategic Plan RFP (request for proposal). More information will be forthcoming about this item and its subsequent timeline of activities once a consultant company has been selected and a contract confirmed. 

Also, the Board offered decisions regarding changes that would better support the Odyssey Award committee members’ workload. This input has been returned to the working group who will provide the board with more details regarding these confirmed changes. The Board approved the continuance of the Social Media Marketing Taskforce with adjustments to their responsibilities and tasks. Finally, the board approved the working group’s recommendations in developing a manual for the Morris Award that was modeled after the Non-fiction Award manual. This item creates consistency in language and responsibilities that will better support future work of the award committee. 

September Meetings (listed by date, oldest first)

  • Participated and led recurring meetings for the monthly YALSA Board Chat, the quarterly Executive Committee meeting, the monthly YALSA President’s meeting (YALSA Pres-Elect, Past-Pres, Pres, ED), and weekly meetings with the YALSA Executive Director. These events contribute to supporting the work of the association. 
  • Participated in the President’s Implementation Taskforce meeting by answering questions and providing background information, which is a responsibility of being the board liaison.  
  • Attended a meeting with the YALSA Executive Director and ALA staff to understand the steps involved for creating an endowment. 
  • Met with YALSA member Gregory Lum, YALSA Executive Director and ALA staff to determine next steps for the Joann Sweetland Lum Memorial Grant. Next steps will be presented in the October 2020 report. 
  • Provided guidance to the Division and Membership Promotion chair and encouraged the opportunity that exists in sharing free YALSA resources and YALSA 101 information with library staff who work with teens and are likely non-members. Solutions will need to be developed in reaching this audience. 
  • Discussed the BCALA/IMLS Taxonomy of Black History Month Programming in Libraries project with Dr. Grace Jackson-Brown, a project coordinator and professor at Missouri State University Libraries, and agreed to participate as the YALSA representative. Further information about this project will be forthcoming in a separate communication. 
  • Attended the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area’s YALSA Meet-Up via Zoom and provided updates on YALSA activity. 
  • Participated in the Promoting Professional Success for Underrepresented Groups within YALSA Taskforce meeting by answering questions and providing background information, which is a responsibility of being the board liaison. 
  • Attended ALA President Julius C. Jefferson Jr.’s meeting with fellow ALA division presidents. 

Thank you!

  • Yolanda Hood and Tess Wilson for the development and release of the Spring YALS issue.
  • Outstanding Books for the College Bound working group members who diligently continued efforts towards the re-development of a well-rounded and vetted list. More info will be forthcoming. 
  • The Board appreciates the work of all chairs who submitted a quarterly report in August. Timely submissions better support the work of volunteer groups. 

Relevant Stats and Data

  • Donation and Membership information continues to remain unavailable at this time.

Don’t Forget

 

Respectfully submitted,
Amanda Barnhart
YALSA President 2020-2021

August 2020 President’s Report

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Greetings YALSA members and youth advocates,

When I began the path to run for this position, there were several areas I was looking forward to contributing towards, namely in the areas of representation, as I identify as Hispanic and as a library staff who has spent more years as a library paraprofessional (17) than as a librarian (5). While I had not anticipated the challenges we would encounter this leadership term, I do feel that my experience has prepared me to create pathways of support for YALSA, its volunteers, and its members, during this extraordinary year of transition.

I may not have a product to show off to you right now, but I am undertaking the pre-work that is required to support YALSA in both short-term and long-term projects. I know that hardly describes what exactly is being done behind the curtain. However, successful projects involve teamwork which means the final product will continue to evolve until it is completed. Once such projects take on their final form, I will readily release that information through one of YALSA’s communication channels.

August Tasks (listed by date, oldest first)

  • Held a discussion and orientation with our ALA Liaison, Liz Nebeker to support their work in collaboration with ALA groups.
  • Participated on the hiring panel alongside the immediate past HUB manager, the YALSA Executive Director, and the YALSA Communications Specialist for The Hub Manager position. I was particularly interested to hear how candidates define diversity in literature and on their ideas for monitoring and evaluating for inclusive practices. Stay tuned for the press release of the selected HUB manager.
  • Held a valuable conversation with two YALSA members who were open and gracious to discuss supporting inclusive environments and members’ diverse needs. During this conversation, proactive next steps the association might explore on this issue were brainstormed.
  • Began conversations with Cindy Hohl, American Indian Library Association’s President, to explore collaboration opportunities with YALSA. Cindy has been tremendously helpful in sharing local and indigenous communities’ traditional ways of knowing as well as providing resources for learning.
  • Representatives from YALSA staff and leadership debriefed the past year’s efforts of the Social Media Taskforce and planned for its restart and expansion. These ideas are being crafted into a board document and will be presented to the YALSA board later this month.

Mark Your Calendars

  • I’m looking forward to our next Member webinar scheduled for September 10, 2020 Thursday, 2PM Eastern. Virtual Dungeons and Dragons Games: A How-To Guide will be facilitated by Michael Rogowski. For more information on the webinar, including non-member pricing, follow this link. (Currently, I’m relishing in playing a Tabaxi monk character with local librarians.)
  • Have you heard that the YALSA’s Young Adult Services Symposium’s virtual schedule has been posted?! Check it out and join us if you are able. We hope to see you this year or next.

Relevant Stats & Data

  • Donation and Membership information continues to remain unavailable at this time.

 

Respectfully submitted,
Amanda Barnhart
YALSA President 2020-2021

A Note from the President

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Greetings, YALSA members and youth advocates, 

If you can’t believe it’s already the second week of August, I can’t believe I’ve one full month under my belt as YALSA President. For the month of July, several of YALSA staff including myself took a short break to regroup upon the completion of the YALSA board meetings in June. For July YALSA activities, I have the following items to report:

Completed Tasks

  • Met with Tammy Dillards-Steel, YALSA ED, and Sarah Evans, Education Advisory Committee chair, to provide support and direction for the new group’s initial work.
  • Facilitated YALSA’s annual Membership meeting via Zoom. I compiled links to the topics that were discussed which were sent out with the archived recording via Connect. A few members had additional concerns that are currently being followed up by the President.
  • Participated in a meeting with the always delightful Shauntee Simpson-Burns, BCALA President, to discuss potential future projects.

Mark your Calendars

  • YALSA Staff have furlough dates in August and will be unable to respond to email or complete any YALSA activities. Please be aware when reaching out to them that they will be unavailable starting Sunday, August 16 – Saturday, August 22, 2020.
  • August 13 at 2pm Eastern, School Librarians and School Counselors: Computing Together webinar
  • 2020 YALSA Symposium, now virtual, November 6-8, 2020. Follow the link to sign-up for the latest news concerning the virtual event.

Special Appreciation for:

  • Tina Lerno, YALSA Volunteer of the Year, reminded the board that this recognition is usually announced at the Membership meeting. I sincerely apologize for this oversight and applaud Tina’s self-advocacy. The board will pilot the opportunity for the Volunteer of the Year to be included in one of the future YALSA Board monthly chats as a way to further support members’ growth and interests in leadership.
  • M’issa, YALSA Member, reminded the board of YALSA’s EDI commitment. The request included an evaluation of the events that occurred at the 2019 Symposium so that strategies and solutions may be developed for handling similar situations that are supportive of inclusive environments. For YALSA to truly embrace EDI, it will require not only the continued work of the board, but the direction from voices willing to make some noise. I appreciate M’issa’s commitment to make some noise.

Relevant Stats & Data

  • It is unfortunate that due to the pandemic’s impact, membership statistics and donations received are currently unavailable to report for July.

Respectfully Submitted,

Amanda Barnhart
YALSA President 2020-2021

 

New President’s Theme Implementation Taskforce

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This year the Division Presidents are aligning their theme and all will focus on different aspects of EDI that speak to their Division. My Presidential theme will focus on supporting Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) through assessment and outcomes by identifying, overseeing planning, and implementing activities. The theme will build on the ground work laid by the Advancing Diversity Taskforce and Sandra Hughes-Hassell’s Presidential Theme promoting youth advocacy. It also speaks to the needs of members who are looking for guidance on impactful outcomes and assessment, and moves YALSA closer to reaching the goals it laid out in its implementation plan. It is an ambitious plan, but has potential for impact.

The Taskforce will last for a year tackling a variety of activities throughout. Activities will include:

Advocacy & Activism

  • Incorporate the theme into summer learning, Teen Read Week™ and Teen Tech Week™
  • Create position and/or issue papers on the theme

Leading the Transformation of Teen Services
Read More →

Follow-up from the Nov. 16 Town Hall on Supporting Youth during Difficult Times

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Yesterday over 40 YALSA members met online during the YALSA virtual town hall to discuss ways that we can support youth in our community during turbulent times.  The outcome of the recent election has caused many young people to feel anxious and uncertain about the future of their rights and of our country, and we know that many incidents of bullying, hazing, harassment, and hate crimes have been reported in the past week. Because of this, the focus of the town hall was changed to focus on what we can do create safe spaces for our youth, how to create empathy, and how to empower teens to promote positive change in our community.

Why do need to offer these types of services to our youth? Because it’s our job.  Last year, the YALSA Board approved a document called Core Professional Values for the Teen Services Profession that focuses on nine core values that define professionalism for those who work for and with teens through libraries. Three of those nine are compassion, inclusion, and social responsibility–values that have been extremely important in the past few weeks.

YALSA has created a list of resources on this topic–Supporting Youth in the Post-2016 Election Climate.  We hope that you will find the information useful and share it widely with colleagues and co-workers.  In addition, ALA has created a Libraries Respond web page with further resources.  If you weren’t able to participate in the town hall, you can listen to the audio recording, read through the comments that were posted in the chat, and check out the tweets with the hashtag #yalsachat.  Many members shared what they are doing inside and outside of their libraries, and it was also great to hear what people were thinking about doing in the future.  As a result of the town hall, a YALSA Interest Group hopefully will soon be forming around ideas to help teens understand and empathize with our changing world, as well as to empower them to advocate for change in a positive manner.  Look for more information on that coming soon.  Also, if you’re interested in this topic, watch your YALSA eNews for information about the January YALSA webinar led by Renee Hill on the topic of helping youth recognize their ability to engage in social justice and equity activities.

Yesterday’s conversation was energizing and hopeful–thank you all for caring for the teens in your community!

YALSA Executive Committee Update

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This weekend is the exciting YALSA Young Adult Services Symposium in Pittsburgh and I can’t wait to see 500+ library staff, teen advocates and authors!  Follow the action on Twitter via #yalsa16.

But the YALSA Executive Committee is also preparing for our Fall Meeting that will be held Saturday, Nov. 5, from 9 am – 4 pm in conjunction with the Symposium.  The meeting is held in the Cambria Room on the second floor of the Westin Hotel and is open to symposium attendees.  Executive committee meetings focus on discussions, not decision making (that is the Board’s role)–you can see that by reading the 2016 Fall Executive Committee Meeting Agenda & Documents. We’ll be discussing how the Executive Committee will be taking a larger role in developing a closer relationship between YALSA and ALA, as well as delving into ALA and YALSA finances.  Look for another blog post after the meeting with more information about what was discussed.  Do you have any questions about any of the documents? Feel free to contact me at gsarahthelibrarian@gmail.com or reach out if you happen to be at the Symposium.

Who is your YALSA Executive Committee? It changes every year, and this year I’m joined by these fabulous people: President-Elect Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Immediate Past President Candice Mack, YALSA Division Councilor Todd Krueger, Fiscal Officer Nick Buron, Secretary Crystle Martin, and Executive Director Beth Yoke.

YALSA Board Update: Meeting on Aug. 1 & Town Hall on Aug. 17

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As part of its ongoing effort to improve member engagement opportunities so that they better meet member needs, as well as to re-think the structure of YALSA so that it’s better positioned to carry out the work of the new organizational plan, the Board sought to review of all existing member groups at our June meeting (see Candice Mack’s blog post).  The Board accomplished a lot at its meeting in June, but didn’t finish all of its work around member groups.  If you haven’t already, check out June Board documents #25, #40, and #41, which were all approved by the Board.  Since the Board didn’t finish its work in June, the Board will be meeting virtually Aug. 1 from 12:30-1:30 pm, eastern, to discuss the Leading the Transformation of Teen Services Board Standing Committee’s draft recommendations for the remaining member groups that were not addressed in June.  These latest Board proposals on member engagement are the result of about a year’s worth of organizational planning work by the Board, exploring how best to adopt a “teens first” approach to YALSA’s work in order to better support members and to advance teen services so that all teens are prepared for college, careers and life. Any member interested in sitting in on the virtual meeting can contact yalsa@ala.org to request the access information. Read More →