YALSA President’s Report – February 2015

by

February President’s Report
Just a quick update from a short month! The Board has been having quite a number of conversations related to strategic planning, and I invite you to the next town hall – May 14th at 8pm EST to be part of the discussions!
Activities

  • Hosted YALSA member town hall to discuss member implementation of the recommendations from the Futures report.
  • Led a Board Planning Session which focused on outcomes training and ways to incorporate outcomes into YALSA’s strategic planning process.
  • Prepared board standing committees for revised quarterly chair report review process
  • Appointed members to fill vacancies on various committees.
  • Facilitated online discussion and voting for student engagement taskforce, programming guidelines, and the president’s program.
  • Spoke with Santa Rose Press about teens and library usage

Updates

  • Elections begin March 24 and run through May 1.
  • Congratulations to the winners of YALSA’s writing awards: Shari Lee, Sarah Ludwig, Jaina Shaw, and Anna Tschetter.
  • See you in San Francisco, Lisa Castellano, Lauren Lancaster, and Alicia Tate, the winners of YALSA’s Conference Travel Grants.
  • Happy collection development to Kay Hones, Christy James, and Joan Yarsa, whose libraries are receipts of materials from YALSA’s Great Books Giveaway
  • Special shout out to Sarah Hashimoto and Robin Fogle Kurz, the winners of YALSA’s Volunteer of the Year award.
  • Peggy Hendershot brought diversity to the forefront of her teen discussions and won the MAE award for best literature program
  • Smooth ordering to Brandt Ensor, Jean Forness, Graig Henshaw, Carolann MacMaster, Emma McCandless, Brooke Nelson, Emily Otis, and LaRaie Zimm, the winners of the MAE collection development grants.

Stats

  • Membership – 5,168 members in Jan, up 1% over this time last year
  • Donations – $2,029.21

President’s Report

by

April 2014 President’s Report
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is a national organization of librarians, library workers, and advocates whose mission is to expand and strengthen library services for teens, aged 12-18. Through its member-driven advocacy, research, and professional development initiatives YALSA builds the capacity of libraries and librarians to engage, serve, and empower teens.

Activities

  • Helped to plan a monthly chat with the Board of Directors on YALSA’s fiscal status and FY15 priorities. Thank you to Fiscal Officer Pam Spencer Holly and Beth Yoke for helpful overviews and updates.
  • Facilitated the bi-annual conference call with the YALSA Executive Committee. Agenda and minutes can be accessed here.
  • Led planning calls with the Past and President-Elect, as well as the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.
  • Worked with the Executive Committee, the Executive Director, and the Communications Managers to select an incoming YALSA Blog Manager. Congratulations to Crystle Martin and many thanks to all of the amazing applicants.
  • Held virtual discussion and voted on an updated petition candidates process. Interested in submitting your name to the 2015 awards or governance slate? You can also submit a nominating form.
  • Participated in an interview on the current state of GLBTQ Literature for Teens with a graduate student in journalism from Northwestern.

Updates

  • The deadline for Dollar General Literacy Foundation grants to support Teen Read Week activities is June 1st. YALSA will offer ten $1,000 grants which recognize outstanding TRW activities.
  • YALSA is offering two stipends for members to attend the Young Adult Literature Symposium in Austin. Applications are due June 15th.
  • Still gearing up for summer? Join YALSA’s Summer Reading and Learning Ning to check out free webinars, resources, recommending lists and more.
  • Looking for a little professional development on your lunch break? YALSA has over 40 on-demand webinars that are free to members.
  • Share your awesomeness with your colleagues! Fill out the member spotlight to be featured in an upcoming YALSA e-news bulletin.

Gratitude

  • Congratulations to the newly elected awards and governance leaders and many thanks to all of the candidates for their willingness to run.
  • Three cheers to everyone who took action on behalf of teens and libraries during National Library Legislative Day, our voices are stronger together!
  • High fives to the hard working Teens Top Ten reading groups and their coordinators for working hard to select this year’s stellar nomination list.

In March membership was at 5,134, which off -.5% over this time last year. Donations for March totaled $70.

Amplified: National Library Legislative Day

by

During the next few days, YALSA’s Executive Director and I will be in Washington DC for National Library Legislative Day. We’ll be talking to Congressional Staff and policy makers at key foundations and organizations about the vital role libraries and library staff play in helping teens succeed in school and prepare for careers.

In order for our conversations to have any lasting impact though, they need to be supported by a grassroots effort from members and supporters. Without your’ participation in NLLD via Tweets #NLLD14), emails and phone calls, we’ll be just two people talking. We need you to amplify, to show that we are all working together to improve teens’ lives.

As of today, just over 300 individuals have signed on to support YALSA’s NLLD Thunderclap. While that’s a start, YALSA has 5,138 members. All of those members have friends, families, colleagues, and patrons who stand behind the important work that we do everyday.’ So please, take a few moments out of your day to help your teen patrons, your library and your livelihood. Sign our Thunderclap,’ reach out to your members of Congress and encourage others to do the same. Let’s leverage social media to amplify our voices and make real change for libraries and our patrons! The future of teens and libraries depends on us. #Act4Teens now.

Virtual Town Hall

by

Hey YALSA members, I want to hear from you!

In recent years, the President and Board of Directors have held virtual town halls to hear great ideas, get feedback on activities, and talk through goal areas in YALSA’s mission. On May 7th at 2 pm EST, we’d like take the broad view and talk through your overall YALSA experience. Specifically, we’ll be covering the following four questions:

  • What is it about the organization that has earned your loyalty?
  • What does YALSA do that frustrates you?
  • What are three things that YALSA could do that would add the most professional value to the career of teen librarians?
  • What are your three biggest concerns or needs?

Your thoughts can help YALSA become an even more responsive and relevant organization, so please, speak up! We’ll be meeting via this Adobe Connect space. Chat and audio will be available, but virtual bonus points will be given to those with a microphone too! Feel free to log-in at anytime in the next week to test your device’s capability and setup.

Thanks and I look forward to talking with you.

Shannon

 

 

Amplified: Speaking Up for Teens and Libraries

by

Hello YALSA land,

It’s been an exciting year getting to know more of you through the appointments process and I’m thrilled, honored, and to be frank, in a little disbelief that I will begin my term as your President on July 1st. Did you know that the incoming President actually gets a gavel? I can’t wait to cross-purpose it at Teen Advisory Board meetings.

Current President Jack Martin’s theme of Connect, Create, Collaborate has led to exciting partnerships, rich discussions, and forward thinking ideas about what it means to serve teens in the 21st century. I hope to carry some of that amazing momentum forward into my term with a theme which will focus solely on something that I know I’ve struggled with as a librarian, advocacy and activism.

I’ve been lucky enough to schedule some time with a few of YALSA’s advocacy experts (Heather Gruenthal, Jenna Nemec Loise, and Linda W. Braun) via the Google Hangout below to share the story of their respective journeys to becoming successful youth advocates and to inspire us, wherever we may be in our own.

According to the most recent PLDS survey, there was an almost 20% drop in the number of full-time staff dedicated to teen services in public libraries in the past four years. There was also an almost 7% drop in the number of school librarians from 2004-2011. We all know, deep into our cores, that teens need libraries and the holistic range of programs and services that teen librarians provide. A 20% and 7% drop? Read More →

YALSA President’s Report – April 2012

by

Monthly President’s Report – April 2012

April was a very interesting month for me on the YALSA front. I’m just back from a week in Washington, D.C. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of last week, YALSA Executive Director Beth Yoke and I, along with several hundred other library supporters, attended National Library Legislative Day. Beth and I had eight separate meetings over two days, with legislators’ staff members, and with representatives from other organizations that have similar interests to YALSA, such as the Afterschool Alliance, the Center for Excellent Education, and the International Reading Association. We talked about how we could support one another’s missions.

Then on Friday and Saturday of the same week, I staffed the YALSA booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival at the Washington Convention Center. Along with DC-area YALSA members, I handed out bookmarks and flyers, showed the demo of the YALSA Teen Book Finder App (available in May—we hope—from Apple’s App Store), chatted with teens, parents, teachers, and librarians, and did some on-the-fly readers’ advisory. We encouraged teens to participate in this year’s Teens’ Top Ten, and there was a lot of interest and enthusiasm.

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

YALSA President’s Report — March 2012

by

Monthly President’s Report – March 2012

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

Completed Tasks

  • Committee Chairs:’ I had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the work of their committees.
  • Committee/Jury/Taskforce Appointments: ‘ I ‘ appointed members to fill vacancies on several committees and continued appointing members to fill new task forces created by Board action at Midwinter.

YALSA President’s Report – February 2012

by

Monthly President’s Report – February 2012

March kind of sneaked up on me, I guess because February is a short month. Below is a summary of activities that I have completed or am working on. Happy Teen Tech Week!

Completed Tasks

  • Committee Chairs:’ ‘ I had phone conversations with several YALSA committee chairs about the work of their committees.
  • Board Activities: ‘ 
    • The Board had an online chat on February 1. Board members offered suggestions for the content of the selection and award committee chair and member webinars.
    • The Board met by telephone on February 29 to discuss chair quarterly reports and to take action on two requests for Board action that came from committees.
    • The Board voted to accept a proposal from the Morris Award committee to amend the eligibility rules to exclude self-published and e-book only books from consideration. The new rule will be re-evaluated after the 2013 award. Read More →

YALSA President’s Report – September 2011

by

Monthly President’s Report – September 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 about the work of their committees.
  • Board Activities:
    • Participated in September 7 Board chat on how the YALSA Board can be involved with Planned Giving and fundraising.
  • Read More →

Monthly President’s Report

by

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 →