I hope you will join me from 8:00 – 9:00pm, eastern, on Thursday May 14th for the next YALSA Member Virtual Town Hall!
I’ll be providing an update on what YALSA leaders and staff have been doing to realign YALSA’s programs and services towards the Futures Report in order to better serve members. Some exciting new resources are coming, so don’t miss the chance to get the inside scoop! I’ll also build in lots of time so members can share their thoughts on other actions you’d like YALSA to take to better support you in your efforts to implement the recommendations in the report.
Advance registration is not required and the event will be held via YALSA’s webinar platform, Adobe Connect. The event will be recorded for anyone who cannot attend some or all of the live session.
Looking forward to chatting with you soon!
Are you interested in getting more involved with YALSA? Maybe you’re curious about the appointments process or other service opportunities?
Join me (@doseofsnark) for a Twitter chat on November 20th, starting at 8 pm Eastern. I’ll be answering questions about various ways that you can get involved with YALSA, from just joining to blogging to serving on a committee. This is a fantastic way to discover what opportunities are the right fit for you.
Get involved and follow the conversation with the hashtag #yalsachat. See you 11/20 at 8 pm EST!
The YALSA Board met three times at ALA Annual in Anaheim. Over those three meetings, the Board had some substantial discussions, set up some new task forces and ad hoc Board committees, approved two new committee manuals, and moved forward on several other items. For more details on these items, see the official Board documents at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/workingwithyalsa/governance/board/annual2012. The official minutes will also be posted in the Governance section of the website in the near future. The summary is below:
New Task Forces
- A president-elect advisory task force to work with president-elect Shannon Peterson on defining her presidential theme and setting her goals.
- An appointments task force to work with president-elect Shannon Peterson to help her make committee appointments during the coming year.
- A 365 Days of YA task force to create and disseminate a calendar of easy to implement teen services resources aimed at new teens services librarians, library generalists, and paraprofessionals.
- A state library association outreach task force to reach out to YA sections and roundtables of state library associations and school library associations to strengthen ties with these like-minded organizations.
- A youth engagement task force to find ways to involve teens in the work of the YALSA Board by identifying and implementing projects in conjunction with Teen Advisory Groups.
- A capacity-building task force to focus on the capacity-building goal of YALSA’s strategic plan.
- A task force to create a manual for virtual selection committees.
- A YALSA/ALSC/AASL task force to look at issues around the Common Core Standards.
New Ad-hoc Board committees
- The previously-approved e-content task force will now be an ad hoc committee of the Board.
- An ad hoc committee of the Board will look at the recommendations on the future of Interest and Discussion Groups from both the previous task force and from the Board members and prioritize the recommendations.
Committee Manuals
- The Board approved a new manual for the Odyssey Committee. ALSC also approved the manual at this conference.
- The Board approved a new manual for the Excellence in Nonfiction Award Committee. This includes some changes in policies and procedures, including the way the vetted nomination list is created.
Other major motions and discussions
- The Board approved guidelines for strategic partnerships with other organizations.
- The Board approved a two-year pilot project for virtual selection and award committees. The Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Committee and Edwards Award Committee that begin their work in February 2013 will be virtual committees, which means that members will not be required to attend conferences to be on the committees. The Board will establish a task force to evaluate the process at the end of the first year to decide whether it should continue and if the appropriate committees were chosen.
- The Board discussed member engagement, what it means to different members, and what YALSA wants “engagement” to look like.
- The YALSA Board voted to endorse the School Library resolution in ALA Council, and the YALSA Councilor later reported that the resolution had been approved.
- The Board had a discussion and exercise on YALSA’s major revenue streams (events, dues, and sales of products) and what could be done to build those sources of income.
- The Board discussed the past year’s Board member self-assessment process and agreed to continue with it for the coming year.
- The Board discussed how best to evaluate the success of the Strategic Plan, and directed the Strategic Planning Committee to develop an evaluation pl
Next Monday, YALSA will launch a new member benefit: the YA Forum monthly discussion! All YALSA members are invited to participate in an asynchronous discussion on hot topics in YA services in YALSA’s ALA Connect space during the first week of the month. Each forum will be moderated by an expert in the field. Throughout the week members are encouraged to check in to the discussion forum and ask questions and contribute to the on-going discussion. The forum will open at 10am EST on the first Monday of the month and will close the following Friday at 3pm EST.
We’ll be kicking off YA Forum this Monday, April 4, with a discussion on self-censorship led by Stephanie Reynolds, convenor of YALSA’s Intellectual Freedom Interest Group.
To access the YA Forum discussion, you must be a YALSA member. Starting at 10 a.m. Eastern, members can join the conversation by logging into ALA Connect and choosing “YALSA” under “My ALA Groups,” then selecting “Discussions” on the upper right.
If you have questions or trouble accessing the discussion, please contact Eve Gaus, YALSA’s program officer for continuing education, at [email protected] or 1-800-545-2433, ext. 2128.
