I’m still flying high after the announcement January 27 of ALSC’s amazing 2020 winner, honor and notable books and media! I rushed to place reserves on all the books I haven’t read and media I haven’t listened to or viewed and I’m going to be blissfully busy for quite some time! I am struck by the creativity, passion and respect for young people this year’s group exhibits. I hope you are able to spend some time immersed in them as well.
Your ALSC Board of Directors held two meetings during the Midwinter Meeting and I’d like to catch you up on a few items we covered. We went over Strategic Plan updates and are well on our way to having a final plan in place to be voted on by Annual conference. I want to commend all the Board Directors on working so diligently, carefully and passionately on all the strategic areas and helping to bring it into a coherent whole.
Our next big discussion at Midwinter was the proposed plan of committee realignment. Some of you might wonder why we are working on a realignment now.
After considerable discussion with ALA leadership, staff, and members, it has been decided that Indianapolis 2021 will be the sunset of Midwinter and a newly branded event will launch in January 2022 in San Antonio to better address the needs of and bring value to the profession.
Per an update posted on ALA Connect on the Future of Midwinter (ALA login required):
“The new event will feature education, networking and engagement activities that support ALA’s core values, key action areas and strategic directions. This will include issue forums focused on Advocacy, Information Policy, Professional & Leadership Development, and Equity Diversity & Inclusion. There will be 3 primary content streams that include the Future of Libraries, Readers Advisory, and EDI programming.”
The changes to Midwinter Meeting will impact all ALSC committees and governance groups, to some degree, especially our process committees, as there will not be rooms set aside for in-person meetings. Because of this, committees that work virtually throughout the year and do not hold meetings at conferences will be impacted minimally.
Committees that operate primarily in-person will need to begin discussing the best methods for transitioning the committee’s work so that it can be done virtually, year-round rather than focused at in-person conferences.
Preparation for how the changes to the Midwinter Meeting will impact ALSC committee work has already begun. On Saturday, January 25 during Leadership & ALSC, committee chairs, co-chairs, PGC’s, Board Directors and members discussed the alignment of ALSC’s committee structure to ensure they are flexible/adaptable moving forward; shared transition planning for committees; and other change management issues throughout the afternoon.
The goal is to finalize and adopt these changes at the February 20, 2020 Board of Directors meeting in order to align with the timing of President-Elect Kirby McCurtis’ spring appointments which will begin in late February. To learn more about the proposed committee realignment please read through Aligning Committee Structure spreadsheet. Please note and read through the multiple tabs. I welcome your comments and would love to hear from you before February 20 when the Board meets about the proposed changes. Please use this form to submit your feedback: https://airtable.com/shrNuWSwj39pj0pyK
Join the discussion live! Save the date: ALSC Community Forum, Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 12 Noon (Central). As this is a member only perk, we kindly ask that you not share this registration link with non-members and, instead, encourage them to join and get involved! Register in advance for this forum, which will take place on the Zoom platform.
Thank you for your passion and commitment to ALSC and those we serve!
Cecilia mcgowanalsc@gmail.com
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This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competencies: I. Commitment to Client Group, VI. Administrative and Management Skills and VII. Professionalism and Professional Development.