As the ALSC Membership and Marketing Specialist, I usually have the honor of seeing members connect and collaborate with each other (both in-person and online!) It genuinely fascinates me and makes me so happy to see people go from being strangers serving on a committee together, to becoming friends in real life. Whenever I see these bonds forming right before my eyes, I’m always brought back to ALSC President Lucia Gonzalez’s ALSC Matters! column from 2020 where she said, “Throughout this time of transformations and uncertainties, ALSC performed its unifying role by being the platform where children’s library workers meet for the exchange of ideas…”
Tag: membership
Engagement Connections
The ALSC Membership Committee does a wonderful job at connecting members to meaningful engagement opportunities. I’m here to add a few upcoming items to the list! Below are recently announced opportunities for ALSC members to apply for or engage with over the next few days and month. Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Award Applications for this grant are being accepted through this Friday, April 22! We’re grateful for our friends over at Simon & Schuster for funding this annual grant that is exclusively available for ALSC members to apply for. If you’ve ever wanted to host an author or illustrator visit, here’s your chance to apply for funding to make it happen! Submit your Committee Volunteer Form Now is the perfect time to submit volunteer forms for a process committee appointment! All of our committee members play a significant role in furthering ALSC’s impact to achieve our vision of building healthy, successful…
Another Membership Touch Point
Our Membership Committee does a really wonderful job of using the ALSC Blog as a channel to inform ALSC members on ways to engage and maximize their membership. They approach their committee work with experience and intention, and as a staff member, I rely heavily on their perspectives as members of ALSC. They help me figure out what the questions and concerns are and how we can address these questions and concerns in new and innovative ways! To further support this journey in getting to know our members and to learn what their questions are, we’re introducing ALSC Member Office Hours! These office hours are very informal one-hour Zoom sessions for members to literally drop-in for a minute (or for the whole hour!) to ask any questions you have related to ALSC and your membership. I will be present during all of these office hours (sometimes also joined by colleagues…
ALSC Happenings – Engage with us!
The fall season is a busy, busy time of year for ALSC! I’m taking this blog post opportunity to update you on a few upcoming opportunities for engagement: ALSC Chat: Our School Age Programs and Services Committee is hosting an ALSC chat on Monday at 4pm! The chat will focus on how public and school library workers are supporting students this school year. ALSC Community Forum (ALA member login required): Our members have important business coming to the ballot next year! It’s explained a bit more in a recent blog post, and our Community Forum on Wednesday will aim to support our members’ understanding of these ballot items to help them make an informed vote. It will be recorded and made available shortly after for members who are unable to attend live. The 2021 Children’s Literature Lecture Celebration honoring the work of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop will take place on…
Keeping Up with #Newbery100
Keeping up with our #Newbery100 celebration, here are upcoming #Newbery100 happenings you won’t want to miss!
Sharing Our Impact #wearealsc
Members of the Association for Library Service to Children engage communities to build healthy, successful futures for all children. This is ALSC’s vision statement, but what does the work look like to achieve it? We recently published our 2019-2020 Annual Report, which covers our Association’s work from September 2019 – August 2020 (fiscal year 2020). This report includes a message from 2019 – 2020 ALSC President, Cecilia McGowan, strategic plan progress, initiatives, and much more! It’s a 20-page wrap-up of important activity, and each year I’m amazed at the amount of work accomplished by our members and staff in fulfilling our vision. Below, I’ve highlighted two sections from this report, but I hope you’ll explore the report in full and share it with others. Membership and Involvement At the time of publication of this report, March 2020 membership statistics showed ALSC having 3,932 total members. Since then, estimates show we…
ALSC Membership Committee at #alamw21
With every conference, I like to give a shout out to ALSC’s Membership Committee. From planning informal gatherings to coordinating and participating in other engagement opportunities, this committee truly blows me away. For Midwinter, the committee planned a Pre-YMA ALSC Mixer, which you can read about in Abby’s blog post. Amy Seto Forrester and Allison Knight from the committee also participated in a virtual student networking session in the “Librarian Lounge”. Amy and Allison offered their insight on children’s services and gave advice to students pursuing their MLIS degrees. So much of the welcoming events and initiatives come from the creative minds of those on the Membership Committee and I am grateful to experience their passion for youth services and ALSC. If you are a member interested in volunteering for an ALSC process (non-book award) committee, please fill out a volunteer form as ALSC Vice-President, Lucia Gonzalez, will be making…
Demonstrating ALSC Core Values
I was really moved by Keary’s blog post earlier this week on what an ALSC membership means to her. It was personal and got to the heart of the value of ALSC. I think the main question I have tried to ask and answer this year is: How can we ensure our members will continue to lean on ALSC even during these challenging times? One answer I came up with is: Building trust and community. Follow-up question: So, how do we continue to build trust and community? Answer: Doing things, however big or small, which strongly affirm our core values. In case you didn’t know, ALSC’s core values are: collaboration, excellence, inclusiveness, innovation, integrity and respect, leadership, and responsiveness. I want to highlight some of my personal favorite things we’ve done this year, big and small, which affirm our core values. 1. Back in March (I think…