{"id":11555,"date":"2015-09-15T12:01:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T16:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=11555"},"modified":"2015-09-15T12:08:41","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T16:08:41","slug":"everyday-advocacy-challenge-week-2-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/everyday-advocacy-challenge-week-2-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Advocacy Challenge: Week 2 Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0inaugural <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ala.org\/everyday-advocacy\/everyday-advocacy-challenge\">Everyday Advocacy Challenge<\/a> entered its second week on September 8 with this Take Action Tuesday prompt:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Write an elevator speech using value-based language.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what our EAC cohort members had to say\u2014in six words or less\u2014about tackling the Week 2 challenge:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Validating.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Finding phrase more difficult than expected.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Hard at first, then easier.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Fun: I got a bit silly.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Easier than I expected.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Addicting! I wrote for multiple audiences!&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Fun to grab attention.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Challenging to find an authentic voice.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Thought-provoking. Getting to the essentials.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Passion + creativity = empowering!&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Less is more but difficult!&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Making refinements, getting easier to say.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For <strong>Matt McLain<\/strong>, the EAC Week 2 prompt proved a great opportunity to answer the question, &#8220;What do you do?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt writes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The elevator speech is the perfect fit for those golden moments when you find yourself with an opportunity to tell others about the great work libraries do and to tell it quickly and succinctly. If your elevator speech is written correctly, you will leave your contact with a desire to hear more, even if he\/she doesn&#8217;t\u00a0have time right at that moment.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writing a value-based elevator speech helped me think about advocacy in a way that communicates the core of what I do. I can get buried in the details of everything that is in my head, and I get excited and want to share all of the information at once. But a short elevator speech is a perfect way to begin that conversation. It conveys essential information that is important to the person to whom\u00a0I am speaking and allows him\/her\u00a0to ask questions about the details.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The materials on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ala.org\/everyday-advocacy\/\">Everyday Advocacy<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">website, particularly the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ala.org\/everyday-advocacy\/sites\/ala.org.everyday-advocacy\/files\/content\/elevator-speech-infographic.pdf\">infographic<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, really helped me clarify the information I want to convey. The value-based elevator speech formula\u2014\u201cI help [target audience] [verb phrase] at the library so that [proven\/expected positive outcome for target audience]\u201d\u2014is powerful. The simplicity of the formula creates flexibility so I can tailor the message for my audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I help our customers learn to use downloadable ebooks and audiobooks at the library so that they have a new set of skills and ability to use all of the library\u2019s resources.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I help children develop early learning skills at the library so that they can enter school ready to read and cultivate a desire for lifelong learning.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I help provide individuals in our community the opportunity build common ground with each other through programming at the library so that each person begins to believe that our similarities are greater than our differences.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The library is a bridge to help community partners find other partners to work on common goals so that they can make a greater difference using fewer overall resources.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I help my staff work in a positive environment at the library so that they can use their strengths to provide excellent customer service for our patrons.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perhaps the most important aspect of writing the elevator speech is the opportunity it provided me to think about how to communicate what I do. I am surrounded by so many great resources, so many wonderful people, and so many good things that I want to tell everyone about everything. Starting with the essentials is a great way to organize my thoughts. Creating the elevator speech has gotten me excited about the next time someone asks, \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><strong>Matt McLain<\/strong> is Manager of Salt Lake County (Utah) Library System&#8217;s South\u00a0Jordan Library and co-chair of the ALSC Advocacy and Legislation Committee.\u00a0Matt is a member\u00a0of the inaugural Everyday Advocacy Challenge cohort, an 18-member volunteer group convening from September 1-October 20, 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0inaugural Everyday Advocacy Challenge entered its second week on September 8 with this Take Action Tuesday prompt: Write an elevator speech using value-based language. Here&#8217;s what our EAC cohort members had to say\u2014in six words or less\u2014about tackling the Week 2 challenge: &#8220;Validating.&#8221; &#8220;Finding phrase more difficult than expected.&#8221; &#8220;Hard at first, then easier.&#8221; &#8220;Fun: I got a bit silly.&#8221; &#8220;Easier than I expected.&#8221; &#8220;Addicting! I wrote for multiple audiences!&#8221; &#8220;Fun to grab attention.&#8221; &#8220;Challenging to find an authentic voice.&#8221; &#8220;Thought-provoking. Getting to the essentials.&#8221; &#8220;Passion + creativity = empowering!&#8221; &#8220;Less is more but difficult!&#8221; &#8220;Making refinements, getting easier to say.&#8221; For Matt McLain, the EAC Week 2 prompt proved a great opportunity to answer the question, &#8220;What do you do?&#8221; Matt writes: The elevator speech is the perfect fit for those golden moments when you find yourself with an opportunity to tell others about the great work libraries do&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}