I’m happy to introduce the SF Bay Region Chapter’s first annual Conference Buddy Program!
Are you going to the conference in San Diego as a first-timer or relative novice? If you’re feeling a bit new at all this, or would like to be introduced to other SLA members, sign up today! We’ll pair you with a buddy to help you navigate the programs, INFO-Expo Hall, and receptions. Once you have a familiar face or two at the conference, you’ll be amazed at how often you’ll see them in the halls!
Are you a more experienced conference-goer with several years under your belt and a heavy weight of conference pins for your lanyard? Sign up to mentor a chapter member with less experience, and gain a chance to see this year’s conference through fresh eyes.
We’ll be pairing up first-timers with veteran conference-goers for as much advice, mentoring, and familiar-face-at-networking-events as is desired. Mentor buddies will be asked to contact their mentees before the conference in order to help answer any pre-conference questions that come up. Buddies can attend an open house or reception together, grab something to drink during a break, hit a dine-around, or whatever works for the pair. The experienced buddy can introduce the newbie to other SLA members and provide tips on how to best tackle the conference.
Please sign up for the Conference Buddy Program by Monday, April 22nd. We’ll match up buddies and email you so that you can make plans for the conference, and maybe meet first at the chapter program on May 22nd!
Of course, the first tip is to catch that worm! If you haven’t already registered for the conference, stop delaying! The Early Bird rate is only available through April 12th; on April 13th, the full member rate rises from $529 to $699. Student registrations are just $190!
Way back what seems like ages ago, but is, in reality, only 3 weeks past, I was in Dallas for SLA’s 2013 Leadership Summit. Many thanks to the Texas Chapter for all of their hard work and their big Texas welcome! For those unfamiliar with the event, this annual meeting brings together the SLA Board, HQ staff, and chapter and division Presidents/Chairs and Presidents/Chairs-Elect to discuss the state of the Association, the challenges we face, and the plans for the road ahead.
This was my first Summit – my trip last year as President-Elect was cancelled at the very last minute due to some personal drama – so I was very excited to be able to attend this year. In spite of the fact that I spent two full days in a hotel conference room, it was a wonderful experience and I encourage anyone interested in getting involved in leadership positions with SLA, or who is just interested in the inner workings of the association, to attend. You do not have to be a current unit Board member to go. While there are obviously plenty of opportunities to meet people at the Annual Conference, the Leadership Summit provides a more intimate setting, bringing together folks with SLA-famous Twitter handles for the common goal of making our Association more vital and relevant to members and potential members everywhere.
Some of the highlights of this year’s Summit include:
In his Treasurer’s Report, new SLA Treasurer John DiGilio emphasized the “we are all one SLA” theme, and introduced specific plans for enhanced openness. He has started a new discussion list for unit Treasurers to more easily share information and ideas, and has committed to sending financial reports to unit leaders throughout the year. I will be sharing this information with the chapter as it arrives. John also reported that SLA broke even in 2012, and is projected to do so again in 2013. However, he noted an ongoing trend – over the last four years, SLA has managed to decrease expenses to keep in line with decreasing revenue, resulting in a balanced budget. This has led to some projects being deferred and, as we all know, a reduction in SLA HQ staff. They are running a very small, tight crew in Alexandria right now. There isn’t much fat left to cut, so the key issue going forward has to be bringing that downward revenue line on the graph back up. John also noted that 63% of SLA’s revenue comes from the annual conference, while conference expenses represent 43% of our outflow. So, everyone, register for the conference in San Diego!
SLA’s new Strategic Agenda was emphasized throughout the Summit. All leaders are being encouraged to consider how the decisions and actions we take in our chapters and divisions can support one of the five tiers of this program. For those unfamiliar with the agenda items, they include:
Strengthening and Improving the Annual Conference
Providing Professional Development Opportunities for Our Members Throughout the Year
Creating Richer Volunteer Experiences to Help Members Develop In-Demand Skills
Opening New Markets through Collaboration
Growth through Diversification of Information Professionals
Your chapter Board and Advisory Council will be exploring ways to promote and incorporate these ideas into our chapter activities going forward.
Chris Zammarelli, Chair of the First Five Years Advisory Council, announced a plan to hold a focus group at the 2013 conference to explore what our colleagues who are newer to the profession would find helpful and meaningful through their association membership. Please contact me if you are a newish information professional attending the conference and you would like to participate, or if you know someone who should.
By far, the announcement that received the most excitement, demonstrated by frequent “oohs”, “aahs”, and applause, was the introduction of the new SLA web site. Built on WordPress, the new site not only reflects the unified design aesthetics adopted by the units under Operation Vitality, it also makes things <gasp> easier to find. The site is attractive, intuitive, and functional. Prompted largely by a suggestion made by our own Tony Landolt, the new web site will also feature an association-wide event calendar, allowing members to view the programs hosted by various units throughout the year. You can use the calendar to find webinars in which you’d like to participate, or possibly to find interesting programs to attend and SLA members to meet if you happen to be travelling to another chapter region. The new web site is currently set to launch in early April. I stopped holding my breath a long time ago, but now that I’ve seen what’s coming, I’m virtually breathless with antici. . . (say it, say it) . . .pation.
The Leadership Summit also serves as the official kick-off for planning the 2014 Annual Conference. The conference will be held in Vancouver (June 8-10, 2014), and the theme is Beyond Borders. More changes are in store as SLA explores various ways to make the conference even more relevant to members, including a variety of session time slots lasting 60, 90, and 120 minutes, and 15-minute “Quick Take” slots for hot topics. Three themes were also announced for further consideration by all divisions in spotlight sessions, Sunday: Embedded Information Services, Monday: Digital Content and Big Data, Tuesday: Leadership in the Human Age.
I represented the San Francisco Bay Region Chapter with a presentation on our chapter’s first foray last fall into charging for webinars. The extremely detailed procedures document written by Chris Orr, our Professional Development Chair, proved invaluable in developing the presentation, and the session was well-received. The detailed instructions, lessons learned, and issues to consider going forward seemed to be very useful for the units who have not embarked on this endeavor before. My presentation was also well-matched with that of Rachel Bates Wilfahrt, president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter. Since their chapter sponsored several webinars last year, it was nice to have the perspective of a unit with lots of experience to show what’s possible, as well as that of our chapter which still has our lessons learned so fresh in our heads. The slides from my presentation, as well as all of the other presentations from the 2013 Leadership Summit, are available here: http://www.sla.org/content/resources/leadcenter/LeadershipSummit/13leadsummit/slides.cfm. Note, member login is required for access.
Finally, last, but most certainly not least, the 2013 Fellows and Rising Stars were announced:
A special shout out for San Francisco Bay Region Chapter member Kendra Levine, current Chair of the Transportation Division, for her recognition.
The Summit concluded with a look forward to San Diego, including the introduction of SLA’s “Get on the Beach” Recruitment Campaign, and the enjoyment of the always visionary musical stylings of Richard Geiger and Tim DeWolf. As you gear up to attend the conference, kick your excitement up to 11 with this rousing rendition of a Woody Guthrie classic! You can listen while you register!
I am very pleased to announce the launch of the SF Bay Region chapter’s newly revitalized social media presence. Many of you may already be aware of the chapter’s group on LinkedIn. This group will continue on as it has, albeit with a few additional administrators. If you aren’t already a member of this group, I urge you to join.
In addition, thanks to the efforts of Lauren Reid, our new Networking Chair, our chapter has new, active accounts on Twitter and FaceBook. Lauren has been working energetically on both accounts for a few weeks now, so check them out to see the type of information that is being made available to you. In addition to SLA announcements and links to Bayline posts, you’ll find information about networking and professional development opportunities, calls for papers, and news of general interest to information professionals.
On FaceBook, we opted for a group, rather than a page, because it is focused more on the people making up the community. All group members should feel free to post stories of interest or comment on anything you see on that page. I hope you’ll join our group at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/50637818626/. We also plan to use this account to promote chapter events, so be sure to connect with your colleagues by marking yourself as “attending” an event if you plan to register.
In addition to using these venues to connect with each other, we hope these resources will also help us communicate our presence and value to non-members. Heather Gamberg, our PR Chair, is currently strategizing the best ways to use these resources, and other forms of media, to push our message out past the choir box and into the larger world.
Finally, on the topic of chapter communications, are you signed up for the chapter discussion list? If you’re reading this via e-mail, you may be thinking that I have lost my mind. “Of course, I’m signed up for the discussion list. I’m reading this, aren’t I?” Look up at the “From” line. If you only receive chapter messages that appear to come from Linda Yamamoto, you are not signed up for the discussion list.
Linda very ably administers the discussion list, but she also moderates the chapter reflector. The reflector is an e-mail list used for official chapter and SLA headquarters announcements. You will see event listings and important messages from yours truly on this list, but the only person with permission to post to this account is Linda. All chapter members are automatically signed up for the chapter reflector by SLA headquarters.
The discussion list is a completely separate resource to which any subscriber can post. You’ll see the same types of official announcements as on the reflector, but also a variety of other e-mails sent by members, from requests for recommendations for particular software or services, to a vast array of webinar opportunities forwarded from other SLA units, many of them free to members.
If you are starting to wonder if you are on the discussion list, but can’t remember who has always been in that “From” line, there’s another easy way to tell. Have you been getting the Intersect Alert? This newsletter is sent to the discussion list every Sunday or Monday by the faithful members of your Government Relations committee, Michael Sholinbeck, Tony Sheaffer, and me. It provides annotated links to news stories related to the intersection between libraries/librarians and government information policies. If you have not seen this newsletter recently, you are not on the discussion list.
Please sign up for the chapter discussion list by sending an e-mail to lyris@sla.lyris.net in the following format (leave the subject line blank):
Subscribe SLA-CSFO your-e-mail_address “FirstName LastName” (e.g. Subscribe SLA-CSFO jdoe@xyz.com “John Doe”)
If you are not on the chapter discussion list, you are missing a great opportunity to connect with our chapter and its members. Don’t worry; the number of e-mails is not overwhelming.
Please note, even if you signed up in the past, the Lyris platform has an unfortunate tendency to drop people from time to time. This usually happens if your employer’s e-mail server flags a few messages as spam and, unknown to the subscriber, sends an “unsubscribe” request back. For those of you who signed up with your UC Berkeley e-mail address, it’s probably time to sign up again. I am working with HQ to try and find a way to resolve this ongoing issue, so hopefully we’ll have a better way to deal with it in the future.
Your chapter leaders are working hard to offer you ways to engage through a number of communication channels. Pick the one(s) that work best for you. I hope to be hearing from you soon!
Happy 2013, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter of SLA!
Last week, the chapter’s Executive Board and Advisory Council had our 2013 turnover meeting; this is the time that outgoing Chairs officially hand their duties over to the new incoming Chairs. This also marks the start of my term as chapter President and I am both thrilled and humbled by this opportunity.
Once again, I would like to thank the many chapter members who have volunteered their time to serve as Board and Council members. None of the many fantastic chapter events and resources available to you would exist without their efforts. I would like to ask all of our members to think about some of the chapter benefits that have been made possible by their efforts. Maybe you love to attend the informative speaker programs, tours, and professional development events organized throughout the year. Perhaps you are drawn more to the social nature of the neighborhood dinners and holiday party. Or maybe you look forward to reading Bayline articles posted on the chapter website, or are kept informed of government activities that impact our access to information by the Intersect Alert. When you see a chapter Council member, take a moment to thank them for their efforts.
Now think about how lucky we are to be members of a chapter that has all of this to offer in a relatively compact geographic area. It is true that many of our programs are held in San Francisco, although there are events annually in the East Bay, and neighborhood dinners several times a year in Marin. But consider the SLA chapters which encompass entire states; for example, the Nebraska chapter with its 21 members. Or entire regions, like our neighbors to the north in the Pacific Northwest chapter, which covers members in Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Alaska. Or entire continents, like the Europe chapter, home to SLA’s current President-Elect. It may seem difficult to make it to a chapter function 20 or 30 miles from home, but consider how much easier that is relative to negotiating state and country borders?
Like so many of the San Francisco Bay Region chapter presidents before me, I’ve selected a theme for my term; that theme is Investment. Whether you are brand new to the chapter or a long-time member, this is the year I want to challenge you to get invested. If you’ve never been to a chapter event, come out to a program, and introduce yourself to me. Is there a topic about which you are knowledgeable, perhaps digitization technologies, social networking strategies, or business research resources and techniques? Share it in an article for Bayline. Is there a skill set that you would like to develop? Look at the various Advisory Council committees and select the one that you think would have a volunteer opportunity that would facilitate that growth. Throughout the year, I will be sending notices to the discussion list asking for volunteers to help with discrete, focused projects. Take me up on it.
Maybe you’re hesitant to come to events because you don’t know anyone there, or you just haven’t seen how SLA can impact your career. Well, here’s the thing about volunteering: you get to know people. Last year, an SLA task force surveyed 527 association members about volunteering with SLA. When asked how their volunteer experience paid off:
35% said they got new job because of the volunteer experience
30% said they built professional connections
30% said the volunteer experience helped with their career development and professional growth
Think about all that your San Francisco Bay Region chapter can offer you, and then think about how you can maximize those benefits. During my years volunteering with the chapter, I have known several people on the chapter’s Executive Board and Advisory Council to get both internships and full-time jobs as a direct result of their networking with others in the chapter. However, it’s difficult for chapter members to be of assistance if we don’t know you, that you’re looking for a job, or what you’re interested in. The best way for SLA to benefit you is by giving you the networking opportunities and professional development tools you can use to broaden your prospects.
Your SLA leaders work throughout the year to provide our members with programming and information to help you grow as a professional. We are invested in you. This is the time for you to invest in your career and your profession. It’s time for you to invest in SLA. Just ask me how.
We’re well into the third quarter of my year as President, and while we still have some exciting events coming up, the Executive Board is thinking hard about next year. David Grossman and the Nominating Committee are very close to completing their recruiting for next year’s Executive Board, Hilary Schiraldi is beginning to sketch out next year’s program schedule, and Anne Barker and I are working on filling out the Advisory Council. You’ll be hearing more from Anne on that front, but, in keeping with my “Community” theme, I encourage you all to take on leadership roles in the organization to the extent that you are able. I’ve found that the relationships I’ve developed through my involvement in the organization pay dividends later.
Already it has been an eventful year. Cathy Solomon and Jonathan Leff have done excellent work as our new Archives Chairs, establishing electronic archives for our digital records, and compiling much needed lists of our past award winners. Shelli Owens, our Academic Relations Chair, has diligently worked through contact lists for information schools with distance learning programs so we can improve our outreach to local students from distant schools. Our Hospitality Chair, Sarah Cook, has found some fantastic new venues for our chapter events. And Chris Orr, our Professional Development Chair, has established the chapter’s capability to provide webinars for our members.
We’ve had some challenges as well, most notably in relation to our newsletter, Bayline. We were all excited to move from a PDF file to a blog, and integrate Bayline into our new website. Unfortunately, we lost our editor in the midst of the transition, and this has resulted in less frequent Bayline updates than we’d like. Special thanks go to Heather Gamberg for supporting Bayline in addition to her work as Secretary. Bayline will clearly be an area of focus for 2013, as the newsletter is a critical tool for keeping us all in touch with one another and recording our chapter history.
We still have plenty of opportunities to meet and get together this year. On November 13th, we’ll have part 2 of Deb Hunt and David Grossman’s professional development program “Expanding Your Career Potential”. Later in November, we’ll have our second tour of the year (location is still TBA), and finally, on December 18th we’ll have our annual Holiday Party, once again at Thirsty Bear brewpub, but this year incorporating our annual awards ceremony. Watch for details on that event.
Finally, I want to let you know about a change in pricing for next year’s events. For several years, the chapter has used its funding reserves to subsidize the cost of chapter events, keeping the standard registration fee at an affordable $25 for members. The board still feels that subsidizing events is an appropriate use of chapter reserves; however, the losses we sustained on events this year are simply not sustainable. Therefore, the board has agreed that the standard registration fee for 2013 will be $30 for members. The non-member and student/unemployed rates will stay the same at $50 and $20, respectively. The chapter will still be underwriting events at those rates, but at a level that will allow us to continue subsidies into the future.
I look forward to seeing you all at the holiday party!
Welcome to the second half of the program year! It is kind of shocking to realize I’m halfway through my year as president already. It has been an interesting adventure, with some challenges and no shortage of excitement.
We have a very exciting second half of the year planned. In July, the chapter will be participating in the Western States Chapters Reception at the SLA Annual Conference in Chicago. I hope you’ll all be joining us on Monday, July 16, from 6 to 8 pm at the Historic Newberry Library, 60 West Walton Street in Chicago. We’ll take a break in August and pick up again in September with an East Bay meeting. The location is still TBD, but our speaker will be Gray Brechin, historical geographer and visiting professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Geography. In October and early November we’ll hear once again from our own Deb Hunt and David Grossman, who will reprise their two-part professional development programs on career development, this time as webinars! Professional development programs via webinar are a new thing for our chapter, so we’ll be watching carefully to see how they are received. In November, we’ll have the second tour of the year, and in December, we’ll have our traditional holiday party. So you can see there’s plenty to look forward to.
On a sadder note, we have said goodbye to our Bayline Editor, Alys Tryon, who has left California for personal reasons. Special thanks go to our Secretary, Heather Gamberg, who has graciously agreed to take on management of Bayline for the remainder of the year, with the support of the rest of the Executive Board. I anticipate that you’ll be seeing more regular Bayline e-mails throughout the rest of the year, keeping you in touch with the SLA community. Heather welcomes submissions for Bayline. We’d particularly like to have those of you who are attending the conference write a paragraph or two about an interesting session you attend. If you liked it, your fellow chapter members should know about it, too!
Obviously that means we have an opening for Bayline Editor, but we also expect to have a number of other openings on the chapter Advisory Council in 2013. We’re currently recruiting for both the Executive Board and the Advisory Council for 2013, and I hope you’ll respond positively if you’re contacted by a member of the Nominating Committee regarding a position. In addition to recruiting for board positions, the chapter is looking at ways to open up more short-term volunteer opportunities and give all of you more chances to participate in committees, even if you can’t commit to a board position. Look to see more of those opportunities announced here and in Bayline. And don’t hesitate to let me or any other board member know if there’s something you’re interested in working on!
Finally, I want to make you all aware of a decision the Executive Board has made regarding announcements on our chapter listerv. As you know, employment opportunities should not be posted on our chapter listserv, but instead be posted on the Jobline service that we share with Silicon Valley. However, following a request, the board has decided to allow volunteer positions and unpaid internships to be posted on the listserv. We’ll make sure that postings include language noting that the posting exception applies to unpaid positions only.
I look forward to seeing many of you in Chicago! Don’t forget to post your travel details on the chapter wiki (http://wiki.sla.org/display/SFBRWiki/Chapter+Members+Attending+SLA+2012+in+Chicago). The site will let you see what other chapter members will be in Chicago, and maybe you can share a cab!
All year I’ve been talking about community, and coming up at the end of this month we have an excellent opportunity to build our community connections as we host our annual joint meeting with Silicon Valley. You’ll have a chance to meet old friends and learn what your colleagues down in the valley have been up to, in a great location not too far from home. Delancey Street Restaurant (http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/enterrestaurant.php) will have a private room for us with a beautiful view of the bay. It will be a fine night out.
Socializing is important, but we’ll also have an exceptional speaker panel, including Janice Lachance, SLA’s CEO; Brent Mai, the association’s President; and our own Deb Hunt, President-Elect. Chapter member David Grossman will lead the panel discussion with our three guests, who will give their perspectives on trends in information industries, as well as the SLA organization. We’ll be looking for audience participation, so get your questions ready.
I also want to update you all on our newsletter, Bayline, which has been conspicuous in its absence. As I announced in February, we’ve moved Bayline out of PDF and into a web-based format. Our plan had been to feed new content from the website weekly, and send you all e-mail updates on content approximately once a month. Unfortunately, our Bayline editor, Alys Tryon, has had to step away from the newsletter for a little while, which has put a crimp in our plans. We wish Alys the best, and look forward to having her back with us soon. In the meantime, as news comes in, I’ll incorporate key Bayline updates in my President’s Messages. In April, we had two posts.
Ian Palmer looks at content curation technologies: http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/category/bayline/
Mosaic: What’s Happening With Our Members: http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/2012/04/mosaic-whats-happening-with-our-members/
If you’ve got news worthy of Bayline, please send it along!
Finally I want you all to know that the board has recognized a need to give our members more specific opportunities to get involved with the chapter. As we’re beginning to look at our plans for next year, and build out our Advisory Council, we’re looking at ways we can provide opportunities beyond these board positions and get our members interacting with each other. I want to hear from all of you about the kinds of opportunities you’re looking for, and the skills you’d like to develop.
SLA’s Leadership Summit was held January 25-28 in Atlanta, Georgia. The meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet colleagues, as leaders from chapters and divisions come together to learn about plans for the organization as a whole, and to share successes and challenges in managing their individual units.
I came away from the meeting with a much better understanding of the direction the organization is taking. For me, the most important presentation at the summit came from the treasurer, Dan Trefethen. We all know that the association has had several difficult years financially, so it was wonderful to hear Dan say that fiscal 2011 had closed with no cash deficit, and that no deficit is projected for 2012. The association still faces some deferred expenses, most notably some infrastructure work on our headquarters offices and some overdue upgrades to computer equipment, so we’re not without challenges, but it’s a big improvement over the past several years. Dan’s slides are online here: http://www.sla.org/presentations/12leadsumm/ShowMetheMoney.pdf
Another important presentation was the update on SLA’s Loyalty Project from consultant James Kane. James presented to the leadership team two years ago, and since then selected chapters have been working with him on techniques and tools for developing member loyalty, with an overall goal of increasing chapter membership retention by 5%. I personally participated in a somewhat humbling exercise, designed to demonstrate that leadership means going beyond the specific tasks you are assigned, and providing guidance and vision to the organization. In the exercise, a small group of us were designated as “problem solvers”, taken out of the main conference room, and given a detailed set of maneuvers to execute using the people still in the main conference room. Of course, while we worked diligently at solving the puzzle in the lobby, confusion reigned in the conference room. By the time we returned to the conference room to implement our plan, there was no way to restore order in the main space! James Kane went on to explain that the exercise demonstrates the importance of leaders being visible, and ensuring that the decision-making process is visible to the group. I’ll certainly be keeping that lesson in mind as I look to execute tasks as your President, and welcome your input on ways to make the chapter more open and accessible.
Finally, in group discussions I learned about a number of programs that other chapters have implemented that might be of interest here in the Bay Area. Some of these are listed below. I welcome your input on whether these types of programs would be of interest.
Post Executive Board agendas on the chapter website in advance of board meetings, and make sure discussion points from executive board meetings are circulated to the membership.
I’ve already implemented this one – see: http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/2012/03/board-meeting-agendas/
Professionals need professional headshots for Linked In, etc. Have a photographer come to a meeting and allow members to get quality photos
If you’re a photographer and would be interested in working with us on this project, let me know.
Post board member profiles on your website
We will work on integrating this into our new Bayline format.
Find out what other organizations our members belong to, and plan joint programming with those organizations
Do you belong to another professional organization outside of SLA? If so, and you’d be interested in joint programming, please let me know.
Establish chapter liaisons to various divisions.
Start a chapter “Article Club” (less commitment than a book club).
Be sure members are aware of member benefits. In particular, note that SLA does offer a group health care purchase option.
If you’re interested in any of these programs, I want to hear from you. You can reach me at president@sanfrancisco.sla.org.
Hello again, San Francisco Chapter! As I announced last month, the theme of my chapter presidency this year is COMMUNITY. Now I’m excited to announce a big change that I feel will improve chapter communications and keep us all more in touch with one another. We’re moving Bayline to the web.!
An electronic newsletter is something the board has considered several times in the past, but it’s only with the rollout of the new website that we feel we’re able to do this effectively. If you haven’t seen the new website yet, check it out now. The URL is much easier to remember: http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/.
Once you’re on the website, you’ll see a tab for Bayline. Beginning with this post you can expect to see postings to this section at least weekly. These articles will replace the PDF Bayline, and the February issue you just received is the last one you’ll receive in that format, but past PDF issues will remain archived on the site.
We know that most of our members prefer push communications, though, so if you forget to check the site, don’t worry. Once a month we’ll send an e-mail to the reflector list summarizing all the new content that has been added. It will be similar to the current PDF distribution, but instead of downloading a PDF, you’ll be able to click through to the articles.
You’ll still see all of the Bayline features you’ve come to expect, including Mosaic and event summaries for all our programs, but you’ll see them in a much more timely way. I’ll be posting news from Leadership Summit in this section very soon. We’re also exploring new content to integrate into the site, including member profiles. We welcome ideas for new content, as well as article submissions. Send your ideas to our Bayline editor, Alys Tryon, at bayline@sanfrancisco.sla.org. And if you have questions or concerns, you’re always welcome to contact me at president@sanfrancisco.sla.org.
Of course, our events are still the core of our chapter community. This month, we have an exciting Professional Development opportunity. Past-President Eris Weaver will present “Quick & Dirty Strategic Planning”. Details and registration forms are found here: http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/category/events/.
I hope many of you will join us for this exciting and interactive session.
I’m very excited to be serving as your President this year. Like so many of my predecessors, I’ve decided to select a theme for my presidency, and that theme is COMMUNITY. For me, the biggest value of my SLA membership has always been the community connections it has provided, particularly at the local level. Through my local SLA connections I’ve developed new skills, kept informed about industry developments, hired new talent, and learned about career opportunities. As President, I want to nurture that community, and ensure that you all have those opportunities as well throughout the year.
The most obvious way we develop community is through meetings and programs. As a chapter, we strive to have two professional development events, two tours, and six dinner meetings in any given year, and this year is no different. We’re already off to a roaring start, with a very successful dinner meeting featuring Scott Brown last week ( Scott’s presentation slides are at http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/SFSLA_GooglePlus_Jan2012.pdf ), and plans for a Professional Development meeting on Feb 28th, featuring Past President Eris Weaver (see announcement at http://sanfrancisco.sla.org/2012/01/quick-dirty-strategic-planning/). March brings us Sunshine Week, and we’re planning another panel discussion as we have in recent years. April will be our Neighborhood Dinners, May will be our annual joint meeting with the Silicon Valley chapter, and in June we hope to have our first tour of the year, at the Asian Art Museum! We won’t have a local event in July, but we’ll be participating in the Western States Chapter Reception at the SLA Annual Conference in Chicago, and I hope many of you will join us there. Then in August we’ll begin our local programming again, with an event roughly every month in the second half of the year. As we have in past years, we’re keeping registration fees low for these events, generally $25 for programs, to enable as many of you as possible to participate. I look forward to meeting many of you at these sessions, to making connections, and to building our community.
Bayline has also been a tool for building the chapter community for many years. It has been a very effective way to send messages, to share successes, and to share knowledge. However, with the rollout of our new website, the board is sensing that the PDF format is showing its age. Now, we’re beginning to explore opportunities for moving the newsletter content to the web. I’ll be heading a small task force to look at ways to do that without losing the benefits of the newsletter. I welcome feedback as we work through that process.
As I write this, I’m preparing to attend SLA’s annual Leadership Summit, one of the places our local SLA community meets with the larger association community. This is an opportunity for me to learn about the organization’s plans and expectations for the coming year, and I look forward to sharing those messages with you all when I return.
Finally, I want to encourage you all to get engaged with the organization and build our community spirit. That may be something as simple as attending an event, providing feedback on that event, or reaching out to make a suggestion for a speaker, or a topic you’d like covered in Professional Development. The executive board welcomes your feedback and input at any time. I hope some of you will also get engaged by volunteering to work with the organization. We have volunteer opportunities for everyone, from simple projects like preparing name badges for meetings, right up to participating on the board. We have several open positions on the advisory council, and we’ll be doing active recruitment in the months ahead. Finally, I hope you’ll all reach out to your friends and colleagues and get them involved as well. Our community will be all the stronger for the growth.
