On Thursday, June 13, TSD President-Elect Mary Wilson, Vice-President Elect Shelley Dolan, and Secretary-Elect Ann Wheeler attended the MLA Leadership Day at Frederick County Public Library in Frederick, MD. The MLA Leadership Day is held every year to orient MLA elected officials and board members and inform them of their duties to the organization.
Darrell Batson, incoming MLA President, gave the introductions. We then went around the room and everyone introduced themselves, where they work, and their position in MLA. To help people get to know each other a little bit better, we all played MLA Bingo, where we had to get signatures of people who fit different criteria, such as “has a tattoo” or “has never read the Da Vinci Code.”
Mary Baykan, Chair of the Nominations and Elections Committee, spoke to us about the responsibilities of MLA Board Members. MLA Board members include voting members (the Executive Board, which includes Division Presidents i.e. Mary Wilson) and non-voting members (the Advisory Council). Mary Baykan made the important point that it’s the Board that sets policy and goals for MLA, and it’s the Executive Director (Margaret Carty) that then manages and implements those policies and goals. Click here to see MLA’s organizational chart.
Mary Baykan also talked about the importance of advocacy for libraries. She made special note of CapWiz, a subscription service paid for by ALA which allows us to contact our elected officials at all levels of government and voice support for legislative action that supports libraries. This is a great tool to let everyone at your library know about!
Darrell Batson talked about his goals for 2008 - 2009 as our new MLA President. He stressed the importance of everyone doing one thing to help the organization, and all those little things will add up to a big difference. For the upcoming conference, he encouraged us to develop challenging programs that push boundaries and make us think, rather than focus on routine skills.
Kay Bowman, ALA Chapter Councilor, talked about the relationship between MLA and ALA. MLA is a chapter of ALA, Kay Bowman sits on the ALA Divisions Council and as such is the MLA’s voting voice in the larger organization.
Margaret Carty, Executive Director, talked about the ALA Chapter Relations Council, and that there is a committee trying to promote increased connection between the national organziation and its various chapters. {See our related blog post on the ALA’s ALCTS Council of Regional Groups Affiliate Relations Committee.}
Monica McAbee, Professional Development Officer, talked about the upcoming Program Planning Day at the MLA office, where anyone in MLA responsible for programming (usually division Presidents and Vice Presidents, interest group & committee Chairs), will learn the ins and outs of the process of creating stand-alone and annual conference programs. (As TSD President, Mary Wilson will be in charge of developing stand-alone programs for the division. As VP, Shelley Dolan will sit on the Conference Planning Committee and will be in charge of developing conference programs). The Program Planning Guidelines are online, and TSD will be assigned a programming liaison to help us during the coming year.
Elizabeth Cromwell, Conference Director, talked about the upcoming MLA Conference. She is in the very beginning planning stages and welcomes feedback and suggestions for next year’s conference. Her email is ecromwell@fredco-md.net. Andrea Shore is Assistant Conference Director. Conference dates will be May 13, 14, and 15 (Ocean City).
Margaret Carty talked about DLDS (Division of Library Development & Services, MD State Dept. of Education), MLA office support, MANO (Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations - MLA is a member), conflict of interest, and bio forms. Here are some important points:
- The MLA Office is open Monday - Thursday, 8 am - 4 pm.
- The office space is available for meetings, just contact them to schedule.
- The Webmaster, Bob Kuntz, can post materials on our division websites upon request of division officers. His email is webmaster@carr.org.
- The Happenings is a monthly calendar of MLA events. Division officers send copy to the MLA office by the first of the month to have it included in the Happenings.
- The Crab is the MLA newsletter, published four times a year. Deadlines for submission are Sept., Dec., Mar., & June 5.
- Each division gets one free mailing per year from the MLA Office.
- Division Presidents receive information on new MLA members who have expressed an interest in their division and will be in contact with them.
- MLA has approximately 1,100 members.
Next steps:
- Mary Wilson and Shelley Dolan plan to attend Program Planning Day on June 17.
- The TSD Officers will meet in July to begin planning for the upcoming year. We’re expected to submit an MLA Work Plan for our division by Sept. 1.
- On July 16, Mary will attend her first Board Meeting and Shelley her first Conference Committee Meeting.
