I want to thank all our leaders in MiALA who came together last month to come up with vision and goals for the coming year. The board met and was excited to get started with how we wish to serve our members. We wanted to honor the momentum and growth of the past five years and really look at ways we can support and continue that growth. We came up with a tree analogy by wanting to celebrate our roots or the groundwork we laid five years ago until now. We reviewed what worked in the past and how we can grow our accomplishments. Here are some items the board discussed as goals for this year.  

• Look into an equitable pricing model for our annual conference. Knowing that not all prices fit all organizations or those who serve in our member institutions. We will examine ways to make the conference affordable for all types of employees and for students.  

• Reexamine our conference scholarships, offering more based upon need or circumstance. Again, trying to equitable to all members of MiALA.  

• Investigate virtual conferencing or recording of some key sessions of the annual conference to be archived and be viewed later. This will take some time for the board to review to see how to implement and how to best to offer this service for those who were unable to attend or those wanting to review certain presentations of the conference. As of now, the board is willing to investigate how or if we can provide a virtual or recorded session for its members.  

• The board would also like to work with the Communications Committee to see about a Tips/Tricks section of our monthly newsletters. The section will cover practical tips and applicable how to’s for various services our libraries provide. 

• Lastly, the board wants to review ways we can grow our membership and broaden offerings for support staff and MLIS students. We recognize the importance these two groups provide our membership and want to be inclusive in our professional development offerings. 

While this is not reflective of all the work the board will be doing this year, it does represent some of the areas we wish to investigate to help support and nurture its members through professional development. I look forward to all the work ahead of us and am confident MiALA will continue to grow into our fifth year and beyond.