Hello MiALA members, it is now February and I hope everyone is doing well this mild, yet grey winter. For those of us who attended ALA’s Midwinter Meetings I hope it was a fruitful event and you’re back and ready to share what you’ve learned.
This month I want to remind you all of the opportunities you can create in your IG’s. The board is open to new programming ideas whether it is a face-to-face event or a virtual event. Remember members are allowed to use our Zoom license to host virtual meetings, virtual book talks, webinars, or any other professional development event. Here is a FAQ webpage on how to hold meetings. Please take advantage of this great professional development avenue.
I am happy to announce that our Conference Planning committee is working hard to design a great conference for May in Big Rapids. They are planning logistics, programming, and community building opportunities. Remember there is still time to propose a poster for the conference, for more information about poster programming go here.
I wanted to mention that ALA is once again sponsoring National Library Legislative Day on May 4th and 5th. In the past the board has sponsored a member of the Advocacy Committee to attend and report back to the members during our Annual Conference. It is a great learning and sharing event where you get to learn about what is happening at the federal level and also address the needs of libraries in this larger arena. The board will once again help sponsor a member of the Advocacy Committee to attend this event. If anyone from the committee is interested, please reach out to your chairs or a board member.
Lastly, I want to thank our committee chairs and committee members for the hard work they are doing. Much of what they do is behind-the-scenes and is not as obvious, but they dedicate their time and effort to make a better membership experience for all our members. Thank you!
Have a great month!
Beth Martin, MiALA President