Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Board meeting
January 17, 2017 4:00--5:00 PM
Virtual
Full meeting minutes
Attending:
Alison Barker, Old Rochester Regional High School, Co-Director Southeast Region
Lani Blechman, Fort River Elementary, Amherst, Co-Director West Region
Amy Bloom, Wilson Middle School, Natick, Co-Director, Metrowest Region
Anita Cellucci, Westborough High School, outgoing President
Karen Davidson-Heller, Malden Catholic High School, Co-Director Boston Region
Jennifer Dimmick, Newton South High School, Secretary
Patsy Divver, Millis Middle/High School, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Sarah Forfa, South Hadley High School, Co-Director West Region
Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School, Advocacy Co-Chair
Laura Harrington, North Andover High School, Co-Director Northeast Region
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director
Laura Luker, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter, Hadley, Professional Learning
Claudia Palframan, Dupont Middle School, Co-Director West Region
Ann Perham, Awards Co-Chair
Paige Rowse, Needham High School, Awards Co-Chair
Amy Short, Director for Library Media for Cambridge Public Schools, Awards Co-Chair
Katherine Steiger, Newton South High School, Forum Newsletter Co-Editor
Carrie Tucker, East Bridgewater Junior Senior High School, President
Jen Varney, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School, Cambridge, Treasurer
Reports from October were discussed and approved.
Open board positions
SE area co-director and Central Area AD are open positions on the board.
MSLA conference planning update
Kathy Lowe indicated that registrations are coming in at normal pace with 150 registered so far, with most registering for both days; a healthy number has registered for the dinner, even before awardees have been announced.
Kathy’s one concern regards exhibitors because registrations are low even relative to last year’s historic low. Kathy thinks that vendors are focusing more on large, national conferences instead of state conferences. Kathy requested that board members reach out to potential exhibitors they have relationships with, to see if they might be interested in participating in a conference of our size (typically ~ 400 attendees).
Laura Luker is very excited to report that the author committee got Gregory McGuire and Jane Yolen to have a conversation during the Monday lunch She also indicated that Ignite talks are growing with enough for one morning, like last year, but not more.
Awards update and possible voting on slate of recipients
Slate of award recipients was voted on and approved and Carrie thanked the committee for their very hard work on this.
Long-range financial planning update
The long-range financial planning committee met in December and discussed possible approaches to creating a financial plan for MSLA. An output from that meeting was a draft survey to distribute to similar state organizations to learn more about their financial best practices. The survey asks about approaches to holding cash reserves, member fees, conference behavior, etc. The committee is assembling a list of potential survey respondents and would like to include as many state school library associations as possible, with particular attention to PA, TX, NY, CA, 5 NE states, MLA. Kathy Lowe committed to forward the survey link to the AASL Listserv.
Legislative Day
Kathy Lowe alerted MLA that the bookmark contest will not be held as part of legislative day this year.
We have not received an update on library showcase applicants yet, but we are hoping there will be adequate representation of school libraries.
SAILS member libraries (including school libraries) will host a legislative breakfast at Bristol Community College in Fall River this Friday.
Chicopee Comprehensive High School is hosting a Legislative Breakfast on Feb. 2.
Bookmark Contest
The bookmark contest will be held at An Unlikely Story on May 9. Everyone is excited about new venue.
MSLA election. Report of nominating committee for next MSLA president
Anita Cellucci nominated candidate for president-elect Laura Luker based on her strong relationships within and outside of MSLA, her knowledgeability MSLA, her active involvement and commitment to with PLC, her multi-year tenure as an area director, and her reputation for being an articulate, kind communicator and problem-solver in the face of challenges.
The Board voted to approve Laura Luker MSLA President Elect. MSLA election will take place electronically in March.
National Collaborative for Digital Equity (www.digitalequity.us)
Bob McLaughlin from the collaborative reached out to MSLA (Kathy Lowe) via Susan Ballard in NH. He wants to know if we’d like to help to plan a summit on digital equity in high poverty communities. This is a national initiative to assist leadership teams in high poverty communities to tap bank funding under the federal Community Reinvestment Act, in addition to other philanthropic support, to undertake digital equity initiatives to close the digital divide. They’ve already had a few state summits in NH and are planning one in MA in 2018 in collaboration with the MA DESE, the MA Business Alliance for Education, Capital One, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Jen Varney indicated that she participated in related meetings last year and found the organization to be very inspiring, and she considers this a very worthy group to be involved with. Kathy will go back to Bob with positive feedback from the board and questions about what kind of commitment he needs from us (financial, timing, etc.)
AASL National Standards - Anita Cellucci
Purchase option for MSLA conference attendees - $99 for new standards with registration for the conference; The order needs to be placed 10 days before the conference. If you're using a PO you can include it with your registration and then just send a check or use your credit card to pay for the book. Just let Kathy Lowe know if you're doing this so she won't invoice your district for the book. People who have already registered can log back in with their confirmation number and modify their registration to add the Standards book.
Anita Cellucci and Reba Tierney are waiting for more support materials to arrive so that area directors can plan programming around the standards.
Other news:
Allison Barker: There will be two Gale database trainings in southeast area in Feb/March
Claudia Palframan: Attended several MTA conferences recently. Noted that Erik Champy is not very well informed about MSLA. Wondered if we do outreach to MTA about support for libraries? Do we contact candidates to educate them about us? Kathy Lowe indicated that beyond board members participating in MTA conferences, we have not done that kind of outreach in the past.
Reminder that Maya Bery is hosting a meet and greet with two other MTA candidates (Merrie Najimy and Max Page).
Bonnie McBride will be hosting “How to Plan an Event in Your Library” at Fenway High School on March 1. Deeth will be sending out more info and an invitation soon.
Laura Saunders, Simmons faculty, is putting together a panel in March and looking for a school librarian who talks about race and racism.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick
Executive Board meeting
January 17, 2017 4:00--5:00 PM
Virtual
Full meeting minutes
Attending:
Alison Barker, Old Rochester Regional High School, Co-Director Southeast Region
Lani Blechman, Fort River Elementary, Amherst, Co-Director West Region
Amy Bloom, Wilson Middle School, Natick, Co-Director, Metrowest Region
Anita Cellucci, Westborough High School, outgoing President
Karen Davidson-Heller, Malden Catholic High School, Co-Director Boston Region
Jennifer Dimmick, Newton South High School, Secretary
Patsy Divver, Millis Middle/High School, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Sarah Forfa, South Hadley High School, Co-Director West Region
Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School, Advocacy Co-Chair
Laura Harrington, North Andover High School, Co-Director Northeast Region
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director
Laura Luker, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter, Hadley, Professional Learning
Claudia Palframan, Dupont Middle School, Co-Director West Region
Ann Perham, Awards Co-Chair
Paige Rowse, Needham High School, Awards Co-Chair
Amy Short, Director for Library Media for Cambridge Public Schools, Awards Co-Chair
Katherine Steiger, Newton South High School, Forum Newsletter Co-Editor
Carrie Tucker, East Bridgewater Junior Senior High School, President
Jen Varney, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School, Cambridge, Treasurer
Reports from October were discussed and approved.
Open board positions
SE area co-director and Central Area AD are open positions on the board.
MSLA conference planning update
Kathy Lowe indicated that registrations are coming in at normal pace with 150 registered so far, with most registering for both days; a healthy number has registered for the dinner, even before awardees have been announced.
Kathy’s one concern regards exhibitors because registrations are low even relative to last year’s historic low. Kathy thinks that vendors are focusing more on large, national conferences instead of state conferences. Kathy requested that board members reach out to potential exhibitors they have relationships with, to see if they might be interested in participating in a conference of our size (typically ~ 400 attendees).
Laura Luker is very excited to report that the author committee got Gregory McGuire and Jane Yolen to have a conversation during the Monday lunch She also indicated that Ignite talks are growing with enough for one morning, like last year, but not more.
Awards update and possible voting on slate of recipients
Slate of award recipients was voted on and approved and Carrie thanked the committee for their very hard work on this.
Long-range financial planning update
The long-range financial planning committee met in December and discussed possible approaches to creating a financial plan for MSLA. An output from that meeting was a draft survey to distribute to similar state organizations to learn more about their financial best practices. The survey asks about approaches to holding cash reserves, member fees, conference behavior, etc. The committee is assembling a list of potential survey respondents and would like to include as many state school library associations as possible, with particular attention to PA, TX, NY, CA, 5 NE states, MLA. Kathy Lowe committed to forward the survey link to the AASL Listserv.
Legislative Day
Kathy Lowe alerted MLA that the bookmark contest will not be held as part of legislative day this year.
We have not received an update on library showcase applicants yet, but we are hoping there will be adequate representation of school libraries.
SAILS member libraries (including school libraries) will host a legislative breakfast at Bristol Community College in Fall River this Friday.
Chicopee Comprehensive High School is hosting a Legislative Breakfast on Feb. 2.
Bookmark Contest
The bookmark contest will be held at An Unlikely Story on May 9. Everyone is excited about new venue.
MSLA election. Report of nominating committee for next MSLA president
Anita Cellucci nominated candidate for president-elect Laura Luker based on her strong relationships within and outside of MSLA, her knowledgeability MSLA, her active involvement and commitment to with PLC, her multi-year tenure as an area director, and her reputation for being an articulate, kind communicator and problem-solver in the face of challenges.
The Board voted to approve Laura Luker MSLA President Elect. MSLA election will take place electronically in March.
National Collaborative for Digital Equity (www.digitalequity.us)
Bob McLaughlin from the collaborative reached out to MSLA (Kathy Lowe) via Susan Ballard in NH. He wants to know if we’d like to help to plan a summit on digital equity in high poverty communities. This is a national initiative to assist leadership teams in high poverty communities to tap bank funding under the federal Community Reinvestment Act, in addition to other philanthropic support, to undertake digital equity initiatives to close the digital divide. They’ve already had a few state summits in NH and are planning one in MA in 2018 in collaboration with the MA DESE, the MA Business Alliance for Education, Capital One, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Jen Varney indicated that she participated in related meetings last year and found the organization to be very inspiring, and she considers this a very worthy group to be involved with. Kathy will go back to Bob with positive feedback from the board and questions about what kind of commitment he needs from us (financial, timing, etc.)
AASL National Standards - Anita Cellucci
Purchase option for MSLA conference attendees - $99 for new standards with registration for the conference; The order needs to be placed 10 days before the conference. If you're using a PO you can include it with your registration and then just send a check or use your credit card to pay for the book. Just let Kathy Lowe know if you're doing this so she won't invoice your district for the book. People who have already registered can log back in with their confirmation number and modify their registration to add the Standards book.
Anita Cellucci and Reba Tierney are waiting for more support materials to arrive so that area directors can plan programming around the standards.
Other news:
Allison Barker: There will be two Gale database trainings in southeast area in Feb/March
Claudia Palframan: Attended several MTA conferences recently. Noted that Erik Champy is not very well informed about MSLA. Wondered if we do outreach to MTA about support for libraries? Do we contact candidates to educate them about us? Kathy Lowe indicated that beyond board members participating in MTA conferences, we have not done that kind of outreach in the past.
Reminder that Maya Bery is hosting a meet and greet with two other MTA candidates (Merrie Najimy and Max Page).
Bonnie McBride will be hosting “How to Plan an Event in Your Library” at Fenway High School on March 1. Deeth will be sending out more info and an invitation soon.
Laura Saunders, Simmons faculty, is putting together a panel in March and looking for a school librarian who talks about race and racism.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick
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