Blog Posts

January 2018

2/15/2018

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

October 2017

11/27/2017

Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Board meeting
October 18, 2017 4:00--6:00 PM
Virtual

View full meeting minutes

Attending Virtually:
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
Rachel Bouhanda, Billerica High School, Legislation
Anita Cellucci, Westborough High School, outgoing President
Cathy Collins, Sharon High School, Advocacy Co-Chair
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
Deeth Ellis, Boston Latin School, Co-Director Boston Region
Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School, Advocacy Co-Chair
Laura Harrington, North Andover High School, Co-Director Northeast Region
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director
Claudia Palframan, Dupont Middle School, Co-Director West Region
Ann Perham, 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 September were discussed and approved.

MSLA’s long range financial plan
Jen Varney led a discussion on this topic and recommended creating a subcommittee to make recommendations about next year’s budget. A subcommittee was formed consisting of Jen Varney, Katherine Steiger, Jennifer Dimmick, Laura Gardner, Carrie Tucker and Patsy Divver.

Advocacy update
Cathy Collins updated the board on plans for the MassCUE conference and ideas about the bookmark contest for 2017-18. She indicated that we need to get a subcommittee rolling soon, as last year a bulk of the workload fell on too few people. Laura Gardner is reaching out to the entire membership via the listserv to recruit 2-3 more members. The date for Legislative Day is set for March 6, though it is unclear whether the bookmark contest will continue to be part of that day’s events.

MSLA conference planning update
Ann Perham updated the board, indicating that all proposals have been reviewed and a schedule is currently being created.

MSLA Election
Carrie Tucker reminded the board that it’s time to start seeking a new president-elect.

Lapsed Members
There was a discussion about the value of reaching out to lapsed members on a regional basis for regional events, as the Northeast region has had recent success with this strategy. Other area directors will do the same in the future as the opportunity arises.

Other news and updates:

Laura Gardner: twitter chats have been going well and she’s open to suggestions

Rachel Bouhanda is starting a podcast

Deeth Ellis is presenting at AASL

Carrie Tucker volunteered to chair her school’s NEASC steering committee.

Paige Rouse was approved as Awards co-chair.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick

September 2017

10/18/2017

Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Board Retreat Minutes
September 9, 2017 9:30-3:00
Boston Public Library

View full meeting minutes

The Executive Board met in-person on September 9th to discuss the school library commission, MSLA conference, and other updates and basic information.

Attending (V=Virtual):
Allison Barker, Old Rochester Regional High School, Co-Director Southeast Region
Amy Bloom, Wilson Middle School, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Rachel Bouhanda, Billerica High School, Legislation
Anita Cellucci, Westborough High School, outgoing President (V)
Robin Cicchetti, Concord-Carlisle High School, Research Liaison
Karen Davidson-Heller, Malden Catholic High School, Co-Director Boston Region
Patsy Divver, Millis Middle/High School, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Deeth Ellis, Boston Latin School, Co-Director Boston Region
Julie Farrell, Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School, Central Region Co-Director
Barb Fecteau, Beverly High School, Co-Director Northeast Region
Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School, Co-Chair Advocacy
Laura Harrington, North Andover High School, Co-Director Northeast Region
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director
Laura Luker, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter, Professional Learning
Elaine Mokrzycki, Co-Director West Region
Claudia Palframan, Dupont Middle School, Co-Director West Region
Ann Perham, Awards
Liz Phipps-Soeiro, Cambridgeport School, Legislation
Katherine Steiger, Newton South High School, Forum Newsletter Co-Editor
Reba Tierney, Waltham 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

Carrie Tucker called the meeting to order and gave special recognition to Liz Phipps Soeiro for being named School Library Journal’s 2017 Hero of Family Outreach.

Lani Blechman was unanimously approved as a new West Area Co-Director.

Robin Cicchetti reported that the School Library Commission is close to being finished with its final report. The report includes 6 key findings, among them the need for DESE to establish the role of the school library specialist. The most important message for MSLA members about the work of the Commission is that the report suggests a best case scenario that there are vast inequities in school libraries statewide and that a seat at the DESE table is the best way to start addressing those inequities. The Commission would like MSLA to come up with an advocacy plan to implement when the report is released. The bill is number S1906. There will be a formal hearing, tentatively scheduled for late September. There will be a 14-page Executive Summary written for laypeople that can be disseminated to parents, administrators, and other advocates. MBLC will host a .pdf of the final report so it will be accessible there.

Laura Luker reported that conference planning is well underway. The new venue is the DCU Center in Worcester which is much more central, but it is also more expensive. Registration costs will increase in order to break even on expenses. However, the central location hopefully gives more people the option of going home at night and saving on hotel costs. Registration will open on Jan 1.

Ann Perham announced a few changes to awards. The Super Librarian and President’s Awards will no longer be by region. Nominees will be looked at by a committee.
Laura Gardner announced that Twitter chats will resume next Wednesday, Sept. 13th at 7:30 (#msla).

Kathy presented a list of lapsed members and asked Area Directors to reach out to these people and solicit feedback / encourage them to rejoin. This feedback has proved valuable in the past.

MSLA has agreed to host a list of members that are willing to host student teachers and interns. The list will be a Google Doc that Carol Kelly (ckellyssu@gmail.com) from the School Library program at Salem State University will keep updated. Representatives from Simmons and Cambridge College will also help and the list will be available to all institutions. Members who need to add or delete themselves from the list should contact Carol.
School Library Journal’s Basecamp occurred at Simmons this past May and those that attended all agreed it was a positive experience. SLJ would like our help in advertising the event and getting the word out to our members.

Liz attended ALA DC Advocacy Day and reports that other Massachusetts librarians wondered if MSLA could send a student to Advocacy Day. A discussion was held about the feasibility of this or other creative ways to involve students.
The next meeting is a virtual meeting at 4 p.m. on Oct 18th. The meeting was adjourned and members went on a tour of the Boston Public Library with Anna Fahey-Flynn.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Varney MSLA Treasurer

June 2107

7/11/2017

Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Summary
June 14, 2017
Westborough High School Library
View full meeting minutes

The Executive Board met in-person and virtually on June 14 to discuss conference venues and dates for 2018, the 2018 budget, board member responsibilities, ESSA and and other school library organizational affiliations.

Attending (V=Virtual):

Allison Barker, Old Rochester Regional High School, Co-Director South East Region
Anita Cellucci, Westborough High School, outgoing President
Chani Craig, Co-Director Western Region
Karen Davidson-Heller, Malden Catholic High School, Co-Director Boston Region
Laura D’Elia, Westborough elementaries, outgoing PLC Chair
Jennifer Dimmick, Newton South High School, Secretary
Patsy Divver, Millis Middle/High School, Co-Director Metrowest Region (V)
Deeth Ellis, Boston Latin School, Co-Director Boston Region
Julie Farrell, Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School, Central Region Co-Director
Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School, Co-Chair Advocacy (V)
Laura Harrington, North Andover High School, Co-Director Northeast Region (V)
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director
Laura Luker, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter, Professional Learning (V)
Ann Perham, Awards (V)
Amy Short, Cambridge Public Schools, Awards (V)
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
Robyn York, outgoing Secretary

The meeting kicked off with words of appreciation for Anita Cellucci, our outgoing president as well as outgoing board members Laura D’Elia, Chani Craig, Kim Cochrane, Ariel Dagan, Robyn York, and Suzanne Mathews.

After a review of member survey results and discussion about the pros and cons of Amherst vs. Worcester as our conference venue for next year, the board decided to select DCU in Worcester as a one year trial. Although DCU is more expensive because they do not have an attached hotel with an associated revenue stream, the board feels it is important to try a more centrally located venue in response to long standing member requests to hold the conference in a central part location of the state. DCU’s conference space is of high quality and contained in one area on one floor vs. being spread across multiple spaces and floors. It is hoped that the novelty of a new venue combined with its more central location will increase volume and offset costs.

The budget for FY18 was proposed and approved by the board.

MSLA President Carrie Tucker described various planning and reporting responsibilities to new board members.
Outgoing President Anita Cellucci reminded the board to submit their annual reports in preparation for the MSLA annual report which will be posted for members by July 1.
Future board meeting dates were discussed, as well as the merits and disadvantages of in-person vs. virtual meetings and/or virtual attendance options for board members.

The board decided on an in-person meeting retreat at the BPL in September retreat and a virtual meeting in October, with remaining options TBD

Saturday, September 9, 2017 9:00--3:00 Boston Public Library
Wednesday, October 18, 2017 4:00--6:00 Virtual
Wednesday, November 15, 2017 4:00--6:00 TBD
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 4:00--6:00 TBD
Wednesday, February 28, 2018 4:00--6:00 TBD
Wednesday, March 21, 2018 4:00--6:00 TBD
Wednesday, April 11, 2018 4:00--6:00 TBD
Wednesday, May 16, 2018 4:00--6:00 TBD

ESSA status update

Although it is unclear what changes will be made to ESSA under new administration, right now focus in MA has been on educating people about ESSA and ensuring school library programs are included in DESE’s ESA implementation. the role of school libraries in bringing it to fruition.

The initial work of the ESSA committee has been focused on writing letters and building support, but the next step will involve creating a task force, similar to what CA is doing, and building a list of action opportunities.

AASL Affiliate assembly, NESLA, and MSLA connection

MSLA has a variety of regional and national affiliations nationwide. MSLA is the state school library professional organization, NESLA is the New England School Library Association. Each NE state has representatives on the NESLA Board. Carol Gordon has taken over as their president. AASL is the national organization. Its Affiliate Assembly is made up of representatives from each affiliated state organization. NESLA is the only regional organization affiliated with AASL. The assembly is grouped into regions. NE makes up Region 1. NESLA rep's usually also serve as Affiliate Assembly rep's, and our representatives are Anita Cellucci and Reba Tierney (previously Jennifer Dimmick and Reba Tierney).

Happy summer everyone!

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick

May 2017

6/14/2017

Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Summary
May 17, 2017
Virtual Meeting
View Full Minutes

The Executive Board met virtually on May 17 to discuss changes to awards, annual reports, the yearly conference, and changes in board members.

The Awards Committee is looking at making changes to awards in Super Librarian’s and President’s Award to allow candidates to be chosen regardless of region and make it more state-based. These awards would be decided through a subcommittee. In addition, there will now be a third member of the Awards Committee. Every year a new member rotates in, for a two-year term; that way there will be two experienced members and only one who is learning.

Board members are preparing annual reports for June and they will be published on the MSLA website by July 1.

The PLC Committee is considering making changes in its offerings for next year. After holding four small events instead of one yearly conference this year, the committee discovered that the planning is too labor intensive and the attendance has not been as high at the smaller events as it is for the annual conference. This year, MSLA will not be holding the Better Together event. Additionally, MSLA will not be sponsoring EdCamps in the future since the event this year was poorly attended and there are many other similar offerings and EdCamps for the membership to attend.

The Board supports the PLC Committee’s decision to return to the yearly two-day conference format. Planning several events throughout the year proved to be more work and less attendance at the smaller events, while the conference has been a more successful event overall. Having a conference every year gives members a predictable event that they can build into their budgets and plan into their calendars. Some members have suggested that MSLA consider other venues closer to the Worcester area to encourage more members from Western Massachusetts to attend the event.

The Executive Board wants to thank several outgoing members for their service:

A big thank you and farewell to President Anita Cellucci, and welcome to new President Carrie Tucker. During her tenure as President, Anita Cellucci has earned much recognition for her work at Westborough High School, including being selected as a finalist in the School Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award Contest in 2016.

Laura D’Elia will be stepping down from her leadership role in the Professional Learning Committee, and Laura Luker, current co-chair, will assume the leadership role. Laura D’Elia has done an outstanding job on the PLC Committee. Laura D’Elia, thank you for all the work you have done for PLC and MSLA.

In recognition of their outstanding commitment to library services at the state and national level, Anita Cellucci and Laura D’Elia have been awarded a Service Award from MSLA this spring.

Chani Craig, Western Massachusetts Co-Area Director, will be moving out of state. Chani Craig also received the Earl McGraw Award recently for creating a welcoming library in her school. Thank you Chani for your service and we wish you all the best.

After serving as our Massachusetts Reading Association (MRA) representative, Kim Cochrane is stepping down. Kim, MSLA appreciates your support and advocacy and wishes you the best in your new endeavors.

Also, thank you to Suzanne Matthews for her service as the Boston Area Co-Director.

Finally, a big thank you to Ariel Dagan for his work revamping the bookmark program and giving members the opportunity to vote.

Happy summer everyone!
Respectfully submitted,
Robyn York

March 2017

5/22/2017

Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Summary
March 4, 2017 Retreat Meeting, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Dartmouth Middle School Library, Dartmouth, MA
View Minutes

The Massachusetts School Library Association Executive Board met at an all day retreat at the Dartmouth Middle School Library on Saturday, March 4 to approve the consent agenda and discuss current and future business.

This year’s Bookmark Contest was a success with 4, 176 voters from 187 towns weighing in on the bookmarks. Of the 12 winning bookmarks, 11 were able to be enhanced by the augmented reality app called Aurasma, and almost all student winners were able to attend Legislative Day. At a later date, MSLA members will be able to weigh in on changes that were implemented this year. Look for more information on the Bookmark page in the Advocacy section of the MSLA website.

There was a final vote on the remaining 5 award nominees, and all winners of MSLA awards have been selected and notified. Members of the Executive Board will be presenting the awards to the winners at meetings in their districts. The board discussed making the Super Librarian’s and President’s Award open to 6 winners overall, not just based on region.

The Nominating Committee presented their candidates for the open positions of Area Directors (Northeast, Southeast, Boston), Secretary, and Treasurer. In April membership voted on those candidates and the results are as follows: Treasurer - Jennifer Varney; Secretary - Jennifer Dimmick; Area Directors: Boston - Karen Davidson-Heller and Deeth Ellis; Central - Julie Farrell and Kelly McManus; Metrowest - Amy Bloom and Patsy Divver; Northeast - Barbara Fecteau and Laura Harrington; Southeast - Allison Barker and Jennifer Thomas; West - Chani Craig, Leslie Lomasson, and Claudia Palfreman.

Other business addressed at the meeting included an evaluation of the Executive Board meeting formats, action and strategic plans, ESSA, and School Library Licensure. Please check the MSLA website for more information on any of these topics.

Respectfully submitted,
Robyn York

February 2017

3/8/2017

Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Board Meeting Summary
February 16, 2017
Virtual Meeting
View Minutes

The Executive Board met virtually on Wednesday, February 15 to discuss the bookmark contest, twitter chats, librarian awards, the nominee committee, webinars with WGBH, Library Legislative Day, and other executive board planning tasks and initiatives.

Social Media
Twitter chats continue on the first Tuesday of each month. In order to participate, you must use the participate.com platform, but you can also go on twitter to see the posts during the chat time.

Awards
The Bookmark Committee has selected the winners of this year’s contest and have notified winners. These winning bookmarks will be on display during Library Legislative Day.

The Librarian Awards Committee discussed their selection and vetting process for this year’s winners, and reiterated their overall mission of providing acknowledgement to outstanding librarians and their programs, while maintaining advocacy for licensed library positions. This year’s winners have been notified and an official listing will be on the MSLA website soon.

WGBH Collaboration
Working with Carolyn Jacobs at WGBH, MSLA members will be creating webinars for professional development opportunities for educators on topics such as ESSA and fake news.

Library Legislative Day
Coming up on Tuesday, March 7, is Library Legislative Day. There will be 19 displays in the showcase with 7 focusing solely on school libraries.

Executive Board Planning
Deeth Ellis was approved as the Boston Area Co-Director since Reba Tierney has moved out of Boston and is now at Waltham High School. Executive board members evaluated meeting format, training, and other aspects of the running of the board to ensure the effectiveness of the organization. Additionally, area directors and other board members began work on their action plans. This work will continue at the next meeting on March 4, which is a retreat-style meeting.

November 2016

2/27/2017

Massachusetts School Library Association
November 16, 2016
Virtual Meeting
View Full Minutes

Executive Summary
The Executive Board held a virtual meeting on November 16, 2016. At that meeting members discussed ESSA, the Annual Report, the Professional Learning Committee (PLC) updates, librarian awards, travel policy language, twitter chats, and a new Area Director for Western Massachusetts who has replaced Laura Luker since Laura has moved to the PLC Committee.

ESSA
Board members Jen Reed, Anita Cellucci, and Liz Phipps-Soeiro attended information gathering sessions about ESSA and its implementation hosted by the Department of Education at schools throughout Massachusetts. These directed brainstorming sessions were focused around specific areas such as assessment and accountability and funding. However, board members shared MSLA’s ESSA Talking Points.

Annual Report
The Annual Report update 2015-2016 is now available as a smore and linked on the MSLA Leadership page.

PLC Updates
Edcamp was small but successful. 23 librarians from around the state attended this event and it was a net positive revenue event. The online SPED course through EDCO will continue and will likely be offered in the spring at a different location.

Reminder, the MSLA Conference will be held at the Hyannis Conference Center from May 7-8, 2017, so don’t forget to register. The Conference Committee met on 11/7 at Armstrong Elementary School in Westborough to discuss the proposals for conference sessions to ensure balance of grade levels covered. The Author Subcommittee has held a virtual meeting to discuss potential authors to invite to speak at the conference.

Awards Highlights
Each of the Area Directors need to make the final decisions on the Super Librarians and the President’s Award and nominate one from each domain. The awards deadline is Jan. 31.

Twitter Chats Revived
In the past the twitter chats were successful and the board would like to revive the twitter chat with partners. Laura Gardner is initiating this effort and will act as co-host along with alternating co-hosts. The website mslibchat was suggested as a tool for the twitter conversations.
AD Western MA
Claudia Palframan, librarian at Dupont Middle School in Chicopee (Hampden County), was voted in to replace Laura Luker as an Area Director since Laura has moved to the PLC Committee.

Respectfully submitted,
Robyn York

October 2016

11/17/2016

Massachusetts School Library Association
October 1, 2016
Retreat Meeting, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, Westborough High School
View Full Minutes

Executive Summary
The Executive Board met on Saturday, October 1, for a retreat style meeting. Board members listened to guest speakers, discussed old business, new policy language, legislative day, awards, MassCUE, website updates, and action plans. After large group discussion, the Board broke into small groups to work on reports and other action items.

Heifer International
Speakers Laurie Wodin and Kate Sheehan opened the retreat with an informational presentation about the Heifer International Read to Feed Program. Laurie Wodin is a retired librarian from Hopedale Memorial Elementary and discussed the successful program she ran in her library. Kate Sheehan, Community Volunteer Coordinator for Heifer International (Boston), spoke about the local Heifer farm in Rutland and provided additional information about finding sponsors and the benefits of visiting the farm. While the MSLA Executive Board acknowledges the global impact of the initiative and supports individual schools and districts becoming involved in the Read to Feed Program, the Executive Board decided not to make Heifer International an organizational mission after thoughtful consideration of the economic challenges that may prohibit some schools from participating.
Vote - Policy Language Change for Travel
The Board discussed and voted on a proposed policy language change regarding MSLA national conference reimbursements.
Current policy:
National Conference Reimbursement: Reimbursable expenses include conference registration fees and associated travel costs up to $5000 for a maximum of 5 attendees. Each attendee will be responsible for any overage. Reimbursements will be provided upon presentation of receipts. Members will reimburse MSLA if they must cancel registrations and/or reservations that are not 100% refundable and previously paid by the organization.

Proposed policy:

National Conference Reimbursement: Reimbursable expenses include conference registration fees, associated travel costs, and hotel at the double occupancy rate up to $1000 per attendee for a maximum of 5 attendees. Each attendee will be responsible for any overage. Qualifying expenses may be paid in advance on the MSLA credit card with permission of the Executive Director or reimbursements will be provided upon presentation of receipts. Members will reimburse MSLA if they must cancel registrations and/or reservations that are not 100% refundable and previously paid by the organization.

The Board approved the language change, and will vote a second time at the November meeting to complete the approval process to adopt the policy language change.

MSLA/MassCUE
Even though several MSLA librarians had presentations scheduled for MassCUE, which was held October 19 & 20, 2016, there was still one slot open for an MSLA presentation. Board members suggested including in the presentation information on database usage in our libraries, overview of ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), technology related learning goals of our library programs.

Miscellaneous
Board members worked in groups to complete action plans to submit to Anita for inclusion in one document that will align with the Strategic Plan. During the afternoon, board members worked in small groups to update their website pages, as well as plan future activities and projects. The next meeting will be November 16, 2016.

September 2016

11/17/2016

Massachusetts School Library Association
September 14, 2016
Virtual Meeting
View Full Minutes

Executive Summary
The MSLA Executive Board met virtually on September 14 to review and vote on the new strategic plan, to discuss a language change in the reimbursement policy regarding travel, to learn about implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and to talk about upcoming Professional Learning Committee offerings.

Strategic Plan
Members voted a second time to approve the updated Strategic Plan, which linked here and is now posted on the MSLA website.

Policy Language Change
The Board discussed changing the current language on the travel reimbursement policy to be more specific and to encourage members to use economy in securing hotel and flight accommodations when events are going to be reimbursed by MSLA.
ESSA
The committee is working with Rosen Publishing and Every Library to write policy and be included as stakeholders in the state’s implementation plans. Currently members are working in subcommittees to identify priorities for DESE, and need a few more people, ideally from the Board, to help on this committee.
PLC
Better Together was a big success. The next event is MSLA EdCamp on November 5 in Western Mass at the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School. Registration for this event is at http://bit.ly/edccampmsla16 and opens on October 1 and is open to all members of the learning community. There are two courses led by MSLA members that are offered through EDCO this fall: ELL and SPED. The ELL course will be led by Judi Paradis and a colleague, who are substituting while Karen Sekiguchi is ill, and the SPED course will be led by Barbara Fecteau. MSLA members pay the EDCO member fee for these MSLA led courses.

All 3 keynote speakers have been confirmed for the May 2017 Conference: Mitali Perkins, Pernille Ripp, and Kristina Holzweiss. The Conference Subcommittee has put out a call on the listserv for sessions.

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