Greetings Fellow SLA San Andreas Chapter Members,
Welcome to 2010, the year our chapter celebrates 30 years! I am so excited to be president during this important milestone for the chapter. As always, our chapter is well represented with a wonderful hard working board and committee members. I would like to thank Jean Bedord and Vicki Garlow for kicking off our programming on January 14th with a great presentation by Deb Hunt entitled Career Agility 4: Information Pros as Consultants. There is more great programming on its way for the rest of the year. Helen Josephine has been working diligently to get our PayPal system up and running, so if you choose to you won’t have to send in checks anymore but can sign up and pay for programs online. Thanks to Cliff Mills and Steven Kaye who have been actively getting updates, news and pictures out to you via our blog and website. Keeping an eye on the Solo Librarians, they have been active with a program at the Beethoven Center. Thank you to Sonia Dorfman and Eric Kristofferson for organizing this event - you might think of visiting on your own if you were unable to attend. On the national level, our chapter is also well-represented by people such as Deb Hunt (SLA Director), Cindy Hill (Innovation Laboratory & Second Life Workgroup) and recently-appointed SLA Fellow Libby Trudell.
For those of you who don’t know me, I have been involved with the Special Libraries Association since the beginning of my professional career. I first began my involvement as a student member and soon moved on to Sci-Tech chair of the Boston Chapter organizing programming. I also had a stint on the SLA Professional Development Advisory Council at the national level, which gave me a chance to see what the association as a whole does. Since 2003 I have been a member of the San Andreas Chapter as treasurer and membership chair, then as president-elect, and now president.
I hope to see as many of you as possible in New Orleans for the Annual Conference this year. The association has already begun posting all the information you would need to organize your trip. As an Alumna of Loyola University, New Orleans I am especially looking forward to our Annual Conference in the 'Crescent City', 'Big Easy' and many names it likes to be called. Louisiana itself has a very active library community and LSU has a vibrant library school. The city will be a wonderful backdrop for this year’s conference.
As I mentioned, this year we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of our Chapter. This chapter has achieved many proud accomplishments during this time and we will make sure to commemorate this milestone accordingly. Take a stroll through the past 30 years of our chapter by browsing our wonderful Bulletin Archive. This year the annual Leadership Summit in St. Louis focused on Creating the Future. Although this is a good time to commemorate the past, it’s also a great time to think forward and to the future.
If I could convey one single message through this letter, it should be that I strongly and warmly encourage you to volunteer in our organization in 2010. SLA and our chapter live and breath through our members, and rely on them bringing their enthusiasm and ideas to local chapter involvement. I have always thought that the more involved I’ve been in SLA the more I personally have gotten out of it. Volunteering is not only in itself an empowering experience, but can also be a great opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and to network within and beyond our profession. Take the opportunity to network during our many events coming in 2010.
Helen Keil Losch
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