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YALSA President’s Report

October 2007

Paula Brehm-Heeger
“YALSA:  Leading the Way”

Accomplishments

Every year YALSA members across the country look forward to October because, as we all know, October means Teen Read Week!  Teen Read Week, first celebrated in 1998, turned 10 years old this year.  And, just like every year for the past decade, YALSA members, leaders and office staff put a significant amount of time, energy and creativity into making Teen Read Week a huge success.  Registration continued to grow this year, with more than 4,600 official Teen Read Week registrants, an increase of over 1,500 from last year.

I was fortunate enough to attend a Teen Read Week launch at Washington Middle School in Seattle, Washington on October 16.  Hosted by YALSA member and school media specialist Laurie Master-Burton and featuring authors Deb Caletti and Tiffany Trent this event was a great way to kick things off.  Plus, the Readergirlz – Dia Calhoun, Janet Carey, Justina Chen Headley and Lorie Ann Grover – were also able to attend and speak to students.  Six authors in one day!  Students also received free copies of Deb and Tiffany’s books along with a bag full of gifts courtesy of our corporate sponsors, Mirrorstone.  Thanks to Nichole Gilbert, YALSA program officer, and Beth Yoke, our Executive Director, for helping to put together such a great event. 

During the second half of Teen Read Week the YALSA Executive committee (Fiscal Officer Amy Alessio, ALA Councilor Christine Allen, Past-President Judy Nelson, Executive Director Beth Yoke and me) traveled to Chicago for the annual ALA Fall Executive meeting.  YALSA’s Executive committee, along with all ALA leaders attending the Fall Executive meeting, read 7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t.  We then participated in a lively facilitated discussion about how ALA might incorporate these ideas into association practices in order to make sure we always remain as successful an organization as we are today.

After the session involving all attendees, YALSA’s Executive committee focused on a number of important issues during our intense meetings over the remainder of the weekend.  We could not have had such a productive meeting without updates and contributions from a number of committees and task forces, including the Selected Lists Task Force, Awards Task Force, Financial Advancement Committee, Youth Participation Committee, Nonfiction Award Proposal Task Force, Organization and Bylaws Task Force, Midwinter Institute Task Forces, Young Adult Literature Symposium Task Force, Division and Membership Promotion Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Joint School/Library Cooperation Committee and the Research Committee.  Thanks to all of these chair people for giving us the information we needed for our discussions!

I know many members and committees will be hearing from Board members in the next few weeks based on discussions at the Fall Executive meeting.  Here is just a small sampling of agenda items discussed:

• The Youth Participation Committee working on a survey related to a “Teen Summit” idea
• The Young Adult Literature Symposium Task Force working to evaluate proposals for next year’s event in Nashville, Tennessee
• Big events at Midwinter, including a Gaming Extravaganza and the Midwinter Institute focused on advocacy, “Taking Teen Services to the Next Level”
• Finalizing YALSA’s first set of “White Papers” designed to support teen librarians on such important issues as the importance of teen spaces and the value of young adult literature
• Investigating the options for working with LAMA to create joint information/guidelines from our two divisions related to teen areas/spaces in libraries
• Providing feedback to the first class of Emerging Leaders about their final projects, two of which were focused on topics suggested by YALSA’s 2006 Executive Committee last fall

In addition to Teen Read Week activities and the Fall Executive meeting, during October Beth Yoke and I also had a very productive conference call with Strategic Planning committee chair Mary Hastler who is now working with her committee to resolve any unfinished items from our current existing strategic plan so we are ready to begin our next round of planning.

Responding to a request from Sara Ryan, chair of the Organization and Bylaws committee, I sent a message to all committee chairs explaining the process Sara and her committee will be following over the next year to evaluate the charges and function of our many committees.

I worked this month to make contact with YALSA’s representatives to other divisions and committees.  Thanks to all of these members for serving as our representatives and for spreading the world about YALSA far and wide.

I also sent a thank-you to each of the twenty-four impressive individuals who applied to be this year’s YALSA-sponsored Emerging Leader and offered my congratulations to Carla Land, who was selected for YALSA sponsorship for this year.

In Progress

Two other major topics of discussion at the Fall Executive meeting that are currently in progress include the search for a new YALS editor and the upcoming round of strategic planning that will begin at Midwinter 2008.  Thanks to Editorial Advisory Board chair Mary Anne Nichols for being a part of the YALS editor search committee and to Strategic Planning Chair Mary Hastler for all of her help in getting the strategic planning process off to a great start.

Speaking of strategic planning, we are in the process of finalizing a consultant to work with YALSA members and leaders during the upcoming strategic planning process.  More details to come very soon!

I’ve been finishing up appointments for the Second Life Task Force and hope to have this group up and running very soon.

The 2008 election slate is nearly finalized and will be announced in November.

ALA has received funding to do a second round of the Great Stories CLUB, the program where alternative high school libraries, public libraries and/or juvenile detention centers get funds to do teen book clubs with troubled teens. The Great Stories CLUB is actually run through ALA’s Public Programs Office and YALSA does not give or receive any funds for this project.  However, YALSA will be playing an active role in supporting this great program with the Outreach to Young Adults with Special Needs selecting a theme, three primary titles for the program as well as creating a list of additional recommended reads. Thanks to the committee for their quick work on this project!  This month the committee selected “choices” as the theme and is working on selecting the three primary titles.

Media

I spoke to the following media outlets specifically about Teen Read Week.  Several also provided an opportunity for me to talk further about libraries, teen reading and teen literature in general.  More than one asked how libraries are working to keep reading relevant in teens lives which was a great opening to highlight the Readergirlz online chats as one example (of many) positive ways teens are using technology to connect to authors and reading.

Radio Interviews About Teen Read Week

• Radio Disney Seattle for a 30-minute taped segment
• Radio Disney New Orleans for a 20-minute taped segment featuring a teen interviewer (who happened to have some pretty challenging and insightful questions – no surprise!)
• Minnesota News Network  for a taped segment
• WJYY in Concord, New Hampshire for a taped segment
• WQRC in Cape Cod for a taped segment
• Iowa Public Radio for a taped segment
• WSPY in Chicago for a taped segment
• WSQR in Chicago for a taped segment (I did this one in my car driving home from presenting at the Ohio Library Council conference.  Don’t worry – I did pull over!)
• KGRN in Grinnell, Iowa for a taped segment
• WNTK in New London, New Hampshire for a taped segment
• WUVR in Lebanon, New Hampshire for a taped segment
• KCEP, Power 88, radio (an NPR affiliate) in Las Vegas for a taped segment
• KFJB radio in Des Moines Iowa for a taped segment
• KXIA radio in Marshalltown, Iowa for a taped segment
• Spoke with WNIJ in Illinois for a taped segment
• Live interview with KPQ Radio in Seattle
• Live interview with KNMX Radio in Las Vegas, New Mexico
• Live interview with WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa

Other Media Contacts About Teen Read Week

• Spoke to Marv Kaminsky from LibVibe for a short taped segment
• Responded to a series of questions from Amy Jussel for an article posted on shapingyouth.org; also included information about YALSA’s work with the Readergirlz “31 Flavorites” online events
• Provided answers to FactMonster.com about not only Teen Read Week but also YALSA
• Spoke with a reporter from the West Valley News in Las Vegas

Other Media Contacts

• Spoke with a reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune about the changing landscape of libraries and teen spaces
• Response letter (to a New York Times column about teen reading) was published in the Sunday Long Island edition and also on the NYT webpage
• Spoke with a Cape Cod National Public Radio affiliate for a short taped segment focusing on teen reading, the 40th anniversary of The Outsiders and a brief mention of Teen Read Week

YALSA Communications Specialists Stephanie (Stevie) Kuenn deserves an extra thank you for her amazing work in connecting YALSA with all of these media opportunities!  It was a very busy month and Stevie did a fantastic job of handling all of the media requests and helping me keep track of everything.

Finally, I would like to ask all YALSA members to take a moment and remember Past-President Elizabeth O’Donnell, who passed away this month.