President's Column

By Courtney L. Young

First, I want to thank all of you for your membership in NMRT. We would not be where we are today without our student, regular, and alumni members. Second, if you have not used ALA Connect ( http://connect.ala.org/), check it out! Connect is "a virtual, collaborative, workspace online" the Association hopes "will become a centralized space where official ALA groups can work together online. In addition, any member can create new communities (unofficial ALA groups) without any staff assistance, so the site will combine association work with communities of interest in one place."

The 2009-2010 conference year is going to be exciting! It will also be a slightly shorter year due to the late conclusion of the 2009 conference. The Midwinter Meeting is scheduled to take place January 15-20, 2010 in Boston, MA. The Annual Conference will take place June 25-30, 2010 in Washington, D.C. My Presidential year coincides with my first year as a member of the ALA Executive Board( http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/officers/index.cfm). I was fortunate enough to be nominated and elected to this three-year term during the 2009 Midwinter Meeting in Denver. These roles in many ways reflect presidential theme of "Challenges and Opportunities". Although the profession and Association are experiencing what might be characterized as "interesting times," I believe it is still possible to do amazing things and be successful as a profession, round table, and association.

In an effort to keep the round table fiscally sound, a Budget Task Force has been appointed. Past President Laurel Bliss (chair), Fundraising Coordinator Amanda Roberts, and Treasurer Nancy Gibson have been charged with evaluating our current budget to determine what our real financial needs are, where we have budgeted funds that might not be necessary, and recommendations for adjustments to help the round table get the most bang for its buck and create new sources of income.

NMRT is increasing its outreach activities via popular social networking tools. I'm please to announce the round table's blog, NMRT Notes, is live. A project in development since 2007, it will serve as a clearinghouse for information about NMRT programs and activities. Select members of the NMRT Board and I will post at http://www.nmrt.ala.org/notes/ . Just prior to the Annual Conference, Linda Crook created our Twitter account. Follow us at http://twitter.com/alanmrt. As before, you can find NMRT on Facebook and LinkedIn.

The 2010 Annual Program is being planned as an online program. The committee hopes to make use of video, audio and other electronic resources.

The Scholarship Research and Writing committee was restructured during the 2009 spring e-board meeting and is now the Electronic Journal committee. They will work to launch a peer-reviewed scholarly online journal.

Got questions? Ideas? Compliments? Please feel free to contact me or any of the NMRT Board Members.

Courtney L. Young NMRT President, 2009-2010