President's Column

By Courtney L. Young

Greetings NMRT members! It was great to see so many of you at Midwinter! For those of you who weren't able to attend, let me fill you in on a few NMRT highlights.

First, I had the pleasure of attending part of the NMRT Orientation on Saturday morning. We had a great group of attendees and speakers. The highlight of the icebreaker was discovering nobody in the room was born outside of the United States! My thanks to the Orientations committee for lining up a wonderful list of speakers, including ALA President Camila Alire, Michael Golrick, and John Chrastka.

At the NMRT Board meeting, we approved a terrific slate of candidates for the upcoming election: for VP/President Elect, Linda Crook; for Secretary, Janel White; for Outreach Director, Cory Lampert ; for Networking Director, Julie Kane; and for Assistant Treasurer, Veronica Stevenson-Moudame. Many thanks to the Nominating Committee for pulling together such a strong group. I look forward to February's online candidate forum, where we'll get a chance to quiz the candidates. Elections will be open from March 16 to April 23. Your vote counts, so please vote!

The Midwinter Social held at the Bell In Hand Tavern was a huge success. The Committee, led by Bob Wolverton, did a tremendous job. Thank you to everyone who attended and/or donated door prizes.

Although 3M will no longer be able to sponsor the social, plans are under way for an amazing Awards Reception at the Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. At this event we will recognize the recipients of the Shirley Olofson Memorial Award and the 3M/NMRT Professional Development Grant.

Speaking of annual, NMRT will co-sponsor a program with REFORMA titled "New Professional Paradigm: Redefining the New Librarian". REFORMA is The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. It is an affiliate of the American Library Association. Visit REFORMA on the web at
http://www.reforma.org/.