Greetings NMRT Members!
I hope that those of you able to attend the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, WA had a good conference. We had a good turnout at all of the NMRT events. You can see see pictures from the different events on the NMRT Facebook page. Check out some videos highlighting different sessions throughout the conference on ALA's YouTube channel as well. Also, our Councilor, Susan Jennings, blogged about the council sessions throughout Midwinter. Check out her blog to learn more about the discussions that happened within the governance bodies of ALA.
For the first time, the NMRT Board held an in-person meeting at Midwinter that included a virtual Skype session. During the meeting, the Board received an update from our liaison from the ALA Executive Board Kevin Reynolds. We also approved a draft budget for the upcoming 2013-2014 year which starts in July, approved funding for the 2013 NMRT Professional Travel Grant and discussed the ALA ballot proposal to increase ALA base dues.
Elections are coming up in March. This past October, the NMRT Board approved the 2013 slate of candidates:
- Vice President/President-Elect: Megan Hodge & Holly Okuhara
- Secretary: Kirby McCurtis
- Leadership Development Director: Kate Kosturski & Tinamarie Vella
- Member Services Director: Beth Overhauser, Kari Weaver & Kelly Quaye
Many thanks to the Nominating Committee for pulling together such a strong group of candidates. In March, I look forward to NMRT's online candidate forum and the posting of the candidate videos. Emily Prather-Rodgers, our current Vice President/President-Elect, also appointed Cory Lampert to be the next Fundraising Coordinator starting in July 2013. NMRT Elections will be open from March 19 to April 26. Your vote counts, so please vote!
In addition to the NMRT officer elections, you have an opportunity to elect ALA's President-Elect and Treasurer. Please check out the Q&A with the ALA President-Elect and Treasurer Candidates in this issue of Footnotes. Click here to hear their statements during the ALA Candidates Forum at Midwinter.
One of the topics discussed at Midwinter is the proposal on the ALA ballot to increase the base ALA dues rate each year based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). If the CPI increases, then the dues rate would increase. Overall the increase would range from $1-4 each year depending on your membership type, and the increase would only happen if the CPI increases. The proposal includes a review of the small increases in 5 years to determine if this system should continue or not. The NMRT membership dues ($10) will not be increasing due to this proposal. Only the base ALA membership dues would increase in small increments if the proposal passes by membership vote. There is a Q&A about the dues proposal (pdf) posted that provides more details and I encourage you to review this. The dues proposal will only be implemented if the membership passes the proposal.
The NMRT Board and Committees will be doing a large amount of online work between now and the Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. We're going to be working on the budget, planning events for Annual, reviewing scholarship applications, continuing our collaboration with LLAMA, and otherwise helping new ALA members make and maintain the connections they need to be successful.
Feel free to send your questions, suggestions or concerns about NMRT to me via email. I would love to hear from you!
Janel Kinlaw
NMRT President, 2012-2013