Greetings,
This is my last President’s Corner to share with you, but I think it will be the best. I am excited to give this post-conference recap in order to celebrate a wonderful conference and some significant accomplishments for NCLA during this past biennium. Please join me in thanking the past Executive Board and the Conference Planning Committee during this biennial for all the hard work and doing a superb job leading up to conference.
At conference, I was so impressed with the magnitude of support and involvement that all of you displayed by volunteering in various ways, in particular with our Librarians Build Communities activities and service models. It was incredible that not only did we pack 3,200 boxes of food and supplies for the Forsyth Backpack Program, but we also raised $7,000 to furnish the products. Give yourselves a hand— that is a clear demonstration of the power that librarians can have in support of their communities. The best part of that for me is that we did it together.
We also had presenters during conference who gave of themselves by providing a great deal of content that drove a purposeful and intellectual assortment of programs which promoted professional development growth and collaborative partnerships. This reinforces the power of our profession and the significant role that we perform for our stakeholders. And we enjoyed carefully chosen keynote speakers who inspired us with their experience and wisdom as well as providing a vision for the future.
All of this was in a backdrop of change, a new NCLA that is enhanced with technology and fortified with new logistical concepts such as the “virtual office” and, more recently, a remote storage facility that will centrally house our physical assets. Feedback from our Web Committee members who volunteered their efforts to staff a help desk during conference indicated mostly positive comments made by members to our changes. The comfort level of the new website, membership software, and conference App has risen and has encouraged us to create more of these efforts in the future.
We also graduated another cohort of aspiring leaders from the 2018 Leadership Institute and I know they will do great things. They will serve their communities well, as demonstrated by how they served our association with their efforts at conference. Keep an eye on them—they are our future.
All of these changes and enhancements, as well as a very successful conference that was enjoyed by so many, position NCLA as a premier professional association that can have something for everyone—you just have to get involved and look for it. This paves the way for more new and better things to come for librarians, library workers, and libraries in North Carolina.
Good luck to Lorrie, Libby, and the new Executive Board as they move us forward yet again, to engage and serve our stakeholders and soldier our profession to be relevant in today’s dynamic and changing society.
Thanks for all of you for your efforts and support of NCLA. Value your friends and colleagues, share your talents with others, and get involved. You might be surprised at how meaningful it can be. For those of you at the closing session, you might have witnessed some emotion from me in those closing remarks. It was because I am so proud to be associated with each and every one of you.
Mike