President's Letter
By Dee Magnoni, dianna.magnoni@olin.edu

Our chapter is off to a wonderful start this year, with a number of programs already successfully accomplished and many more in the planning stages. The chapter board met on November 3^rd following the Boston Gadgets program. We had a full agenda and moved a number of items forward. I would like to highlight three items from our meeting.

First we had a discussion around our chapter name. The European chapter recently voted to call themselves SLA Europe and the succinct and meaningful name had a lot of appeal. The board has voted to model the European chapter, and we are now officially SLA Boston. This name is reflected on our banner and our checks. With the board vote and the notification of headquarters, the name change is official.

We next discussed the creation of a Technology Interest Group. While there is not yet a formal scope note, this group would gather for programming and the exchange of ideas. Depending on who is in the group and the desired direction, there could be a web page, blog, or some other social networking platform. The board approved the creation of the group, and we are now in search of a good working name, group leadership, and group membership. We hope to have an inaugural meeting sometime in January. If you would like to help brainstorm on the group name, add your name to the list of members, or suggest technology topics to explore, please go to our chapter wiki: http://silversmith.olin.edu/slawiki/FrontPage. The login is <sla> and the password is <boston>.

Finally, we discussed the creation of a Momentary Mentoring/Coaching program. The basic idea is that the chapter will build a database of members willing to share their expertise in particular areas with the understanding that mentoring/coaching sessions will be no longer than 20 – 30 minutes. In most cases a single session will complete the relationship. If both parties agree, additional sessions may be held. This framework provides the opportunity to learn from the experience of our members while honoring the time involved in these relationships. In the near future we will be building a taxonomy of mentoring/coaching areas. In the mean time, to express interest in becoming a momentary mentor, please visit the chapter wiki (see paragraph above for address, login and password). Mentoring and coaching resources will also be added to the wiki page, with a possible migration over to the chapter web site.

Our members continued their community service involvement this fall as a group of us returned to WBUR for a second round of fund raising. We arrived in the early morning hours and took pledges, enjoyed fresh bagels and coffee, and generally enjoyed the experience of helping raise funds for public radio. Our holiday party offered yet another opportunity for community service, and holiday gift bags were collected for those families impacted by hurricane Katrina. If you have an idea for a service project that would work well for our membership, please drop me a line!

As we rush into another holiday season, I hope everyone takes time enjoy small moments of joy, friendship, family and community.

Thanks for everyone’s participation, time, and thoughtfulness,
Dee

Dee Magnoni
Phone: 781-292-2389
Fax: 781-292-238
E-mail: dianna.magnoni@olin.edu
AOL IM: dmlibrarian

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