Important Leadership Dates
A Message from the Chief Executive Officer
Annual Conference
SLA Blog
Wikis
1-2 June 2007 |
Board of Directors Meeting - Open Session, Denver, CO, USA |
3 June 2007 |
Leadership Development Institute (LDI), Denver, CO, USA |
3-6 June 2007 |
Annual Conference, Denver, CO, USA |
5 June 2007 |
A Message from the Chief Executive Officer - Take your Leadership Shopping List with You
As you pack for annual conference travel, put together your "leadership shopping list." You are going to be in the midst of thousands of SLA members and this is a great opportunity to look for prospective volunteer leaders, whether for a current vacant position or looking forward to next year. So, know the needs of your division or chapter and pack up your unit?s job/committee descriptions.
Your approach will be different if you are looking for a volunteer to fill an immediate position or gauging interest for next year?s opportunities. If for next year, keep a list and ask if you may contact them within the next several months for a more detailed discussion.
You want to be very clear on what you want people to do before you recruit them. Avoid the generalities of "Do you want to volunteer?" Ask instead, "Would you be willing to administer the division's discussion list for the next year? It's our vital connection with our members."
Be honest with the amount of time the role will take. Let him/her know if there is any training available, such as your practices manual, the modules in the Leadership Training Center on the web, the leadership officer discussion lists that connect them with their counterparts in other divisions and chapters, and with staff. Is there a mentor who has held the position before who can get him/her started?
Explain why you are asking this particular person to help ? what skills or personality traits make him/her a good candidate for the position. If recruiting for the future, take down their name, an idea of the position you have in mind to discuss with them and why they fit the role.
And, finally, remember that the best way to recruit volunteers is simply to specifically ask people to help. If you never have the conversation, how can someone say yes? And, if you are turned down, keep in mind that you have still helped SLA and your division or chapter by reaching out to new people and lending visibility to the many worthwhile projects and opportunities available.
--- Janice R. Lachance
Annual Conference and Leadership Activities
Have you registered for the SLA 2007 Annual Conference and Exposition to be held in Denver, CO, USA, 3-6 June 2007? At this point, you will need to register on-site.
Are you planning to arrive early in Denver? If so, plan to attend the SLA Board of Directors meetings so you can see your association governance in action and report back to your chapter, division or caucus. The meetings will take place Friday, 1 June, 1 p.m. and Saturday, 2 June, 9 a.m.
The Leadership Development Institute will take place on Sunday morning, 3 June. Please invite all of the elected or appointed leaders attending conference to participate in this year?s programming and dialogue. A breakfast will be served at 7:30 a.m. and the Institute will begin at 8:15 a.m. It's a great place to find out what other chapters and divisions are doing and how each others? ideas can enrich your own. Bring examples of your bulletins, pages of your Web site, award programs, a successful program or any other ideas you would like to share with others. Have you identified some future leaders? Encourage them to attend to learn more about SLA leadership opportunities.
Each chapter and division has two seats on their respective cabinets. The Chapter and Division Cabinet meetings will take place Tuesday, 5 June at 5:30 p.m., followed by a brief Joint Cabinet meeting. These two seats are usually held by the president and president-elect for Chapter Cabinet and the chair and chair-elect for Division Cabinet. If neither is able to attend, the head of the unit may appoint another member of the unit as a delegate. Remember to pick up your cabinet ribbon at the Information Booth near registration.
While you are in Info Expo, visit the Ideas Showcase where the best practices of SLA's units will be featured.
And, finally, mark your conference planner to attend the SLA Salutes Awards & Leadership Reception at Coors Field following the Cabinet meetings on Tuesday.
If you would like a consultation session with SLA's Chief Community Officer Linda Broussard during the conference, please send her a request and suggested time via e-mail to assist with planning. You may also contact her onsite at +1.571.201.2916 to schedule a meeting.
SLA Blog
The SLA Blog site is up and running. This site will bring you information about and from SLA's 2007 Annual Conference and Exposition. After the conference, it will branch out into other topics and continue to provide you information about the profession and about SLA. New content will be added daily -- and more often -- between now and the end of the conference. Check it out at http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/.
Wikis - Another Tool for SLA Units
SLA has secured wiki software for SLA units to test, play, and use. Are you interested in using this tool for organizing, collaborating and presenting information for members of your chapter, division, caucus, or association-level committee? All content is organized into 'spaces', and all wikis will be open to the entire membership. You will only be able to view those wikis that were set up with "public" access.
The wiki software is developed using HTML standards and is tested with all major browsers. RSS and e-mail allow you to interact from your daily work tools. For details on its many features, click here.
Some of the systems features are unique - spaces allow easy linking to multiple wikis; you can create a blog in every space with 'News'; pages, comments, blogs and attachments are all searchable; e-mail integration and PDF exporting.
To set up a wiki for your unit, contact SLA Director of Information Technology Quan Logan.
If you have any questions or comments about Leadership Connections, we would like your feedback. Please share your comments with leadership@sla.org and visit the Leadership Resource Center on the SLA website for information on Leadership.
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