Message from the SLA President

Hello SLA Members,

I work with older people at the public library. A few weeks ago, a woman came to see me. She had used our Home Reader delivery service for most of the winter, because she was recovering from knee surgery and has some chronic respiratory issues. Now that her knee is better, she can come to the library again on occasion. She came in especially to say how important the library was to her during those dark months.

Libraries change lives. On the front lines, we see that happen every day. If you do not work on the front lines, though, let me remind you that the policies that you create, the collections you build, the staff training strategies that you employ, the research that you do, the funding that you strive for, the vision that you take forward, and the anything-is-possible-if-we-work-together Saskatchewan mindset - all these result in quality of life and dynamic learning experiences for people of all ages every day.

Keep doing what you are doing.

At the SLA Board level, life is busy and exciting. As I write this, we are in the middle of running our first e-voting for elections, to fill the vacant Member at Large position. We have made some position statements nationally on issues important to libraries and library folks, and the new SLA Advocacy Committee is finding its feet going forward. Our call for committee volunteers for this year is going great guns! Your interest and enthusiasm charge me right up - it is going to be tremendous to work with you all.

In the SLA Office, Anne and Judy are getting us more and more organized every day, and building connections with community partners and sponsors. New and exciting plans are in place for Saskatchewan Library Week, and we are about to do our first SLA Culture Days events this month. We gratefully receive significant funding from SaskCulture each year, and this year SLA has also been chosen to participate in a diversity pilot project that will help us ensure that we are set up to serve and encourage programming for diverse populations going forward. The Conference Committee has been struck, has met, and is gearing up to bring us a suite of excellent and thought-provoking speakers at next year's Conference.

The Executive committees of the Board have spent the summer working on strengthening basic functions: the Personnel Committee has revised the Personnel Handbook, has drafted a harassment policy, and has developed a new process for employee performance evaluation. At our September Board meeting, we will make a staffing plan going forward that will ensure stability and dynamism. The Finance Committee is working on a long-term financial plan, so that we maximize our usage of the funds that we raise ourselves and the funds that we receive from SaskCulture.

In late August, I travelled with Judy Nicholson to Toronto, to represent SLA and its members at a meeting of The Partnership. You will be familiar with The Partnership, because they run the national job board and they organize those great Education Institute webinars that we can take advantage of. I always think of The Partnership as 'them', but in fact The Partnership is 'us'. The Partnership is a cooperative of provincial and territorial library associations coast to coast who get together, identify common needs, and build great things that we can all use as association members. SLA was at that table, working to identify issues and to look for ways to address them.

At this recent meeting of The Partnership, it was clear that not all of our members know about the great opportunities that they can take advantage of. Did you know that if you are an SLA member (or any member of The Partnership), you can get 10% off of a Delta hotel stay or a National car rental any time you want them, holiday or business? We are going to spend some energy in the next while making sure that our members know about what library association membership can offer them.

I also resolved at that meeting to get schooled. I heard of The Partnership's new Continuing Education Certificate (CEC) last year, but never actually signed up for it. For about $40.00, I can register to use a Canadian-based standardized tool to track my professional development. If I don't track my lifelong learning, who else is going to? This weekend I am signing up! Think about joining me. Check it out at www.cec.laa.ca. We could kick back together and compare notes on our new learning, at the Conference in Regina next spring.

Respectfully submitted,

Gwen Schmidt, SLA President

New Member at Large

Congratulations to Anthony (Tony) Murphy who has been selected in the recent by-election to be the new Member-at-Large for the SLA Board of Directors. Tony is the Assistant Regional Director of Wapati Regional  Library. Welcome, Tony.

Please note the following dates for upcoming Board meetings:

2014-2015 Board of Directors

Meeting Dates and Locations

• September 15 , 2014 - Regina - University of Regina, Dr. John Archer Library
• November 16 & 17, 2014 - Watrous - Retreat and Business meeting
• January 19, 2015 - Saskatoon - TBA
• March 2, 2015 - Regina - TBA
• April 13 , 2015 - Regina - Doubletree Inn
• May 7-9, 2015 - Regina - Doubletree Inn - Saskatchewan Libraries Conference AGM May 8, 2015

If you wish to attend any SLA Board meetings, please contact the SLA office