National Executive News July 2013

Hi
News from the National Executive meeting over the holidays:

Winds of Change SLANZA Conference 2013, the Wellington team pulled out all the stops to create a worthwhile learning experience for our members.  To read more check out our blog at:
http://www.slanza.org.nz/1/post/2013/07/fantastic-conference.html

To read about our new life members go to:
http://www.slanza.org.nz/1/post/2013/07/life-membership-awarded-at-conference.html

To read about this years’ SLANZA Award winners go to:
http://www.slanza.org.nz/1/post/2013/07/2013-slanza-awards-list.html

Conference keynotes and workshops available at:
http://www.slanza.org.nz/2013-conference.html

We were grateful for the attendance at our AGM at conference as there were many important issues to discuss, the most significant was the updating of our Constitution, which we realised over the last year no longer reflected our current practice and needed updating.  Things like considering working
on online platforms and adding provision for Life Membership.  While we needed to remove the requirement of having a LIANZA and National Library Rep on the NE as it has not been current practice, we are keen to find ways to engage with these organisations and will work towards keeping our relationships with them relevant and fruitful.  We acknowledge that we are working towards a common goal and working more closely will increase all our abilities to provide relevant services to our users.

At the National Executive meeting the day after conference, Thursday 18 July, opened with members buzzing about the success of the band of dedicated volunteers who provided our members with the opportunity for high quality professional development, exposure to world class key note
speakers and networking with like minded professionals.  We sincerely thank them for their work, the workshop presenters and all those who attended.  It was pleasing to see so many faces from National Library, public libraries, international schools and LIANZA supporting our conference as well.

The morning meeting started with outgoing president Fiona Mackie sharing her report and updating members on the National Reading Initiatives proposal which combines the expertise of National Library, Public Libraries, LIANZA, SLANZA, Association of Public Library Managers, Te Rōpū Whakahau and The Book Council of New Zealand working for a common goal.  As an organization we are keen to be involved at this level working towards worthwhile programmes that support our libraries and services.  We welcomed new representatives Saskia Hill for Aoraki, Michele Sims for Waikato Bay of Plenty and look forward to having Trish Webster for Auckland at our next meeting.

Next our new president Bridget Schaumann shared her vision of what she would  like to see SLANZA achieve over the next two years.  Briefly she would like to use our combined experience and energy to provide useful resources for our members, create better networks for sharing and
supporting each other and tap into our members experience creating a ‘pool of talent’ to raise the level of librarianship and share useful skills with our members.  Basically Bridget would like to see the National Executive be busy, focused and active for our members.

The National Executive is divided up into Membership and Advocacy, Communication and Professional Development teams to work in a focused way for members.  We are working on meeting our current members needs, promoting our services to encourage new members and providing best
practice for libraries with a repository of useful things to share like RLIANZA resources.

We will be working towards our goals in the coming months, as well as supporting our regions.  Our next National Executive meeting will be held in November.    Please feel free to contact your local representative with any suggestions or requests, details are on our website.

Lisa Salter
SLANZA Communications Leader