Membership Advisory Group – September–March 2022 Report


The group met 4-6 times this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Monthly emails to new members. These emails are personalized by each member of the committee to welcome new members to PLA and encourage them to become active members. When applicable, committee members are matched to people who live in their region.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence

Second Activity
In collaboration with the monthly welcoming members, committee members continue conversations with new members – answering questions when appropriate and directing them to the appropriate PLA staff member when necessary.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Leadership, Organizational Excellence

Third Activity
Volunteer opportunity to review conference scholarships was presented to the group. After committee discussion, a committee member volunteered to assist. The committee recognizes the importance of conference attendance to new PLA members.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence

Fourth Activity
Committee is organizing greetings and activities at ALA/PLA booth at PLA Conference, including button making and pairing up new attendees with veteran conference goers. It was recognized by the committee that many new members join due to their attending the conference. It is the hope of the committee that being present and welcoming members at the ALA/PLA booth will help forge a stronger connection to the organization and help retain members past their initial year. We also hope to assist with the virtual Intellectual Freedom Forum.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence

Fifth Activity
Volunteer opportunity to participate in ALA Membership Promotion Task Force was presented to the group. After committee discussion, a committee member volunteered to assist. The committee recognizes the importance of ALA membership and its impact on PLA membership.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
Continued new member emails
Booth at PLA

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
While focus is often made to bringing in new members, the committee suggests that more attention and recognition is given to continued membership. Small ideas include special badges or buttons at conferences for members (for example: button reading 10 year PLA Member!)

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
A week of a free preview of PLA benefits (access to prof dev, etc.)The Medical Library Association does this for the entire month of February. Non-members are able to try out tools and resources, explore new communities, and meet peers from different areas of health science information.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
ALA New Member Round Table

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Small budget for conference giveaways or access to “swag” PLA has already purchased.

Submitted by Kim DeNero-Ackroyd on 02/17/2022

Membership Advisory Group – September–March 2021 Report


The group met 4-6 times this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Monthly emails to new members. Initially these emails were sent bi-monthly or quarterly. We decided as a group to
send monthly emails to a smaller list. We also separated the list to match the committee members to people who lived
in on near their state. The thought was that new members would be more likely to contact those who live in their
region.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence

Second Activity
Planned a virtual Happy Hour during ALA Annual. We used the new member survey to determine what break out
sessions to coordinate for the new members, what types of PLA trivia we should ask and professional development
discussions.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence

Third Activity
Advised PLA staff on the drip campaign for new members. We used the new member survey to determine if a
campaign giving small amounts of information over a period of time would build excitement in new members and
garner more participation/volunteerism.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Organizational Excellence

Fourth Activity
Advised PLA staff on the New Members' Survey. The survey helped the committee decide to have the virtual happy
hour and assisted with drip campaign ideas.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Organizational Excellence

Fifth Activity
Committee member represented PLA at the Small Oklahoma Libraries Round Table. She marketed the benefits of
joining PLA and being a member.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
Continued monthly emails to new members.
In person events for PLA in March 2022 and ALA in June 2022.

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
Commit to regular new member events at conferences such as breakfasts, happy hours, gatherings at entertainment
venues. New and old members should be invited in order to facilitate networking.

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
PLA logoed pens, pencils, bags, note pads to be used as giveaways or prizes.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
ALA New Members' Round Table
ALA New Member Committee

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
We suggested being able to give out prizes, but were told that there wasn't a budget for that. It would be helpful if we had a budget to do this.

Submitted by Amiya Hutson & Kim DeNero-Ackroyd on 09/14/2021

Leadership Development Committee – September–March 2021 Report


The group met 7-10 times this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Our group meet monthly on zoom. We had an active and very engaged group. Each month, we discussed the various challenges we face in our leadership. We also discussed at length subject areas that leaders will need further /expanded learning. Given that we met during Covid and quarantine – we discussed at length the situations in our individual libraries and communities. We also shared how we coped.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Transformation

Second Activity
A core topic of many of our discussions was EDISJ. Mary encouraged us to volunteer for the EDISJ leadership lab. Many of us served as dialog facilitators. This was an enriching experience for all of to meet and work with colleagues across the county.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership

Third Activity
The group held several brainstorming sessions about webinars that members could present and facilitate. We narrowed down subject areas and leaders who would be responsible for content and delivery. We focused on contemporary issues which impressed and resonated with all of us.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Transformation

Fourth Activity
Several committee members presented three distinct webinars which were offered with out cost or membership status. These included managing from the middle, BIPOC leaders – aspirations and challenges, leadership from various public library perspectives. These were extremely successful, wildly popular and exceeded attendance expectations.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

Fifth Activity
Our group worked on and submitted a pre-conference proposal for PLA 2022.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
We have yet to meet – our goals can be determined then.

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
none at this time

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
not at this time

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
I think that it would make sense to work with other committees who are interested in the role of leaders in achieving the goals for the mandates. For example, how can this group work with Digital Literacy/Inclusion group to brainstorm on ways to tackle the national issue. We might also make content recommendations to Public Libraries Advisory Committee. There are others as well where goals align.

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
n/a

Submitted by Elizabeth Joseph on 08/19/2021

Family Engagement Task Force – September–March 2020 Report


The group met 4-6 times this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
The committees first activity was to organize and plan a half-day preconference session for PLA 2020. The focus this training opportunity was to help libraries learn how to engage library leadership in the importance of Family Engagement as a new and regular part of library programming endeavors. The diversity of panel speakers from size of library to gender and ethnicity was of the speakers was in alignment with PLA's vision. The committee moved away from speakers we see at every conference in an effort to keep the information fresh and engage those who may not have been active previously.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership

Second Activity
The second activity that took the bulk of the committee's time and effort was the planning and fine-tuning of the subscription webinar Family Engagement learning series. Based on the PLA’s Family Engagement Framework, this new professional development activity will enable public library professionals to expand and refine their current family engagement programming and strategies. This subscription plan will consist of eight highly interactive virtual classroom sessions. Each one-hour session will be led by experienced facilitators from the PLA Family Engagement Task Force and other experts. Participants will also engage in small-group work and facilitated discussions with their peers.

In addition to the online classroom sessions, participants will receive access to a closed ALA Connect group through which they may network with their peers and interact with session facilitators outside of class time. Access to this page, which includes exercises, session recordings, and other resources, will be given for a one-year period to all paid registrants.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

Third Activity
The PLA Family Engagement Task Force Partnered with Zero to Three to present a webinar. The webinar was titled Public Libraries: Vital Partners in Family Engagement.
Public libraries are accessible, offering diverse, intergenerational programming and serving families from low income homes at a high rate compared to other community providers. This session will enlighten new and experienced early childhood program staff, parents and others about the potential of public libraries and how they can collaborate with local public libraries as learning spaces and extend their own impact to engage families.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

Fourth Activity
FE Task Force partnered with the National Center for Families Learning to present two sessions at their national conference, November 4-6 in Louisville, KY.
The first session was a webcast focused on ideas to engage families of diverse community groups and how libraries and public institutions can remove barriers to library access. It stressed that families are more likely to become engaged in their children’s learning when school and library staff reach out to them. This webcast was in partnership with the PLA and was sponsored by Better World Books.
The second session was a workforce development and family engagement session presented by Scott Allen (PLA), Ashley J. Brown (co-chair FE Task Force), and Gale (Baltimore Public Library). This session had over 50 attendees from the NCFL conference.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

Fifth Activity
The FE Task Force worked with Katie Campana, PhD, Assistant Professor in the School of Information at Kent State University to provide feedback and comments their white paper for PLA. While the library field has made good progress with encouraging computational thinking for older children and teens, it has not made as much progress with incorporating computational thinking into programs and services for young children and their families. The goal of the paper is to help library staff working with young children and families see the importance of computational thinking so they will hopefully start exploring how to incorporate and encourage it in their own programs. The paper provides a basic overview of computational thinking, why it is important for young children and their families, and a few examples of how it can be incorporated into library programs. The Task Force assisted with providing real-time programs currently taking place in libraries.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
The FE Task Force will support and help implement a recent IMLS grant awarded to PLA and NCFL, “Exploring a Program Co-design Approach to Better Serve and Engage Low-income, Latinx Communities.” The Task Force assist with the partner libraries who will develop and document methods for how library staff can support authentic Latinx parent participation in family engagement. This will engage parents in creating services designed for them in three (urban, suburban, and rural) locations. The intent is to generate strategies and practices for authentic parent participation and identify approaches and best practices that can be piloted on a national scale. The Task Force will also evaluate and refine the subscription webinar learning sessions and create a timeline for the next series to begin.

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
None at this time.

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
We would like to see more programming at conference that highlights partnerships between libraries and the private sector that promote family engagement. Now more than ever we are creating and implementing programs to be done at home by the whole family unit in a way that we have never experienced before.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
We absolutely see the FE Task Force benefiting from connecting and working with the Leadership Development Committee as changes in programming structure must come down from the top of the hierarchy to be successful. We also see advantages to working with AASL, ALSC and YALSA to engage libraries who are solely focused on children and teens to recognize and expand on the value of programs that are multi-generational.

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Scott Allen and Symone Villasenor have been essential in us being successful. We would like to thank them for their continued support and for always being patient with us. They listened, responded and helped us create a successful new learning environment to educate and promote family engagement services to a broader audience and promote awareness of the importance of adult services and children's services working side-by-side. The committee could not have been better supported and we look forward to continuing this work with Scott and Symone.

Submitted by Jo Giudice on 08/31/2020

Task Force on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice – September–March 2020 Report


The group met 7-10 times this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Presented three regional trainings across the country. The trainings were continuously updated.

Additionally, task force members planned six regional trainings for 2020.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Transformation

Second Activity
Task force members were organized into subcommittees to support work including regional training, creating content, and writing articles for library publications.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice

Third Activity
Wrote first article in Public Libraries series and planned subsequent monthly articles.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice

Fourth Activity
Appointing member to joint PLA/ACRL/ODLOS/ARL Building Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity Framework which kicked off in February
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice

Fifth Activity
Developing webinar that focuses on building capacity around EDISJ by learning to use the GARE Racial Equity Tool.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
Finalizing training content, promoting trainings, looking at other training delivery models, and writing PL articles, developing digital content for PL Online.

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
Not at this time.

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
Stretch goal discussion topics have included: collaboration with progressive journalists, collating and promoting evaluation strategies for library EDISJ efforts; convening library directors specifically; starting to work with library schools, providing additional webinars to continue learning for regional training attendees.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
ALA ODLOS Advisory Committee, BCALA, ALA Council Committee on Diversity,.

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
Yes (if yes, PLA will contact you for more information)

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
It was challenging to have four committees meeting in the same room. Additionally, the committee meeting time conflicted with the PLA Board meeting.

Submitted by Lois Langer Thompson and Christina Fuller-Gregory on 03/18/2020

Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment Committee – September–March 2020 Report


The group met 4-6 times this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
With the PLDS on pause, the MEAC focused much of their work during this reporting period on determining its future. The committee hosted three town halls (one in-person at the ARSL conference and two virtual) for the field to provide feedback about their data needs. In addition, feedback was solicited from current PLAmetrics subscribers. Based on this feedback, as well as other factors including low usage of PLAmetrics, the committee voted to sunset the PLDS and develop other initiatives to better meet the needs of the field.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence, Transformation

Second Activity
The committee formed five subgroups to work on current priorities:

1) Future of the PLDS – subgroup reviewed the feedback from the town halls and PLAmetrics subscriber list
2) Project Outcome Case Studies – subgroup discussed surveying PO users
3) Tech Survey – subgroup reviewed drafts of the survey
4) Typologies – subgroup discussed strategies for developing the typologies
5) Elevating existing public library datasets and tools – subgroup discussed strategies for raising awareness about datasets and tools including the ALA Salary Survey, Project Outcome, RIPL, etc.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence, Transformation

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
The group will a) review the results of the Tech Survey and the Typologies and determine strategies for promotion; and b) determine next steps with the Project Outcome case studies and efforts to raise awareness of existing public library datasets and tools, including the possible development of a webpage to promote these efforts.

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
We seek approval on the decision to sunset the PLDS.

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
Not at this time.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
Not at this time.

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Not at this time. PLA has been very supportive – thank you!

Submitted by Linda Hofschire on 03/17/2020

PLA 2020 Conference Program Subcommittee – September–March 2020 Report


The group met 1 time this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
In September 2019, the Conference Program Subcommittee was tasked with reviewing 10 programs (among the final slate of 120 approved programs) to anticipate those with high appeal. Each subcommittee member was assigned 10 programs to rank on a 3-point scale to indicate, high, medium, or lower/specialized interest. Based on the feedback from the subcommittee, PLA staff was able to prepare a comprehensive session preference survey for all attendees in October 2019.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence

Second Activity
Conference Program Subcommittee members met on Monday, February 24th at the Music City Center (Nashville, TN) to tour the facility and discuss tips for staffing the PLA 2020 Help Desk throughout the conference. Conference Program Subcommittee members staffed approximately 20 Help Desk shifts throughout the conference, asking questions for attendees and providing guidance.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Leadership, Organizational Excellence

Third Activity
As Chair of the Conference Program Subcommittee, Juliane Morian, was requested to speak at a morning session with visiting AfLIA librarians on Wednesday, February 26th, to discuss PLA's approach to delivering high-quality educational sessions at a national-level conference. Topics included how to recruit quality program submissions, rank proposals, and curate 100+ final selections.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
At this point, the Conference Program Subcommittee has fulfilled its charge and has no remaining tasks.

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
No at this time; if we do engage in a debrief and reflection, we will pass along any insights.

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
No suggestions at this time.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
I would recommend continued collaborations between the Conference Program Subcommittee and the EDISJ task force. For the 2020 PLA Conference, we utilized input from the task force to improve the submission form in the pursuit of speakers and topics that advanced the greater themes of equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice.

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
No, our PLA staff liaison, Angela Maycock was very supportive and instrumental in the success of the Conference Program Subcommittee.

Submitted by Juliane Morian on 03/15/2020

Web Content Working Group – September–March 2020 Report


The group met 2-3 times this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
The Web Working Group continues to maintain the Professional Tools section of the PLA website. We are identifying and updating dead links and adding additional relevant content to meet the needs of our users.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

Second Activity
A small subset of the committee met prior to PLA and worked on reorganizing the site.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
The group will meet at least two more times, 1 virtually and 1 in person at ALA Annual. We will come up with a document for the next working group to easily identify links that change each year and the work that was completed this year. We will also outline areas that need the most work.

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
We do not.

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
We do not.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
None at this time.

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
No

Submitted by Jennifer Ferriss on 03/12/2020

Membership Advisory Group – September–March 2020 Report


The group met 1 time this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
The group was formed in August of last year and our liaison sent the first group of new PLA members. We divided the list of 430 new members up among the committee members and I created a template of a welcoming email for committee members to send to their assigned new members. This was completed in October and the emails were sent out. I received several emails back from those I sent emails to thanking us for the personal welcome.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence

Second Activity
The group received a second list of 410 new members in November and followed the same procedure. The template was revised and the emails were sent.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence

Third Activity
We received a list of 430 new members in February and followed the same procedure. Each of the new members received a personalize email welcoming them to PLA.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence

Fourth Activity
Four of the committee members, plus our liaison, were able to meet on Feb 25 @ 3:30 at the PLA conference.
Attendance: Helen Rigdon (chair), Trisha Burns, Kim DeNero-Ackroyd, Nicole Wilhelms, Samantha Lopez (PLA staff liaison)

Helen started off the meeting discussing the member welcome emails.
Response to welcome emails is low (5-10%), but those who do respond seem appreciative.
The group agrees that welcome emails should continue, but need to have updated talking points to stay relevant. Helen will get from Samantha, and Helen will update the templates when sending out the email assignments.
The group discussed continual emails with same new member assignments, but after discussing how a manual drip campaign would work, it was determined it would be too time-consuming, hard to track, and new committee members would be left with residual emails from committee members cycling off.
Samantha presented limitations with manual email drip marketing campaigns. Have been trying to launch since 2018. ALA is going through an email software clean-up Spring 2020, and is hoping to launch automated drip campaigns once completed.
Challenges of committee cycles means limitations with consistency and continuity with work.
The group proposed chair should have 1 more year to term to help transition new chair.
Group asked where is the value of the membership committee if there's no investment in membership within ALA/PLA tech, etc.?
The group voiced frustration with ideas not going anywhere, and limitations of PLA/ALA
The group should only tackle tasks or ask questions of members where action can really be taken
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Organizational Excellence

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
We will be setting up a post-conference conference call with the committee to discuss our ideas from the meeting. Some of those are listed below.

The group brainstormed engagement topics for post-PLA Conference:
Non-conference year discounts? "Bridge rate" or 2-year discount
Increasing PLA presence at ALA Annual
Barriers include limited number of program slots for hundreds of PLA proposals
Financial limitations
Post-conference survey for new members – what can we do to get you coming back? Emphasis should be on engagement/what they want from the committee (more communications? Etc) and not what do they want from PLA (assumption is free, or discounts)
Follow-up email linking to membership videos? Where will those live?
PLA will post on website, Samantha to follow up
Where do small libraries fit in? Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL)?
PLA and ALA have had a long history of not being able to reach or recruit small and rural libraries
PLA supports ARSL Conference (exhibitor & sponsor), emphasizes free products and services they can utilize
Overall, hard to reach population and assumption is they can't afford ALA+PLA membership
How to target non-members who attended conference?
About 60% of regular conference attendees are members
List is easy to pull for non-members
Curating content that's a member perk for people who couldn't make it to conference
Question should be – Is PLA actually offering things that engage members?
Should the committee also serve as ambassadors of PLA?
Previously, this committee would go to local conferences to promote PLA
How can committee members use their own networks to be ambassadors for PLA?
State conferences?
PLA ads in library state or association conferences?
ALA's New Member Round Table – ask them what they do that works for them? Best practices?
Follow-up from conference – contact last 6-months, "did you know PLA does/has…", ask how we can better support them?

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
Group asked where is the value of the membership committee if there's no investment in membership within ALA/PLA tech, etc.?
The group voiced frustration with ideas not going anywhere, and limitations of PLA/ALA. We feel that we cannot make promises to new members without there being definite follow through from ALA/PLA.

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
PLA and ALA have had a long history of not being able to reach or recruit small and rural libraries
PLA supports ARSL Conference (exhibitor & sponsor), emphasizes free products and services they can utilize
Overall, hard to reach population and assumption is they can't afford ALA+PLA membership. We would like to see some more outreach with smaller public libraries, if possible.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
New Member Round-Table

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
Yes (if yes, PLA will contact you for more information)

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
More information for first-time committee members on hos this all worked – that we would be in a big room. Also there was no signage for our committee.

Submitted by Helen Rigdon on 03/11/2020

Continuing Education Advisory Group – September–March 2020 Report


The group met 0 times this reporting period.

Recent Activities

First Activity
We reviewed and rated webinar submissions for the second half of 2019.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

Second Activity
We created a strategy for rating and reviewing archived webinars for future review.
Meets PLA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Awareness, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Transformation

What will your group be working on for the next six months?
We will be reviewing and rating webinar submissions for 2020 as well as rating archived webinars available currently.

Does the group have any policy recommendations, ideas with financial impact, or other items to bring to the PLA Board for discussion or action
Not at this time.

Do you have any suggestions for future products or resources (excluding conference programs) to be developed based on your group’s work?
Not at this time.

Are there other PLA/ALA committees your group might collaborate with to benefit the work of all?
Not at this time.

Have there been any issues related to meeting participation/attendance for any of the group’s members?
No

Is there anything PLA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
We have all of the support we need.

Submitted by Sarah Tansley on 03/09/2020