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From the President
Even though it is the holidays, and we have wrapped up a great conference, many committees are busy, working on ideas and coming up with some great new projects. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to serve on a committee. I am done with the appointments, and anyone interested in volunteering can plan on submitting the volunteer form so that Vice-President/President-Elect Barbara Roberts can place you on a committee.
The 2008 Conference Planning Committee met last week for the first time to begin planning the next conference. As you can no doubt guess, it is a lengthy process, requiring concentrated effort from this group of people. If you have a program idea, get ready! We will be asking for the proposals this spring. If you will recall, the theme will be "Leading the Way." Leadership is an idea that can be hard for some folks to understand, and for others, comes naturally. I believe that leadership comes at all levels in an organization, so I'm looking forward to a great conference with ideas for everyone in your library.
Just for fun, I went to Google and typed in two words: leadership libraries. What I found was interesting. From leadership education, definitions, books, and articles, I was able to begin thinking even more about the idea of leadership. Taking a moment, I even read Machiavelli and Leadership: Is it Applicable in Libraries?. Wondering if you are a leader? The National School Boards Foundation has an online Education Leadership Toolkit, which includes a leadership self-assessment. Or, try a leadership test at Queendom, the land of tests or at TestCafe. You'll get a basic result, and the option to pay for a fuller report. Obviously, though, leadership is something that is given great thought, time, and energy.
So I'm interested in knowing - what are your ideas of leadership? How do you define leadership? What do you think makes the best leader? How do you know it when you see it? How do you think we can encourage and develop new leaders? Please post! Your comments will also help the Conference Committee as they put together the speakers and the programs for next November.
And a big thank you to those folks who have posted comments on the CLA blog. I appreciate it very much and look forward to many more. If you haven't checked it out, please do.
Monique le Conge
2008 President
monique_leconge@ci.richmond.ca.us
Posted by Monique le Conge, 2008 CLA President on December 14, 2007 4:10 PM | Permalink