NCSLA President,
Eliza Robertson

Letter from the President,
July 2005

What an inspiring Spring and Summer 2005 we had in NC SLA-land!  First, the election of Rebecca Vargha to the presidency of SLA, a first for a North Carolina Chapter member, was a heady moment.  It was followed shortly by the announcement of Association-level awards for THREE of our members, Tamika Barnes McCollough, Lolly Gasaway, and Dav Robertson.  You can see photos below of all these folks receiving their awards in Toronto from SLA President Ethel Salonen.

Closer to home, our Chapter's Award Banquet provided lots of laughs (thanks largely to Erin Knight, our outgoing [in more ways than one], excellent President and Susan Nutter, the speaker of the evening, who wove a thread of nostalgia in her musings on special librarianship in an academic setting.  Photos of those folks and our stunning award winners are also at your fingertips. 

And now it's summer and the SLA annual conference is behind us.  Most of my time in Toronto was spent in Leadership sessions where the business of SLA is discussed and conducted, and where faces becoming increasingly familiar (from two years at this!) and conversations about other chapters help me put our great chapter in perspective.  

Official business at the conference were two votes that will change the association in ways we can't yet imagine, and what a blast it will be to see those changes play out in the next few years. 

• First is the bylaws change to allow electronic voting.  Will that reduce interest in the annual conference, when our physical presence isn't necessary for us to express our opinions, or will it mean greater participation in that process than we've had before?  Other organizations have shown greater participation in elections.  Will our collective spirit be more or less liberal or conservative than before, more or less willing to make changes to the association's status quo? 

• Second is the bylaws change to align the Association's fiscal year and the calendar year.    Our chapter decided on 18-month terms for the officers who have just been elected; okay, that was the easy part - but does it mean that the SLA's annual meeting will change to late fall?  Will our own chapter banquet's timing change?  For sure, life will now be easier for SLA chapter and division treasurers worldwide, who will now file reports annually, rather than semi-annually.  All that other stuff is a mystery, but I'm confident NCSLA will weather the storms successfully.  Let me know your opinions about any of these changes and their ramifications.

Our great chapter includes the Charlotte Group, which meet irregularly but enthusiastically.  One lovely evening in mid-July Jill Kutz pulled together a joint meeting of the NCSLA Charlotte Group and CALLA (Charlotte Area Law Librarians Association) at a downtown restaurant.  About 15 people were there, from both groups, including two UNC-G special libraries students.  Lee Carnes, who had attended the SLA annual conference, distributed handouts of some of the sessions he'd benefited most from in searching and legal research.  Great networking, great fun. 

Thanks to Erin and last year's leaders in NCSLA, we newbies have inherited a smooth-running chapter.  But let us know what you want, what we can do better!