SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau Committee meeting - Saturday 10 August in the Bay of Islands

Come and join the Committee for a delicious lunch and discussion about future events in a Bay of Islands cafe on Saturday 10 August.  Leave a comment if you are able to attend.

Winds of Change SLANZA Conference - 15-17 July 2013 - Wellington

Beehive photo courtesy of Julia Smith

Report back on the Winds of Change SLANZA conference – 15-17 July 2013

A small contingent of keen and eager Northland Librarians attended the SLANZA conference in the holidays.  Some of the group battled stormy/windy weather preventing them from flying into Wellington on the Sunday.  Luckily we all missed the earthquakes which hit Wellington after we left which damaged windows in the new National Library building, stairwell damage at Wellington Girls’ College and caused falling masonry in Featherston Street where we were staying.

It is hard to know where to start when talking about the conference.  There were so many good moments.  The conference was well organised, the keynotes and workshops were relevant, the food was good and as always it was great to connect with other Librarians from around New Zealand.  It was particularly good catching up with other Boys Secondary School Librarians to discuss matters relevant to our schools.

 It was a very intense experience and I found my head reeling from all the information and in fact I still need time to reflect on which ideas I can best incorporate into my work at Whangarei Boys’ High School.

Several workshops stand out.  One was by booksellers, John and Ruth McIntyre of the Children’s bookshop in Kilbirnie, Wellington who enthusiastically promoted a selection of new books. 

Another by a Scots College team of Sue Easterman, Library Manager, Will Struthers, Head of Middle School English and three year 11 students, collaborated to hold a summer reading competition linked to a website where students from the middle school could review books.  Prizes were awarded and, thanks to the hard work of the students involved, there was a marked increase in boys reading. 

Lastly, a workshop by  SLANZA President, Bridget Schaumann, Librarian at Kings High School, Dunedin who shared her strategies for coping as a solo Librarian and how to eliminate jobs that don’t need doing, deliver a great service and keep your sense of humour.

The highlight of the conference, in my opinion, was a panel discussion chaired by Kim Hill (2012 International Radio Personality of the year and host of Saturday morning show on National Radio) with Bernard Beckett (author and secondary school teacher), Glenn Colquhoun (Dr and poet) and Kate de Goldi (author and book reviewer).  It was a lively discussion about the future of the Libraries and also the controversial book Into the River by Ted Dawe which won the NZ Post Children’s Book Award.  (Bernard Beckett was the convener of the judging panel.)

I am now looking forward our annual Northland Secondary PD Day in September.

SLANZA Winds of Change Conference - Wellington - July 2013

Only a week to go now until the SLANZA Conference in Wellington.  I can't decide what I am most looking forward to - the workshops, the keynotes or maybe the authors panel?  Or just the chance to get together with all the other awesome librarians and chat over coffee about books and libraries and other topics close to our hearts.

SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau AGM - Saturday 22 June 2013

 

After the wonderful session with Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham last weekend we held the SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau AGM with the following members present:

 

Lisa Salter, Dee Brooker, Ngaire Morey, Di Eastwood, Julia Smith, Jenny Wilson, Kaye Neely, Jill Hatherly, Liz Christensen, Elaine Shields, Jeannie Skinner.

 

Here is an extract from the Minutes of that meeting with the naming of the new committee members setting out their responsibilities.  We would, of course, welcome support from any other SLANZA members in Northland at any time.

 

Lisa Salter's report is also below.  Lisa is doing an amazing job as National Executive Representative and I hope that everyone can offer her plenty of support in this demanding role.

 

Dee Brooker

 

SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau AGM

Saturday 22^nd June 2013, 3.30pm Kerikeri High School Library

 

1.    SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau Committee

 

·         National Executive Representative / Co-Chair : Lisa Salter offered to continue as the National Executive Northland representative for another year.

·         Secretary / Co-Chair : Julia Smith volunteered to be the new Co-Chair / Secretary of SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau

·         Treasurer : Kaye would like to hand over the Treasurer’s role to a current SLANZA member, and so we offer her grateful thanks for a role ably done over many years.  Jeannie nominated Jenny Puckey as Treasurer, and she accepted the nomination.

·         Communications : Dee Brooker volunteered to take over the role of maintaining the SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau blog http://slanzanorthland.blogspot.co.nz/ and communicating through the NZ school library list serv as needed.

·         Memberships – Jeannie will take on the memberships role encouraging schools to join SLANZA. We currently have 31 members in Northland and our target is to double that by the next AGM!

·         A committee was drawn together from expressions of interest and anyone else too is welcome to come up with ideas, share organisation roles, and provide support at events etc on a casual basis.

Committee 2013 / 2014 : Lisa Salter, Julia Smith, Dee Brooker, Jenny Puckey, Jan Hobbs, Elaine Shields, Liz Christensen, Clare Giesbers, Jeannie Skinner.                                             

 

Te Tai Tokerau AGM Report 2013

Lisa Salter, NE Representative / Chair TTT

 

In August 2011 I took over the Chair of TTT after years of excellent service from Di Eastwood.  I would be grateful if another member would consider taking up this position.  We would like to improve the structure of the region by appointing someone else to the membership portfolio to look after our members and encourage new members, as well as a committee of a few to plan and gauge interest in events.  I would also like to encourage a member to consider taking the National Executive role for the region.  I would be happy to step down at the next AGM.

 

Professional Development

In 2012 we were excited that SLANZA was able to bring Ross Todd to New Zealand, but TTT was not well represented at the workshop due to distance and cost.  Anita Vandenberghe presented a workshop in Term 2 in Kerikeri on Creative Library Displays with 28 librarians present.  In Term 3 we had Robert Baigent, Services Manager of Any Questions/Many Answers, up for an afternoon information session.  He outlined this great free online NZ resource for school students as something that we can to promote to our students, teachers, parents and explained how to get the most out of it. 

 

Because of our large geographical area and the sparsity of members in any one area, we do not get support for after school or evening events.  This year, in response to requests, we are focusing on offering authors in schools exclusively to our members.   In Term 1 we were extremely fortunate to host Joseph Delaney, internationally bestselling author of the Spooks Series.  He did a public event in Whangarei and this was well supported including a van load from Kerikeri.  Des Hunt is currently touring Northland.  This was offered to all member schools and 16 have taken up the opportunity.  In Term 3 we have Tania Hutley and are gauging interest for Term 4.  While we positively promote the conference to our members, we struggle to get more than a few members involved.  We had only two applications for the two NE conference grants. We hope to share the best of the conference with the rest of our members late in Term 3.

 

Communication

The Te Tai Tokerau blog  is used to spread information and allow members to become familiar with blogging.  Both Jeannie Skinner (TTT Secretary) and I share responsibility for keeping it up to date and interesting, we encourage members to do a post.   With Jeannie Skinner’s direction we also have online communities at National Library Services to Schools including Northland Networks, Northland PD Day, and Northland registered librarians. Jeannie is promoting these every chance she gets throughout the region.   Our blog also links to the SLANZA website.  We like how this keeps our webpage up to date, highlights our news and links directly to the blog. 

 

Advocacy

Jeannie Skinner continues to be a shining light for SLANZA in Northland.  Every opportunity she gets, be it at a network meeting, blog post, school visit, etc she plugs the benefits of SLANZA membership.  I believe that is why Te Tai Tokerau membership is so strong.  

 

I am grateful to have been supported by SLANZA to attend the LIANZA Advocacy workshop in Auckland in March last year as well as the Ross Todd seminar.   Fortunately for my region, National Library supported Jeannie Skinner’s attendance as well.  We have been sharing what we learned at our local network meetings and on the blog.  

 

Things have been quite settled in the region this term.  The main comment I am hearing from members is problems regarding budgets or lack of them. 

 

Finance

We have now received our Book Protection Products PD money for 2012 and 2013 and are grateful for this sponsorship as it enables us to bring in guests like Mal Peet.  We are looking for practical suggestions on how to support our region’s professional development with this money.

 

Lisa Salter

Te Tai Tokerau National Executive Member for SLANZA