Following on from the Conference, SLANZA National Executive met Wednesday 30th September and Thursday 1st October at Burnside High School in Christchurch. Below is a summary of some of the discussions covered at the meeting. This communique is to keep members up-to-date with the work being done on their behalf by the National Executive.
Financial and Treasurer's Report
Spending has been within budget this year due to the cost-effectiveness of holding the July NE meeting online through Google hangouts.
Membership
Membership is now at 621 paid members, with several new members signing up as a result of registering for conference.
Admin Officer
We welcome Jacky Reid (based in Wellington) as our new Admin Officer. Jacky will start at the beginning of Term 4. At the same time we wish to sincerely thank Carole Gardiner for so ably and effectively holding this position for the last two years.
Conference
SLANZA Conference in Christchurch was a fantastic and successful event, well attended by members with a general feeling that a conference provides very valuable professional development and a great opportunity for connecting face to face. Approximately a third of our members attended and although this is a healthy number for our small organisation, there was a large disparity between the number of secondary school attendees to primary school. We need to ascertain the reasons members did not attend the conference, and would greatly appreciate those members who did not attend filling out this quick online survey Conference Attendance.
After much discussion NE is keen to retain the existing time frame of a SLANZA conference once every two years, preferably in July. The Auckland committee will meet to discuss whether they are happy to take on this event in 2017 and we will inform you of the outcome.
If you have not filled in and returned the Conference Evaluation form please use this link to do so - feedback is vitally important in planning and organising future conferences.
Online Professional Development
To date, we have had 161 members participate in Connected Librarians, the online learning modules on digital tools that Miriam Tuohy created. This is a wonderful reflection on the quality and relevance of these modules in extending learning for school library staff. The new platform, Haiku Learning, is working very well and has helped streamline the service offered to members. Module #4 on Content Curation will be available towards the end of Term 1, 2016. See the SLANZA website for more details on this professional development.
The Google+ community currently has 88 members. Community members are welcome to share resources and join in discussions. This term we will be launching another PD option on this platform: in-depth monthly discussions. Our first discussion will be based on R David Lankes’ book Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries For Today's Complex World - issues important to our role in schools and how our library serves our school community. We’ll let you know more details soon.
Collected Magazine
The next issue of SLANZA’s online magazine Collected will focus on the conference. Members are encouraged to write reviews, summaries and share tidbits of their conference experience and please include photos, with captions, for a visual treat. If you were one of the lucky recipients of a Book Protection Products Conference Grant then you will recall the expectation to contribute to Collected as part of the feedback process. As usual, we like to have a selection of book reviews on recently published books. All submissions to collected@slanza.org.nz thanks.
Study Grants
Applications have closed for SLANZA Study Grants for 2016 and the successful recipients will be notified shortly.
Sponsorship opportunities
To generate more income SLANZA needs to make the most of contacts and think more widely about companies and individuals who could be approached to fund specific projects and activities. Bridget Schaumann spoke about this at the AGM at conference. If you know of any company or individual that may be willing to sponsor a SLANZA project that benefits students or school libraries please contact your local NE representative.
On this note, National Executive wishes to acknowledge the ongoing sponsorship of Book Protection Products who donate $5,000 yearly to SLANZA Professional Development.
National Library Services to Schools Transformation
There is still some uncertainty about the implementation details of National Library’s transformed services to be offered next year. However our president, Miriam Tuohy, is in regular contact with National Library management and will ensure you are kept informed as those details are finalised. Until clarification, members are encouraged to prioritise your topics for 2016 and consider what you may order in December for the 2016 Inquiry Learning Loan. Likewise, order your Reading Engagement Loans for 2016, this year.
National Library asks that members continue to direct any questions to: s2stransformation@dia.govt.nz
SLANZA Awards
A list of the recipients of the SLANZA Awards will be posted on the SLANZA website soon and will be in the next issue of Collected.
SLANZA National Executive will continue to work on your behalf and ensure that the voice of school libraries from all over the country are heard.
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