Vice-President President Elect's Report

 

There is always a learning curve when taking on a new role in an organization. I would like to thank APLA President Su Cleyle, Past President Donna Bourne-Tyson and the APLA Executive for sharing their Association experiences and knowledge with me. 

 

 

I attended the summer meeting of the Partnership with President Cleyle on behalf of APLA. It was an excellent opportunity to network with our provincial association counterparts, get a sense of the challenges and opportunities other associations were facing, and review the programs of the Partnership including the Partnership Journal, Job Board, Career Centre and the Education Institute. APLA’s relationship with the Partnership has been of great benefit to the membership and I hope to see it grow as new programs and services, like EI-To-Go for example, are developed.

 

 

During the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009 I worked with Stan Orlov to migrate the APLA website to its new home on a server at the University of Prince Edward Island and to a new content management system, Drupal. I’d like to thank Stan for his assistance and patience during this transition and UPEI for providing the infrastructure. Drupal is a great platform that the Association can utilize to improve communication, engage the membership, and help it fulfill its objectives. As a practical example, Erin Alcock uses Drupal’s event module to post all of the professional development opportunities we have access to through our association with the Partnership’s Education Institute and members can subscribe to that list as an RSS feed. Larry Tweed has recently taken on the role of APLA website administrator.

 

 

Working with the provincial Vice Presidents, I chaired the Carin Alma E. Somers Scholarship Trust Committee. The Scholarship was promoted via the APLA Listserv, the APLA Website, and messages announcing and outlining the Scholarship were sent to all post-secondary institutions that offer a Master of Library and Information Science (or equivalent). The Committee received and reviewed 7 applications and the scholarship will be awarded at the APLA Ordinary General Meeting Part 1.

 

Finally I’d like to thank APLA for the opportunity to serve as the VP/President Elect and I look forward to working with the Executive and the APLA membership in the coming year.