Keith was right. 

Sincerely, Mel

What’s up with conference planning? Glad you asked!

As of the writing of this article, there are 148 days left until the opening of annual conference on October 3. These are sure to be days filled with anticipation, excitement, expectation, impatience, astonishment, surprise, contemplation and good old-fashioned work. We are hoping that your sense of anticipation is growing as is ours.

 On the heels of a productive MLA Board meeting last month, I am able to report to you, the members of MLA, some of the conference plans as they are developing. The slate of programs has been selected. There are 51 dynamic and informative programs in the works. These programs were selected by the communities of interest and best reflect topics of greatest appeal to members in all areas of library service and interest. A preliminary conference schedule is being developed at this time and will be ready to share in a matter of weeks. Are you hoping to attend some of this year’s signature events? We have a charismatic and compelling group of speakers coming to conference this year to headline these events. Those names include:

• Keynote speaker, Ms. Carol Levers •
• Director of the Kansas City Kansas Public Library •
• One of 10 chosen for the New York Times “I Love My Librarian” award in 2008 •
• Recipient of the 2011 Outstanding Recent Graduate award from Emporia State University
• Inspirational story of how libraries can change lives. If you haven’t heard Ms. Levers’ story, now is your chance. You won’t want to miss it.
•  Awards Dinner speaker, Ms. Lauren Burnett •
• Principal of the Center for Inner Quality, a Cleveland-based training, coaching and consulting organization •
• A certified business coach and has served as an adjunct faculty member at Ohio State, Kent State and other universities. •
• A champion for libraries and has an inspirational message to share about the magic of libraries. 
• Thusnelda Schmidt Luncheon speaker, Mr. Michael Levine •
• Music producer of New York Times best-seller “Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes!” 
• Co-creator of Atlanta-based “The Learning Groove,” Mr. Levine is a self-proclaimed “music and education geek!” •
• He has more than 15 years of experience in early music education, has taught thousands of children and won many national awards for children’s music. Get ready to dance! 
• Young Adult Author Breakfast speaker, Ms. Kate Klise •
• Author of more than 20 popular titles for young readers, including the “43 Old Cemetery Road” series and “Stand Straight, Ella Kate” •
• Has won countless literary awards for her books. In fact, “Stand Straight, Ella Kate” is a Missouri Show Me Award Final Nominee for 2012-2013. •
• Her first adult novel, “In the Bag,” will be released in May 2012. To read an excerpt visit http://www.scribd.com/doc/88788925/In-the-Bag-by-Kate-Klise 

Study up! It’s time for a challenge.

• Battledecks: Did I mention Battledecks is back!! The Battledecks competition was an uproariously fun time in 2011. I attended for the first time just to see what all of the buzz was about. I get it now. Trust me, you DO NOT want to miss this. Plan to attend. 
• MACRL Trivia Luncheon: Cynthia Dudenhoffer and the other 2012 MACRL officers are planning a super-fun trivia event during the annual MACRL luncheon at conference. It’s a fact. Librarians love trivia and, frankly, we are great at it! Everyone knows trivia teams benefit from including a librarian in the mix. What happens when you have a room FULL of librarians answering trivia questions for prizes? You’ll just have to see it to believe it. 

Make your budget plans now! We have secured some very affordable rates for conference. The Board has approved the early-bird and regular registration rates for conference. We are able to extend the same conference registration rates we enjoyed in 2011 to the 2012 conference. Hooray! Coming Soon: a complete outline of conference rates. We hope to see you in Springfield in October. It’s the place to be! 

Have questions? Feel free to contact Jim or myself anytime. We do truly mean that.
Have an awesome day, Melissa “Mel” Davis and Jim Schmidt.

Melissa can be reached at melissad@thelibrary.org or 417.616.0682 

Jim can be reached at jims@thelibrary.org or 417.616.0587

The Voting Has Begun

Tick, tick, tick, tick. The clock is ticking. The voting is officially underway. I have been discovering that although I think I am being redundant and giving too much information, these posts are useful to many of you all across the state. So, let’s talk about program submissions and where we go from here.

On February 3 at 8 a.m., we opened the form for all types of program submissions from all interested parties. By the end of February, a total of 27 programs were submitted. While that is a great start, we would need many more to offer a full slate of programs in a three-day event. I will admit to a moment of panic. The program submission deadline of March 15 came quickly. There was a bit of a surprise with the temporary loss of MOLIB.org, so we decided to leave the submission period open through the weekend and close it at 8 a.m. on March 19 instead.  When we checked the totals that day, there were – INSERT DRUMROLL – 104 programs submitted. I said to Jim, “Holy smoke, Batman! 104!” Of those 104, a whopping 81 were considered breakout sessions.

 The very same day, we took that group of 81 and divided them up based on the audience selected by the presenter. We emailed Excel spreadsheets to the eleven Communities of Interest for program selection and voting to begin. The Communities of Interest leadership for 2012 includes these fine folks:
Karen Fiegenbaum Access Services
Jim Dutton Computer and Information Technology
Erika Van Vranken Genealogy and Local History
Peg Hulse Outreach Services
Cindy Dudenhoffer MACRL
Lisa Henry PARA
Anna Strackeljahn PEER
Betty Martin Public Libraries
Eric Petersen Reference and Government Information
Dawn Sanders Technical Services
Christy Schink Youth Services
 The deadline for program selection is Friday, April 6. This will be a tough competition since there are many fabulous programs vying for space. This year we are working very hard to include some 90 minute opportunities in addition to the more traditional 45 minute session in the schedule.

Once the votes are in, Jim and I will work with Joshua Lambert and Katherine Bohnenkamper, this year’s Meeting Room Chairs to select the appropriate size room and timeslot for each of the selected programs. Meanwhile, we continue to recruit vendors and sponsors from our corporate contacts. That’s the news from this end of the state. What’s happening in your neck of the woods? If you have questions, we are happy to answer. If you have comments, we are happy to listen. I have been offering a bit of friendly advice to myself throughout this process courtesy of the British government in 1939, “Keep calm and carry on!” Mel

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

One week remains...would YOU like to be a presenter this year?

I have been asked more than once for some more information about what is meant by the different types of program opportunities available on the form. I will share that information to the best of my ability here. Please feel free to email me at melissad@thelibrary.org if this explanation just doesn’t answer it for you. I don’t mind at all. Past experience tells me if one person is asking, then there are five who are curious as well but don’t ask. What is a breakout session? It is the most traditional of conference presentations. A breakout session is usually from 45-90minutes in length. They are usually done in a lecture-style format where attendees go in to the room and sit in chairs side by side (from 30-90 attendees) listening to the speaker's presentation. Sometimes it is a Powerpoint presentation or some other audiovisual presentation. Sometimes there are handouts or it is interactive in some other way. The speaker often leaves time for Q&A. It could be a presentation about a successful programming idea, report of research, or informative on one of a million topics. What are table talks? Table talks are topic based usually. As a presenter for a table talk, I would pick a topic of interest to me that I think would be a topic of interest to colleagues. It could be something I want to learn more about and hope someone will come to discuss it with me to broaden my knowledge of something I want to try in the future. Or it could be something that I feel we have done well, and I want to share the process of how we did that with others. Or it could be a controversial topic that is a hot-topic right now. For example, I want to present a table talk all about protecting patron privacy on patron reserves or "self-pickup holds" - Do you add the patron's name to the slip in the book or do you create an alias for them? At the appointed time in the schedule for table talks, you would go to the appointed location usually furnished with large ten person round tables. You sit down at the table with the sign containing the name of your talk "Privacy for Patron Reserves" and wait for people to join you and grab a seat. Then you have a conversation. Sometimes this is done through a series of questions to spark discussion, sometimes through show-and-tell, etc. The table talks are much more informal. What about a poster session? I don’t mean to sound flippant when I say it is a table talk standing up…but it sort of is. You are provided with a stand up paper easel for a standard poster size that you have created. You go to the appointed area, you prop up your poster, and you stand next to your poster striking up conversation with attendees as they go from poster to poster drinking in the information. Think science fair only cool librarian-ish topics. I want to do a poster session about my District’s recent Hunger Games programming. I want to share these cool ideas for integrating a popular read with survival skill programs. I take some photos, add some statistics and some cool lettering and make a poster. I will stand next to the poster, answer questions, explain complications or challenges, and share success stories. What is a networking/social event? This would be a good description for a meal event at conference like the Awards Dinner or the MACRL luncheon. Let’s say you are in a leadership role for the MACRL community of interest, you would make sure that you enter a program submission for the luncheon you know that your group always plans at conference. That will help us hold a spot in the conference calendar of events for signature events like MACRL’s luncheon or the newest treat Battledecks (tons of fun by the way). One more common question: Do you have to be a member of MLA to present? We are basing things on the approved procedures from the last conference. Yes, non-members and guests may present. No, you would not have to be a member of MLA in order to present. Yes, conference registration being paid would be a requirement whether you are a member or not. There will be options for one-day only non-member conference registration if that is applicable to the presenter. The exceptions are those keynote and event big name speakers who sign a contract for a speaking gig and are most often paid by the association. They don't need to register for conference. Still interested in presenting something at conference? Click on the Program Submissions link in the upper right-hand corner of this page to get started.

Make Way for Vendors!

Whether you refer to it as a: trade show, trade convention, trade conference, vendor hall, displays, exhibits, exhibit hall, exposition, fair, show, or even multivendor sales event, it is a vital part of the conference experience. We are hard at work building a trade show experience that will prove mutually beneficial to attendees and vendors alike. In conversations with vendors who have attended conference in previous years, we learned some new tricks. See. You CAN teach an old dog like me new tricks after all! Understandably, we have a tendency to view things as librarians during the planning stages. For 2012, we asked for vendor input. We made some changes in accordance with that feedback. We hope you enjoy the changes.

This past Monday a wonderful Business Office Clerk at the Springfield-Greene County Library District by the name of Kay Church (photo on right) stuffed envelopes sending out over sixty copies of the 2012 Trade Show Prospectus to the 2011 exhibiting vendors. In addition to the paper prospectus going out, the ezregister site for trade show registration located at:http://molib2012.ezregister.com/ is up and running. Many thanks to Keith Gaertner at MLNC for his speedy expertise! A copy of the entire Trade Show Prospectus will be available soon as a link on the right side of this blog. Was one of your favorite vendors missing from the trade show in years past?? Encourage them to participate in this year's conference. There are many opportunities to partner with MLA in presenting a truly inspirational conference experience.

Guess Who's Coming to Conference?

I'll give you a hint...he LOVES his white shoes.

For the Thusnelda Schmidt Luncheon co-sponsored by the Youth Services Community of Interest and the Missouri Building Block Award Committee, we have entered into a contract with Mr. Michael Levine with the Learning Groove in Atlanta Georgia to give an interactive musical presentation. Mr. Levine is the musical producer for all of the Pete the Cat books and a great friend of Pete's. According to the Building Block Picture Book Award Committee, "the children of Missouri have spoken! By an overwhelming margin, Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, written by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean, is the winner of the 2011 Missouri Building Block Picture Book Award. For the second year in a row, nearly 20,000 children in schools and libraries across the state participated. Pete the Cat blew away the competition with a staggering 42% majority--a total of 8,297 children cast their vote for Pete.

Pete the Cat is the tale of a cat who keeps his cool (in more than one sense of the word) despite stepping into multiple messes. Clearly, Missouri's children agree with Pete that "It's all good!" Congratulations to Eric Litwin, James Dean, and our favorite cool cat!" So get ready for a fun luncheon experience with Michael Levine and until then, as Pete would say..."Just keep walkin' along and singin' your song."