Tag Archives: White Elephant Book Swap

Meeting Minutes | November 14, 2012

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Attendees: Chelsea Shriver, Jason Korff, Nadia Stennes-Spidahl, Yesenia Ricardo, Elspeth Olson, Nick Josten, Mary Jingleweski.

1. Approval of October 24 meeting minutes

  • Minutes were approved.

 2. White elephant book swap / bake sale

  • The date of the book swap / bake sale is November 21
  • Volunteers are needed to lead each part of the event:
    • Ysenia and Nadia will co-lead the bake sale. Ysenia will be there from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Nadia will be there from 1-2 p.m.
    • Bake sale leaders should bring paper so that people can note ingredients.
  • Chelsea will create a Google doc for baked goods sign-up sheet.
  • Nick J. will lead the white elephant gift exchange from 12-1 p.m.
  • Bring extra books for people who want to participate but don’t bring their own. Cheap paperbacks are available from the book sale carts at public libraries.
  • Wrap them in anything, as long as it is opaque.
  • You can donate your book to the SIPS book drive if you receive something you don’t want.
  • Nick will bring a cigar box for collecting money.
  • For promotion it is okay to send an email to the LASSA list because it’s a school-wide event.
  • Jason will make posters for the bake sale.
  • Members should wear their ALA t-shirts or baking-related outfit.

3. Student-to-Staff Program contest

  • Deadline for the essay contest is November 15. Refer to the instructions sent by Layla on October 30. Email completed essays to Eric.

4. ALA Midwinter invitation from ALA@UW

  • There is an invitation from ALA@UW members to stay with them during the ALA Midwinter meeting, per email sent out by Layla. Take advantage of this great opportunity!

5. Treasurer’s update

  • The balance of the ALA@UBC account is unknown, but the club has some number of hundreds of dollars minus what was given to Chelsea to reimburse her for t-shirts. Jason will have a firm total once the LASSA treasurer gets back to him. 

6. Other business

  • January orientation
    • There is no way for clubs to email all the incoming January cohort, per Mary J.
    • ALA reps are needed for the Wednesday, January 2, orientation. The time is tentatively 12-3 p.m., but LASSA will confirm.
    • We will send out an email and encourage people to wear their t-shirts for the orientation.
  • In-kind donations for large events
    • In-kind donations are possible for future events. Through LASSA / AMS, we have non-profit status, so it may be possible to do cash fundraising, too, if multiple LASSA clubs join together to have one event. This will also help with cross promotion and attendance.
  • Big upcoming events to think about over the break: Freedom-to-Read Week, marathon reading event.

7. Next meeting

  • A Doodle poll will be sent out for the first meeting in January.

Meeting Minutes | October 24, 2012

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Attendees: Chelsea Shriver, Jason Korff, Nadia Stennes‐Spidahl, Nora Kitchen, Alice MacGougan, Yesenia Ricardo, Caroline Crowell, Matt Ruen, Elspeth Olson, Nick Josten, Amber Saundry, Kaitlyn Sparks, Eric Meyers.

1. Approval of October 3 meeting minutes

  • Minutes were approved.

2. Events

  • Game Day (ASIS&T): The event will be held December 3 at Storm Crow at 6 p.m. There is space available, and Nick would like to cross-­‐promote the event, sending invites out through both the ALA and ASIS&T listservs.
    • December practicums starts that day, so people may not be able to attend.
  • Freedom to Read Week (BCLA/CLA): BCLA would like to do something for Freedom to Read Week in February. They haven’t met to start organizing, but would like to collaborate with ALA. o Judy Saltzman will be involved. She is a good resource and has connections at public libraries.
    • Participating in a BCLA event is a good opportunity to make contacts and put something on your resume.
    • Planning will begin in November before people start to leave, and Nick will head up the organizing committee. Chelsea, Jason, Nadia, Nora, Amber, Caroline (maybe), and Nick signed up to be on the committee.
    • One possible idea is to make banned book trading cards
  • Banned Book Week video (recap): Everyone, especially Kaitlyn the editor!, did great job, and the video looked nice.
    • External mics will be important in the future for better audio quality.
    • The video didn’t make it on the Banned Book Week playlist, but it was on the SLAIS webpage, and ALA@UBC did distribute it.
    • Next fall, the group can get more of a head start and produce a more professional video.
    • Eric has access to good A/V equipment through SLAIS and his projects.
  • White elephant book swap / bake sale:
    • What is it? Anyone can participate, but last year it was mostly ALA members. Participants bring in wrapped books so no one knows what they are, and books are swapped.
    • A bake sale sign-­up sheet will be made available so people can indicate what they will be bringing. Bake sale is donate what you want.
    • Chelsea will send out a Doodle poll (with date in the last couple of weeks prior to end of term) to determine the date, but it is usually Tuesday or Wednesday (11 a.m.-­2 p.m). Eric advised against it being scheduled on Thursday, November 22, as that is the day of Convocation.
    • Some options for buying cheap books for the swap include: public library branches cheap book sale carts, Koerner book sale (this happened last year, but not sure if it will happen this year, too).
    • If SIPS is doing a book drive again this year, people can donate their books to the drive if they end up with books they don’t want.
  • ALA Midwinter Meeting:
    • The resume workshop they are offering seems like might be valuable.
    • The meeting is January 25-­29, 2013, and at $65 for a student member, it’s about as cheap as it gets for a conference.
    • It may be possible to stay with ALA@UW people, and Elspeth will be in touch with them about that.
    • The schedule isn’t currently online.
    • Read email from Ariel Deardorff, whose dad is a librarian at the University of Washington: Basically he said that midwinter used to be primarily committee meetings, and “programming” wasn’t allowed. Now, however, many committees meet virtually so there are more discussion sessions. He said that the annual meeting is definitely more interesting, but given that midwinter is in Seattle it is probably worthwhile. I took a look at the sessions scheduled and it seems like there is a lot going on. I will probably attend.
    • It might be possible to get a group deal on transportation or carpool. About four people at the meeting said they might attend. Caroline will likely have a car.
    • Eric reminded the group about free readers copies available at the meeting.
    • Also, Carol Tilley who will be a speaker at the ALA midwinter will be giving a colloquium talk on January 30 (on comic books), and Eric hopes ALA@UBC will promote the event, there will also be an opportunity go to lunch with her.
      • Speaking of colloquiums: Next Wednesday (October 31) there will be a colloquium talk on scrapbooking in the Victorian era called “What the 99 Percent Read, and What They Did with It, a Hundred Years Ago.” Eric is also looking for students to attend lunch with the speaker, Ellen Gruber Garvey.
      • On October 24 there is a panel called “Engaging Youth With Indigenous Materials in Libraries and Classrooms” on how to select and use indigenous children’s materials. It is geared toward professionals in the field and will be in the Dodson Room. The panel will feature Allison Taylor-McBryde, Debra Martel, and Jan Hare.
      • There are also lots of good speakers coming up next term, so look out for them.

3. Student-­to-­Staff Program contest

  • The student-to­‐staff program contest process is moving a bit faster this year than last year.
  • How does the contest work? One person from our ALA student chapter will be selected to be the student-to­‐staff representative at the ALA Annual Meeting. The winner will attend the meeting, volunteer at the conference, and the award includes housing and registration costs and provides a stipend. The award does not cover airfare or meals. It is a great networking opportunity and allows the winner to see the inner workings of ALA. People who have won previously felt that it was an amazing opportunity. The meeting attracts about 25,000 people, and this year it’s in Chicago, June 22-­28.
  • The student-­to­‐staff representative is selected by an essay contest explaining why attending the ALA Annual Meeting would be your dream! (e.g. from Eric: This will do amazing things for me and my career, and I will do amazing things with it, and I will be the most amazing student‐to­‐staff person ever!) Usually the competition isn’t that heavy (generally only one entry). It is open only to people who will be students next year (graduating in May 2013 is okay, graduating in December 2012 is not).
  • ALA’s due date for selecting all of the student-­to­‐staff representatives December 19.
  • If you apply, you have to make a commitment to going. Usually the conference is the last week in June, and not during when classes are scheduled in the summer. If you have a job/co-­op/internship at a libraries, they are generally fine with you taking off for ALA.
  • There are five people who expressed interest in being selected, so it is determined that an essay competition will be held again. The deadline for submitting a one page essay is November 15. An announcement will be sent out with the instructions and the deadline.
  • Email your essay to Eric.
  • The winner of the contest will be asked to write up a blog post for the ALA student chapter blog. If you are interested in learning what it’s like to attend the annual meeting, you can read this blog post from last year.

4. Other business

  • The ALA t-­shirts have all been distributed.
  • We welcome our new treasurer, Jason, who is already working on the club’s finances.
  • There will be no co-­chair this term, but will try to find one after the new cohort arrives in January.
  • Matt Ruen with a LASSA update on the SLAIS listserv issues:
    • Basically, LASSA wants clubs to avoid sending repeated emails with lots of reminders to the LASSA Google group. It’s not that effective anyway because there are only about 75-­80 people on the list, and they are mostly the new cohort. It is by no means a complete way of reaching people at SLAIS.
    • LASSA is working with SLAIS to try to make the Connect portal more accessible for student clubs to make announcements.

5. Next meeting

  • Next meeting will be on November 14, 2012 at 11 a.m. in the Trail Room.

Meeting Minutes | 8 November 2011

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1. Meeting called to order

2. Approval of meeting minutes

  • October 11 meeting minutes are approved, and it is decided that for the version of the meeting minutes posted on the blog, the names of attendees will be removed for privacy reasons.
  • The names of attendees that appear on previous meeting minutes already posted to the blog will remain unless Layla (laylanaquin@gmail.com) is contacted with a request to remove a name from the record.

3. Marathon Reading

  • Carrie presented an idea to the group to hold a “marathon reading” as a way to raise awareness of the ALA student group, raise money for a cause, and partner with other student groups.
  • At her previous program, the marathon reading lasted three full days. People would sign up for 15-­30 minutes sessions, and the audience would come and go, bringing food to share. Readers are sponsored in order to raise funds.
  • Librarians Without Borders and other SLAIS student groups could be invited to participate and money raised could be split between the groups or donated to the Carnegie Center.
  • Questions going forward include the topic of the readings / possible themed ALA week tie-­ins, the space (IKBLC classroom?), potential co-­sponsoring / participating student or outside groups (MFA program at UBC, MACL program, Librarians Without Borders?).
  • Will aim to hold the event next term. Carrie will lead a committee to organize the event. A sign up sheet was passed around to solicit members of the committee: Marathon Reading Organization Committee – Chelsea Shriver, Carrie Grinstead, Lindsey Krabbenhoft, Nick Josten, Kate Conerton, Judith Guzman-­Montes, Dana Horrocks, Layla Naquin

4. White Elephant Book Swap / Bake Sale Event

  • The White Elephant Book Swap / Bake Sale will take place on November 23. The bake sale will go from 11 a.m.-­2 p.m., and the book swap will go from 12-­1 p.m.
  • Volunteers are needed for publicity, book swap organization, baking / bake sale organization.
  • It is decided that ALA student group members should bring extra books to the book swap to allow SLAIS students who do not bring books to participate. Also, there is a possible tie-‐in to the Carnegie Center book  drive being organized by Librarians Without Borders (you can donate the book you receive in the book swap to the book drive).
  • A sign up sheet is passed around to solicit members for book swap and bake sale committees: White Elephant Book Swap Organizing Committee – Chelsea Shriver, Dana Horrocks, Mary Jinglewski, Sarah Fallik. Bake Sale Organizing Committee – Ebony Magnus, Ashley Pettet, Morgan Gariepy, Judith Guzman­‐Montes,  Layla Naquin, Morgan Barnes, Elspeth Olson
  • Eric Meyer recommends that bake sale be set up on a by‐donation basis, rather than establishing prices for individual items.
  • Caroline points out that it is important to be aware of potential food allergies(nuts, gluten) when baking. Also, IGA and Safeway are having a sale on baking items until November 10.
  • It is determined that Mary will head the book swap committee and Elspeth will head the bake sale committee. Layla will handle publicity.

5. Volunteer Projects / Outreach

  • It is decided to postpone discussion of future volunteer projects until the next meeting in order to focus on the upcoming event. Potential future volunteer projects include collaborations with Librarians Without Borders and the Green College Reading Room Committee.
  • There discussion of possible volunteer opportunities with VPL or Friends of the Library, but it is decided that it is likely not feasible to accomplish this based on library volunteering rules and limited volunteering opportunities with the Friends of the Library.
  • Eric Meyer recommends instead making sure that we get the ALA student group onto the radars of the powers that be by, for example, inviting Sandra Singh, VPL’s chief librarian and a SLAIS grad, for lunch and a chat.
  • This suggestion opened up a conversation about establishing a regular lunch and talk series exploring issues in libraries. Possible invitees include heads of UBC department libraries, librarians from other institutions (Simon Fraser University, Langara College), community librarians / people currently in the field.
  • Dana suggests that these lunches could be a good opportunity to ask future colleagues what they could expect / ask of us as a student group and as future librarians.

6. Announcements

  • Dana emailed Beth Barlow, the head of the Surrey Public Library, to inquire about a tour for the ALA student group. The BCLA YAACS group is going to the Surrey Public Library to meet with the teen librarian on November 16. ALA student group members are invited to join the BCLA group on their visit to the library. The group will return in time for 2 p.m. class. A tour specifically for the ALA student group with Beth Barlow will be postponed until next term when class schedules are finalized.
  • The ALA student group at the University of Washington is excited about the potential collaboration with our ALA student group. Mary and Elspeth will be setting up a Skype meeting with the president of the UW group to plan for next term.
  • The t-­shirt connection that Kaitlynn had mentioned at the last meeting fell through. We will revisit discussion about group t-­shirts next term.
  • The ALA conference Student-to‐Staff program essay is due on December 2. Layla received instructions from Eric on applying, which she will send to the group. The winner will be notified by December 15. Once your name has been submitted to ALA as the winner, you must attend the conference, so only apply to the Student-­to­‐Staff program if you are sure you can attend the conference.
  • Eric reminds us that there will be a SLAIS colloquium November 9 on digital literacy, and there is still a spot available to attend lunch if anyone is interest in joining.

7. Meeting adjourned

Meeting Minutes | 11 October 2011

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ALA Student Chapter Meeting | October 11, 2011
12 p.m. IKBLC, Room 417

1. Attendance

2. Meeting called to order

3. Approval of meeting minutes

  • Chelsea explained that going forward, meeting minutes will be emailed to members for review and approval following each meeting (and prior to the next meeting). Once all suggestions have been incorporated, members will vote to approve meeting minutes at the following meeting, and the minutes will afterwards be posted on the ALA student chapter blog.
  • A vote is taken to approve the minutes from the September 27 meeting, emailed to members by Yolanda, and the minutes are approved.

4. SocialMedia

  • The ALA student chapter has a blog, which is available through the student organization’s page on the SLAIS website or by going to https://blogs.ubc.ca/alaplace/. ALA officer contact information will be updated on the blog. Layla, ALA student chapter webmaster/communications officer, has also started a Twitter feed for the group (http://twitter.com/#!/ubcala). She will be posting information about meetings as well as library news and UBC news. If you would like to follow the UBC ALA student chapter Twitter feed, but don’t have a Twitter account, you can subscribe to the feed using a RSS reader such as Google
    reader.
  • It was decided that members and officers will just use personal email addresses for correspondence as a group gmail address will be unnecessarily complicated for a relatively small group and there is a danger that a group email address will not get checked as often. [NB: After the meeting, we discovered that we already have a gmail address (ala.slais.ubc@gmail.com) that is listed on the contact us page of the ALA blog, so we will continue to have that address available for people to contact us, but we will still send out messages to members with our personal gmail addresses.]
  • If you have anything you would like to have posted to the blog or the Twitter feed, please feel free to send it to Layla at laylanaquin@gmail.com. Or, if you are not currently on the mailing list for the group and would like to be added, please email Layla.

5. Brainstorming: New projects and fundraising ideas

  • The goal of the ALA student chapter is to promote aspects and resources / projects of the American Library Association, so there is an opportunity for the student group to do programming and events that tie into ALA programming, but the group can do things that simply promote awareness of the ALA student chapter and things that the members consider fun or useful or valuable in building a community. Mary called for ideas for what members might like to do.
  • Sarah suggested that for the end of the term, the group might do a combined “white elephant” book swap and fundraising bake sale. While it was pointed out that a bake sale might not make much money, the current budget of the ALA student group would make a fundraiser bringing in even $50 successful. The idea was met with enthusiasm and it was proposed that the date should be set in mid-­November before students started to leave at the end of the term.
  • Judith proposed that we could try to have club t-­shirts made. The cost of having t‐shirts professionally designed and printed could run $10-­30, but there are also cheaper options such as having a chapter member design the logo and creating the shirts with homemade screen printing. Kaitlyn mentioned that she has a connection at home that might be able to design and print the t‐shirts at a discounted price and that she could bring them back with her at the end of the winter break. She will look into pricing and report back to the group. The t­‐shirts could not be subsidized by group funds and would have to be paid for by members.
  • Two dates for the book swap / bake sale were proposed. The preferred date is Wednesday, November 23, with the alternative date being November 16 in the event that the SLAIS lounge is not available on the 23rd. The book swap will go from 12 p.m.‐1 p.m., while the bake sale will last from 11 a.m.‐2 p.m., in order to give the maximum number of SLAIS folks a chance to buy goodies.
  • Carrie suggested that the chapter could take a field trip to a public library in the area and could establish a partnership with another ALA student chapter in order to clarify the role of our group. Mary and Elspeth confirmed that they are in the process of trying to establish a relationship with the ALA student chapter at the University of Washington, whose members are interested in visiting UBC. Jenn suggested a possible field trip to Seattle to visit libraries there and to connect with the UW ALA student chapter. This could be achieved with a bus rented through fundraising efforts, member cars, or a Zipcar.
  • In response to a call for ideas of philanthropic projects for the chapter, Morgan B. suggested volunteering in the central library and Jenn suggested that the Carnegie Library in East Vancouver could most benefit from our assistance. In order not to duplicate efforts of other student groups, such as Librarians Without Borders, who organize outreach programs such as the ones being proposed, it was suggested that the ALA student chapter could reach out to LWB, and possibly also collaborate with the Green College Outreach Committee, offering to provide ALA member time and assistance for projects that are already established.
  • Jenn suggested the possibility of a fieldtrip to the new Surrey library, and Dana offered to talk to the head of the Surrey Public Library system in order to try and arrange a tour of the library.
  • Elspeth suggested the possibly of volunteering at a senior center or doing volunteer reading for the blind. It was pointed out that volunteering though a public library is often difficult to do as they typically don’t allow volunteers, so volunteering would need to be arranged through a “Friends of the Public Library” group.
  • It was decided to focus on the following projects for this semester:
    • Making contact and establishing a relationship with the ALA student chapter at the University of Washington
    • Holiday book swap event and bake sale
    • Tour of the Surrey Library

6. Recap of ALA officer elections

  • Mary recapped the ALA officer election that took place at the September 27 meeting and introduced the new officers. This information will be updated on the ALA student chapter blog.
    • Elspeth Olson (olson.elspeth@gmail.com) and Mary Jinglewski (mary.jingles@gmail.com) are co-­‐ chairs
    • Layla Naquin (laylanaquin@gmail.com) is the webmaster/communications officer
    • Jennifer Pappas (jenn.pappas@gmail.com) is the treasurer
    • Chelsea Shriver (cg.shriver@gmail.com) is the secretary

7. Other business

  • Elspeth reminded people about the ALA student-­to-­staff program, which gives students an opportunity to attend this year’s ALA Annual Conference in June for free. (If you did not receive the email about this program earlier in the week, please email Chelsea.) The deadline for submitting your essay on how this program will help benefit your professional goals is December 1. Essays should be submitted to Professor Eric Meyers (eric.meyers@ubc.ca).
  • In order to be eligible for the ALA student-­to-­staff program, you must be a card-carrying member of ALA, so sign up for membership soon as it takes a while to get your card. In addition to getting discounts to conferences and access to publications and webinars, the ALA membership is a great thing to put on your resume.

8. Next meeting

  • The next meeting will be Wednesday, November 9, from 12-­1 p.m. in the Trail Room. Ideas /items for the agenda can be sent directly to the co-­chairs, whose contact info is above.

9. Meeting adjourned