What I did at SLA Annual Conference Now that I'm on the Board of Directors

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference is now over.  In past years, I've blogged the event either here or in the SLA blog during the conference, but this year didn't have time to do either. Remember that last year, I was a candidate for the Board and "being a candidate" dominated my conference.  Now that I am on the Board, I spent most of this year's conference carrying out Board duties.  In this blog post, I want to tell you how I - a member of SLA's Board of Directors - spent my time.

Friday, June 10:

• Had a seven-hour Board meeting, which included spending time working on a strategic plan for SLA. (Relevant blog post by Rebecca Jones, who facilitated the strategic planning.)
• As we do our strategic planning, we are focusing on the year 2014.  We understand that is only three years into the future and it is a recognition that moving forward cannot wait.  As someone (not on the Board) said, "change is hard and change is good" and that seems to be very appropriate for our process.
• Prior to attending SLA, I gave the plenary speech at the New York Archives Conference, where I asked attendees to think 20 years into the future.  I think there is a benefit to looking 10-20 years into the future - even if the view is fuzzy - so that you can begin to consider how an organization will exist for the next generation.  I'll blog about this later this week.
• Had dinner with the Board of Directors, SLA staff and Board candidates (each paid her/his own way).

Saturday, June 11:

• Had a 1.5 hour open board meeting, which included several reports on various Association activities and time for members to address the Board.
• Worked with other Board members on the strategic plan for three hours.  We still have work to do, but we made an amazing amount of progress over the course of seven hours total.  Thanks to Rebecca Jones for donating her time to facilitate the process.
• Had dinner with the members of the SLA Information Technology Division board (each paid her/his own way).  I have been their professional development chair, so I attended the dinner as a member of that group.
• The SLA Baseball Caucus had an informal get-together and I stopped late in the evening to say "hi".  (I'm a member of that caucus.)  According to an email afterward, 83 people attended this event!

Sunday, June 12:

• Attended the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) from 7:30-11:00 a.m., but had to step out at 8 a.m. to troubleshoot something with a continuing education course that the IT Division sponsored (and which I helped to arrange).  I left LDI at 11 a.m. so I could get lunch for the CE instructors, who were also teaching in the afternoon.  (Their teaching schedule gave them no time to get lunch and have time to relax.  It seemed like getting lunch for them was the least I could do so they'd have time to breathe.)
• James Kane, our closing keynote speaker, talked at LDI about loyalty.  His SLA survey data on loyalty was very interesting, as well as what he knows from working with other organizations.  Based on their responses, people fall into one of four categories: antagonistic, transactional, predisposed, and loyal.While we may want everyone to be "loyal", he believes an organization like SLA should have 20% of its members who are truly loyal.  Most will be divided between transactional and predisposed.
• From  ~12:30-1:30 p.m. I attended in the IT Division board meeting.  Because of a conflict, I couldn't stay for the entire meeting.  I attended this meeting both as a member of the IT Division board (Professional Development Chair) and as its Board liaison.
• From 1:30-3 p.m. I attended the Information Outlook Advisory Council meeting as their Board of Director's liaison.  The Council asked two companies to present information on making Information Outlook an ejournal.  The two presentations were interesting and will help the Council better frame what it wants to consider.
• At 3 p.m. I ducked into the exhibit hall (Info-Expo) for a few minutes before heading back to my hotel room so I could change for the evening events.
• I attended the awards ceremony and opening keynote from 5:15-7 p.m.   The keynote was given by Tom Friedman, who wrote The World is Flat. (notes, notes added 06/21/2011)
• Went to the Awards Reception, which all of the Board members are expected to attend.
• Stopped by the IT Division Game Night to support that effort (as an IT Division member). (Yup...got back to the hotel room late in the evening, which is actually normal for the conference.)

Monday, June 13:

• Proctored the Food, Agriculture and Nutrition (FAN) Division Business Meeting (breakfast, 7:30-9:30 a.m.). Proctoring means that I took some specific notes which I'll give to the SLA Division Cabinet Chair. All Board members are expected to proctor division business meetings.
• Attended the Academic Division board meeting (10:00-11:30 a.m.). I am their Board liaison and so I attended in order to get to know this division better. They did give me a few questions that I need find the answers for!
• Besides the IT and Academic Divisions and the the Information Outlook Advisory Council, I am also the Board liaison for the Virtual Worlds Advisory Council, Emergency Preparedness and Recovery Advisory Council, and several SLA chapters (Kentucky, Florida and Caribbean, Iowa, Arizona, and Oklahoma).
• Neal-Schuman hosted Ulla de Stricker and I in their booth for an "meet the author" event from 11:30-12:30.  Neal-Schuman is the U.S. distributor of the book we wrote.

• 12:30 - Lunch!
• Attended a session entitled "Going Mobile at the Smithsonian" (1:30-2:30-ish).  Inspiring to see the apps and mobile websites they have developed, as well as hear their thinking behind some of this work. (notes, added 06/21/2011)
• Talked to Maurice Coleman, host of T is for Training, who then turned our conversation into an interview and podcast.  Once I have the podcast URL, I'll include it.
• Attended the SLA Baseball Caucus meeting (4-5:30), which had Doug Glanville, Nadia Dajani, and Dickie Noles as its speakers.  (notes)
• Attended the International Reception (6 p.m.)
• Ended the evening between the Elsevier Dessert Party (music and dancing) and the IT Division Author Night (quiet conversation).

Tuesday, June 14:

• Members of SLA's Board of Directors are asked to personally thank exhibitors for being in the Info-Expo.  I had 16 exhibitors (vendors/companies) to thank, which I did between 10 a.m.-noon and 3:00-5:30 p.m.  I not only thanked them, but also tried to engage them in conversation about their SLA experience as well as their products.  
• The exhibitors I visited were the Electrochemical Society, Aurora WDC, Research Solutions, ICE Publishing, Digimind, Future Science Group, ST Imaging, Oriprobe Information Services, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sage/CQ Press, American Psychological Association, Disclosure Insight, ASME, Mary Ann Liebert (publisher), Haver Analytics, and National Technical Information Services. 
• FYI - Disclosure Insight is not related to the old Disclosure company.  They hadn't even heard of the old Disclosure until people kept coming up to ask.
• I was told by several exhibitors that they were pleased with the level of real interest from conference participants.  Good to hear!
• I had a good conversation with one company that would like to extend its participation in SLA in smaller ways.  I suggested that they consider sponsoring events in specific chapters, even if they could not attend the event.  A sponsor can always send material to be exhibited at an event, sponsor specific unit activities (even webinars), or place advertisements in a unit's publications.  If you (a vendor) have not been contacted by a unit that is of interest to you, contact that unit's leader with an email and make him/her aware of your interest. 
• Attended the session "60 apps in 60 minutes", which was a very popular and information-packed event (noon-1:30 p.m.). (presentation) 
• Attended the Emergency Preparedness and Recovery Advisory Council as their Board liaison (2-3 p.m.).
• Attended the Division Cabinet meeting which began at 5:30 p.m.
• Attended the Joint Cabinet meeting which started after the Division Cabinet meeting had ended.  It ended at 8 p.m. (While I may not have truly needed to be at these two evening meetings, it was very useful to hear what our unit leaders are thinking.)
• After a late dinner, I went to the IT Division Dance Party, which is one of the events of the conference.  Had the pleasure of talking to several SLA members from the UK who were attending their first SLA conference.

Wednesday, June 15:

• Had breakfast with a friend/colleague.
• Attended "Opening the Special Library:Open Source, Open Content and More" (10-11:30 a.m.)  Mike Linksvayer, one of the speakers, has his notes in SlideShare.  The other speaker talked about DocumentCloud.org. (10-11:30 a.m.)
• Attended "All of Your Copyrights are Ours", which speaker Dorothea Salo retitled "I own copyright so I pwn you!"  ("pwn" is a term used in gaming and it basically means "own", but with more intensity.)  (The slides are okay, but you really need to her what she said on each slide.) (12:00-1:00 p.m.) (notes, added 06/21/2011)
• Quick lunch!
• Attended the Association's business meeting and the closing keynote by James Kane (2:00 - 4:45 p.m.).  While Kane' keynote was on loyalty (as is the project he is doing with the Association), he has blogged for SLA on the topic of "selling what others need".  Meeting someone's needs is one component of building loyalty. (notes, added 06/21/2011)
• I'll need to write a separate blog post on Kane's presentation.  Between his comments on Sunday and those on Wednesday, he gave us much to think about in regards to SLA as well as our places of work.(My blog post, added 7/7/2011)
• After 5 p.m., got dinner and a brew with members of the Kentucky Chapter as well as a growing number of "honorary" members.  After a long week, it was then back to the hotel, where I worked on this blog post.  (It took me a lot more writing and editing before I got this blog post done.)

Random Notes:

• I'm pleased that I was able to attend five conference sessions, plus the two keynotes.  Given the things that kept landing on my schedule, I feared that I wouldn't be able to attend any sessions.
• It is very interesting to have a lengthened conference because of my Board commitments.  I ended up being in Philly for six nights related to the conference.  Our longer time at the conference means that our conference expenses are more than those for other conference participants.  (We also meet before the Leadership Summit and meet monthly via conference calls.)
• Board members are often approached with questions, ideas, praise and complaints during meetings, social events, etc.  That actually means that we never have real downtime, except when we're in our hotel rooms.  We're "responsible" and our members don't let us forget that (thank you!).
• An SLA member had asked me prior  to the conference what the dress code was.  SLA is not as informal as Computers in Libraries or some other library/information conferences.  Maurice Coleman noted that SLA attendees and vendors generally dress alike during the day (business or business casual).  Personally I believe that what we wear shouldn't matter as long as it doesn't get in the way of what we're trying to do.
• I created a Paper.li for the conference - an instant free newspaper that finds stories based on Twitter.  Paper.li allows you to specify which Twitter streams it will search for stories (URLs in the stream), then does the selection based on its own algorithm.  I used the conference as a reason to learn about Paper.li.  The results - a daily newspaper - garnered a few readers and kudos.  Now I'm going to turn it into a weekly newspaper and modify the criteria so that it will remain relevant (I hope).  Will it really remain useful?  Time will tell.  
• If you are curious about the Paper.li that I created, you can view its archives and read past stories. Look for the word "Archive" on the right side of the paper (near the top).  You can select a specific date to view.
• Maurice Coleman also noted that SLA is not a conference where people haul around a lot of technology (laptops, iPads, cameras, smartphones).  I think part of this has to do with the amount of walking that we do because of the space the conference covers.  Hauling a laptop from session to session sounds less desirable when getting from session to another may have you walking two blocks (inside the convention center).  It may also have something to do with our attitude.  Perhaps we don't see this as a high-tech conference.  Clearly the rooms are not laid out to be amenable to the audience using lots of devices that must be plugged in.
• While I did take my laptop to the Board meetings on Friday and Saturday, I used my iPhone for the remainder of the conference for tweeting notes and occasionally used pen/paper.
• The 2012 Leadership Summit will be January 25-28, 2012 at the Intercontinental Hotel Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia.  For those of you unfamiliar with Atlanta, Buckhead is a suburb and is not downtown.  It does look like there are low-cost ways of getting from the airport to the hotel (train).
• The 2012 SLA Annual Conference  will be July 15-18 in Chicago, IL.  Yes, the conference will be in July!  The Academic Division is checking with its members to see if this will cause financial headaches because many academic institutions have a July-June financial year, and this places two annual conferences in the same year for them.  If there are a substantial number of people who are affected by this, perhaps there would be a way of shifting some of the costs into the 2011-2012 financial year?
• Finally...always good to see old friends and make new owns!  And while this was my 20th SLA Annual Conference, there are still many people that I do not know.  I hope to continue to meet more of you whether it is via some online social site, email or a face-to-face event.  I don't want you to be a stranger to me and I don't want to be stranger to you!