 |
 |
Dear Members and Friends, For those of us involved in planning and implementing our 41st Annual Conference in Pasadena, it has been incredibly gratifying to receive the positive feedback about your experiences there. Thank you for attending. I hope that each of you who attended will retain special memories of your time in California and have returned to your workplaces full of energy and new ideas for crafting your future. The credit for the resounding success of the conference is due to the flawless work of the conference planning team and many volunteers from the Southern California Chapter and beyond. Together, they produced a seamless event that offered timely content, new channels of communication, uniquely crafted tours, elegant events, and ample opportunities for networking. Truly, it was a superb event that met the highest standards and expectations of all involved. I hope you will join me in thanking our Pasadena Conference Planning Team<http://www.arlisna.org/pasadena2013/contacts.html> as well as the many volunteers for a great experience in Pasadena. Each of the twenty-two team members successfully oversaw an important component of the conference with admirable coordination of roles. While every single team member deserves a shout-out, I would especially like to acknowledge the remarkable dedication and work of the conference co-chairs. Cathy Billings and Sarah Sherman as Program Co-Chairs, and Lynda Bunting and Alyssa Resnick as Local Arrangements Co-Chairs, orchestrated a complex and demanding assignment with great good humor and diligence. I hope a spa or a hammock awaits them this weekend. I also wish to acknowledge the team from ARLIS/NA Headquarters<http://www.arlisna.org/organization/hq.html> who worked around the clock, on both the front and the back lines of the conference, to insure that so many details of registration and logistics were well-covered. I thank Mike McManus, Robert Kopchinski, Karen Olsen, and Alex Llanas of Technical Enterprises Inc. for their dedication and hard work. Many of you throughout the Society made important contributions to this year's conference, and it is the sum of this incredible level of participation that resulted in such a stellar program. I thank all of you who gave presentations, chaired meetings, organized events, mentored students and first-time attendees, prepared documentation, and undertook countless other tasks that all added up to an outstanding collaborative effort. A number of records were achieved in Pasadena, with one of them being exhibits participation. Amy Ciccone and Susan Flanagan worked with ARLIS/NA Headquarters to recruit 70 exhibitors<http://www.arlisna.org/pasadena2013/exhibitors.html>, many of them new to the annual conference. I encourage you to follow up on the contacts you made with the representatives you met there. I assure you that our exhibitors welcome inquiries from those of you who were unable to attend the conference. Indeed, this is a service that ARLIS/NA can offer to all our members. We were also fortunate to gain a record level of sponsors<http://www.arlisna.org/pasadena2013/sponsors.html> in Pasadena. Thanks to the oversight of Development Committee Chair Kathryn Wayne and our Local Development coordinator Ann Roll, more than $71,000 of funding to underwrite conference and award programs was secured, along with significant in-kind contributions. Without this key support from our faithful donors, our conferences simply would not be able to offer such strong programming and first-rate events. With deep regards and thanks, I would like to acknowledge the generosity of our sponsors. I hope you will reach out to thank them--their generosity is a testament to the special regard they hold for ARLIS/NA. In addition, the Silent Auction brought in almost $4,000 to support awards for student travel to future conferences. The city of Pasadena, with its charming Old Town, beautiful weather, and rich museum offerings, proved to be an ideal setting for our gathering. I trust that many of you took advantage of the windows of free time we managed to include in this year's event to explore the many wonderful local attractions. On top of everything, we had a glorious full moon. The planets truly did converge to make this year's conference one to remember for the ages. A record number of you-704-registered for this year's conference. Representatives from at least 19 countries must also have been a conference record. I thank each of you who were able to attend the conference and helped make it an unforgettable experience. Because ARLIS/NA is a forward-looking organization, we now look towards the coming year, with plans well underway for next year's exciting conference in Washington, DC. To assist with planning for next year's venue, and to facilitate our constant goal of continuous improvement, I encourage you all to fill out the conference evaluation form<http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Pasadena2013Evaluation>, which may be accessed through the following link: www.surveymonkey.com/s/Pasadena2013Evaluation<http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Pasadena2013Evaluation>. Do it now while your impressions are fresh, and please submit the form by May 10. Keep the buzz from this year's conference going by participating next year. A call for submissions will be posted soon. Our newly installed President, Gregg Most, will lead the way into another successful year for our Society. It has been a sheer pleasure, with many moments of well-needed levity, for me to work closely with Gregg on the Executive Board over the past year. I know we are in good hands with Gregg in charge. Gregg has a strong vision for the future of our Society. He possesses a valuable outlook that is progressive and at the same time shaped by his deep familiarity with our organization and its members. He will be a wonderful leader and I hope during the coming year each of you will support him to help achieve our goals for this great society that remains so vital to our professional lives. As Beverly Karno remarked at the convocation, "ARLIS/NA is not just an organization, it is a community." I thank you all for the opportunity I had to serve as president over the past year and I look forward with great enthusiasm to the future. Deborah Kempe Past President, ARLIS/NA "See you in DC" The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~