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Dear Arlisians, Work is gearing up for the 52nd annual ARLIS/NA Conference to be held in Pittsburgh April 2-5, 2024. The co-chairs Jill Chisnell, Lynn Kawaratani, Courtney Hunt, and Michele Jennings are meeting weekly to start shaping special events and programming. The call for proposals will be going out in a few weeks; please submit a proposal and help us make this conference as special as the 51st. As we look forward to next spring, the Mexico City conference planners are just finishing up their final report. This was ARLIS/NA’s first ever conference in Mexico. After decades of slow progress, this was a huge step in building relationships with our Mexican colleagues. Additionally this conference provided attendees with scores of opportunities to get better acquainted and fall in love with the rich culture of Mexico City. Ÿ Programming highlighted Mexican libraries, librarians, arts, architecture, and culture. This included the founder of La Biblioteca Negra speaking at the Diversity Forum. A real conference highlight. Ÿ Live translation services enabled attendees to enjoy presentations in both English and Spanish. Ÿ There were 17 tours, which may well be a record. From quick lunchtime visits of neighborhood museums to a bookstore crawl to a full day excursion to Puebla, there were many options to experience the arts of Mexico City and its environs. Ÿ For anyone who did not participate in a tour or explore one of the phenomenal local museums on their own, I hope they had a chance to visit the exhibit *Diseño en Femenino: México 1940-2022 *while attending the Convocation Party at the Museo Franz Meyer. Wow. Ÿ In the exhibits hall we had four vendors from Mexico, this was made possible in part due to the generosity of longtime exhibitors who sponsored tables for local book vendors. Additionally, Convocation keynote speaker Alejandro Cartegena held a book signing in the exhibits hall. I snatched up the last copy of *Carpoolers*. Apologies to anyone who came after me. Many thanks to all of you who filled out the conference evaluation. While the response was very positive, your feedback helps us refine, overhaul, and experiment to further meet the needs of our membership. In addition to being inspiring, educational, and connective, there were also significant qualitative successes of the conference. We had 519 attendees (39 virtual and 480 in-person). Having anticipated 350 in-person attendees, we were overwhelmed and delighted by this showing. The inaugural BIPOC lunch was a great success with positive feedback from its 60 attendees. This event has officially been added to the conference planning manual. Support from the Delmas and Kress Foundations in the amount of $27,000 enabled 46 individuals to attend the conference in person. And finally, while we had budgeted for a loss with this conference, we ended up making a sizable profit, which is a great help in reducing the society’s overall FY23 deficit. Many factors played into the financial success of the conference, but I’d especially like to thank our exhibitors, sponsors <https://www.arlisna.org/events/2023-annual-conference->, and donors <https://www.arlisna.org/the-society-circle>; ARLIS/NA conferences are not possible without their generosity. And a huge thank you to everyone who worked on this epic conference: Lauren Gottlieb-Miller, Program Co-Chair Gabrielle Reed, Program Co-Chair Jon Evans, Local Arrangements Co-Chair Rebecca Price, 2022-2023 ARLIS/NA President Megan Brouwer and Michaela Sawicki from Barcami Lane As well as the entire planning team <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iVw_n0_Rut8EWKoPw6RbYMulUgRMovMMw59MxAUrxgk/edit?usp=sharing> and many volunteers. This was one of my favorite conferences and I’m so appreciative of all of the work that went into it. I’m already looking forward to the next one. The theme for our Pittsburgh conference is POP! and it is sure to go over with a bang. Sincerely, Rachel Rachel Resnik Library Chair ARLIS/NA President Massachusetts College of Art and Design 621 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02115 617-879-7115 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~