Letter from VLA President Todd Elliott: January 2018

Greetings library colleagues across the Commonwealth!

As we begin working together in 2018, I wanted to add a few lines in this e-newsletter which will be a regular feature during my tenure as president of Virginia Library Association.  After the Executive Committee Retreat last month and with the 2018 Designated Agenda completed, I felt excited about the direction that VLA is going. Your elected officers are here to support you, the membership, so we are counting on you to tell us how we can make our organization stronger.

The website (www.vla.org) is a great resource for each our 1008 members (at the time that I write this). You can access the work of the Executive Committee as well as that of other committees and forums. Take the important work conducted by the Legislative Committee – previous agendas can be found as well as a place to take action on issues that are important to all of us as library workers.

I believe that communication plays an important part of the vitality of our historic organization and I encourage you to reach out to me directly, as well as to one another. I want each of you to think about VLA year-round, not just at conferences, as important as those events are.

A good place to start the dialogue is through the Member page, and My Profile where you can connect with VLA members who work in academic, public, special libraries, and related entities around the state. I hope that you will spend time exploring the features in your own profile and encourage you to send me a line or two (or more) to say hello and to share your thoughts about the association, and how you can participate in the process. The next generation of leadership can be found among our current members.

Thanks go out to our Executive Director, Lisa Varga, for her continued hard work that helps make our association a success, and to every person who actively participates on committees. We could not do this work without you. I wish every member of VLA happiness, health and productivity in the new year.
Todd