ALABoston.org President's Message

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a happy beginning to the New Year. The Board of Directors and committees have continued working hard and I wanted to take this opportunity to bring you up to speed on what we have been working on.

Overall the Chapter is very strong. The Chapter is fiscally stable and membership continues to grow. Benefits, programs and community involvement have also increased over the past year. To continue this, we need everyone’s help. As with all organizations like ours, real success comes from the participation of it's members. Please take the time to volunteer for committees or other Chapter activities, attend as many events as possible (both educational and sponsor related) and be available for fellow members and sponsors whenever possible.

The Chapter has also submitted for the National ALA President’s Award of Excellence, awards for our Website, Membership, Vendor Relations and our All Day Educational Program.

Here is a more detailed update on what the Board and committees have been working on and some of the decisions that have been made:

Board of Directors and New Benefits: The Board of Directors has approved its working budget for 2005. Within the budget we are able to continue some of the new benefits that were established in 2004, including the early bird registration. The board has also approved a partnership with Olney Associates for the 2004 annual salary survey. The Chapter will subsidize the cost of the survey this year for 2005 ALA Boston members who participate. The Chapter will pay $150 of the $250 cost (costing participating members only $100). Please participate if possible; this is a very useful tool for all members.
Vendor Relations: The Vendor Relations Committee has been working hard with the 2005 sponsors. We have over 75 Sponsors for 2005 generating over $220,000 of sponsorship income for the Chapter. This allows the Chapter to control dues, give scholarships to both the regional and national meetings as well as invest in our programs, bringing the best programming possible to our membership. Please click here to see the 2005 brochure that was mailed out and please let any potential sponsor know of our program. Click here to go to the vendor directory. As you know, we had our first vendor event earlier this month, these events are very important to our sponsors. I would like to thank Liz Ounanian for putting this event together. It was great! These events are critical to the success of our vendor relations program, so please make every effort to attend when possible.
Programming: Deborah Lemmerman and the Program Committee continue to work on developing programs for 2005. Her committee just signed Howard Putnam, former CEO or Southwest Airlines, to speak at the June 2005 Managing Partner Luncheon. You can find a list of the current set speakers on the home page of the website or by clicking here.
Education: The Second Annual One Day Educational Program is currently being planned for November 2005. Kimberly Couture and Marybeth Flynn are co-chairing this year’s program, and they need your help. They are looking for 2 - 3 volunteers to join the committee to make this happen. If you can help or would like more information please contact Marybeth at mflynn@brbilaw.com or Kim at kac@achwg.com.
Membership: The 2005 membership renewal is in full swing. We currently have 171 members for 2005, 22 of which are new members. The goal is 200 members within 3 – 5 years. The Membership Committee is committed to this goal, but you can also help. Please let Paul Masuret, our Membership Secretary, know of anyone who could benefit from our organization. The Membership Committee has also submitted for an award from National for the work done in 2004. Good Luck!
Community Challenge: Janice Hayes and the Community Challenge Committee wrapped up the 2004 program and have started planning the Chapter's 2005 program. We raised over $19,000 in 2004 and the Committee is shooting for a higher total in 2005 by running programs throughout the year.
Web Site: The ALABoston.org web site is constantly being updated and new ideas of how to make it more useful to our members are being discussed. Please visit this regularly when looking for Boston ALA information, to ask members for help with an issue on the message board, or when looking for various vendor services.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to send me an email or give me a call. I continue to learn from each member that I meet and urge you to attend as many chapter events as possible, volunteer for various committees if possible, refer non-members to join the National and Boston Local Chapter of the ALA and support our vendor sponsors by using and referring them whenever possible.