Presidents Message:
April 21, 2005
As I flew back from the National ALA Conference in San Francisco I had time to reflect on how much our chapter has accomplished. It’s hard for me to believe a year has passed since I became President. On May 1st the New Board of Directors will be taking office. I want to thank you once more for having trust in me to lead this organization for 1 more year. With the new board structure and new positions coming on the board, we have a great opportunity to continue improving and strengthening our Chapter.
The chapter has reached many of the goals I outlined in my first President’s message in May 2004, and has been keeping you updated throughout the year. Here are some of what has been accomplished:
- Delivered great programs throughout the year, including the 1 st Annual All Day Program, having Benjamin Zander Speak to our group, and other great programs;
- Continued to grow membership. In 2 years we have increased membership in our chapter from 151 members to our current membership of 181;
- Strengthening our Sponsorship/Vendor Programs which has allowed us to draw on the sponsors' knowledge of our industry and help run our firms more efficiently;
- Brought Financial Stability to the Chapter. We end this term with a very healthy fund balance giving us the resources to develop new benefits (such as the discount for early bird registration, increasing the number of scholarships offered to members, bringing high-end speakers to our chapter, and subsidizing the salary survey) during the year. We are also conducting our first audit by an independent auditor of our books;
- The ability to give back to the community. Our Community Challenge Committee did an outstanding job picking charities to support (The Home for Little Wanderers and the Finex House.) Between the generous donations both members and their firms made and what the chapter was able to donate, we were able to donate over $20,000. Also, many members gave their time by donating a weekend at the Home. This is what makes our chapter special!
- Continued to work on www.alaboston.org. The Committee, including Nathan Burke our Webmaster, did an outstanding job.
All of the above culminated in the chapter winning many awards in San Francisco including:
- Achieving the Platinum Level Award for our chapter (the highest possible),
- 1 st Place in Educational Programs and Vendor Partnering,
- 2 nd Place in Recruitment and Retention
- and an honorable mention for our Website.
I believe these efforts have also strengthened our relationship with ALA National.
I want to thank the outgoing board for all their hard work, especially Susan Kuder who will be leaving the board this year (but I am sure will stay very involved) and I want to thank the new board for accepting the challenges of the coming year. I also want to thank all the members that serve on various committees or have donated their time in some way and their firms that support them. Finally I want to thank our sponsors. Without their support all of the above accomplishments would have been very difficult.
Sincerely,
Christopher O’Sullivan
President-Boston Chapter
Previous President's Messages:
January 2005
July 2004
June 2004
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