Letter from ABOS President, Tina Williams

One of the great pleasures working in Outreach Services is getting to know our colleagues. We are passionate about serving our communities, finding the resources we need to succeed, and information sharing.

I would like to thank the 2018 ABOS Board and committee members for their hard work and dedication. We achieved all of the goals we set out to accomplish and took steps forward.

President’s Report

Tina worked with board members’ strengths and weaknesses. The importance of communication was stressed throughout the year and the board was oriented to the technology tools to help the communication process: Google Docs, email, UberConference, and cell phone numbers. Committees were led by a board member chair and set and accomplished annual goals. ABOS reconnected with ALA-ODLOS and ARSL. We had a successful conference with 259 attendees and eleven vendors - a higher number in attendance and more vendor support than previously achieved. Thank you to Matthews Specialty Vehicles, Thorndike Press, Farber Specialty Vehicles, Summit Bodyworks Specialty Vehicles, and Winnebago for their extra conference event and attendee supplies support.

Membership

Kris Ringwalt, Board Member-At-Large, worked with the committee members to seek and welcome new members. As of November, we have 307 members. We welcomed 24 ALA Spectrum Scholars to ABOS.

Finance Committee

David Kelsey, Treasurer, reported positive changes in organizing the billing and tax cycles and paperwork. David worked with Past Treasurer Brooke Bahnsen to write our procedures and create detailed reports that will benefit future board members. David created, along with the Board, a conservative budget that was held to and we surpassed income expectations. David also worked with the committees on fundraising and grant writing efforts.

Advocacy

Kim McNeil-Capers, Board Member-At-Large, worked with the committee members on getting the word out about ABOS via social media and identifying periodicals/magazines that accept article submissions to further promote outreach and ABOS. The committee worked with ALA-ODLOS on celebrating National Bookmobile Day.

Long Range Planning

Susan Parkins, Vice President, worked with the committee in working ahead in securing future conference locations that met the budget and needs of ABOS. The 2019 ABOS Conference will be held in Omaha, Nebraska and the 2020 ABOS Conference will be held in Dallas, Texas.

Marketing

Lori Berezovsky, Secretary, worked with the committee on creating the new Out and About newsletter, and chose merchandise to sell at the conference based on last year’s survey results. Our sales at the conference were a great success this year! Our Marketing Committee worked hard on merchandise for the annual conference and the creation of an online newsletter.

Nominations

Ann Plazek, Past President, worked with committee members in finding and encouraging strong candidates to run for the ABOS Board.

Technology

Brock Hutchison, Board Member-At-Large, highlighted the work of the committee concerning the ABOS website crash, recovery, and launch of the new website. The committee does not consist of technology people, but their teamwork, skills, and vast thirst for knowledge and resources created a strong ability to succeed.

Awards

Brock Hutchison, Board Member-At-Large, annual goal for the awards committee was to increase the number of award applications. The committee contacted every state library and all library schools to get the word out about awards. As a result, the committee received a large number of good applicants. The importance of the John Philip’s Award was discussed, the name was changed to the John Philip Excellence in Outreach Award and the winner received a plaque with a one-year ABOS membership. Thank you to our vendor, Acore Shelving, for supporting the Carole Hole Awards and to Farber Specialty Vehicles for supporting the John Philip Award.

Award Winners 2018:

5 Carol Hole Award Winners: Oscar Gittemeier, Lina Correa, Kim Falkowski, Laura O’Neil, Resa Mai

Bernard Vavrek Award Winner: Lisa Puchot

John Philip Excellence in Outreach Award Winner: Susy Gonzalez Pueschner

Thank you for a great year.

Tina