President’s Letter, April 2009

Although it is already April, this is my first letter to the membership as President of SLA Southern California. My term actually started in January and the SoCal chapter 2008/2009 Executive and Advisory Board transition meeting was held on Jan. 24th (the minutes are posted under "Meeting Documents" on the SLA-SCC website). Then January 26th I had surgery and until the end of March, much of the work I've been doing for the chapter has been from behind the scenes while I was recovering. During my recovery, President-Elect, Belinda Beardt and Past President, David Cappoli, as well as other SoCal board members took on Chapter business. I am so grateful for having such a wonderful group of professionals take on the challenges of the SoCal Chapter during my absence. Belinda is not one to shy away from getting work accomplished; David is our chapter's steadfast Rock of Gibraltar communicator; and the entire SoCal Board’s mindful decision making.

Prior to the transition meeting, Belinda Beardt and I attended the SLA Leadership Summit in Savannah where we learned about recent efforts being undertaken by SLA leaders and staff -- here the focus was on the SLA 100 Year Centennial being celebrated at the June 2009 Annual Conference in DC. We also learned about our positions as SLA Chapter President and President-Elect and had the opportunity to network with other chapter and division leadership. During the summit, one of the speakers advised that a new chapter leader should take on one or two goals to accomplish during the year -- what I think is most important for the SoCal chapter and what I hope to "grow" during the year is an increase in the number of SoCal members attending programs and communicating on the SoCal discussion list and blog.

We're living in challenging times and the media is telling us that it took some time for us to get into this mess and it's going to take time to get us out. My hope as the 2009 SLA SoCal Chapter President is to increase the number of members participating in chapter events and to get new faces in our chapter leadership positions on the SoCal Executive and Advisory Boards. This is a huge challenge because most of us are already being stretched to our limit -- or close to it. I think it's time for us to get creative and find ways to connect with each other, establish meaningful goals and make contributions to the continued success of our profession. I believe the way we can increase member participation and growing our chapter leadership is by improving communication and supporting attendance at events which is where I plan to focus my energies on this year.

On this note, please visit the SoCal Chapter web site regularly and see the amazing list of programs being offered to our chapter. Also, look at the SoCal Chapter Blog and the newly posted SoCal Chapter 2008 Membership Survey Results. Your feedback is greatly appreciated so please, communicate with your SoCal Chapter leaders.

Sincerely,
Teresa Bailey

teresa.r.bailey@jpl.nasa.gov