Greater New York Chapter Annual Report 2022

submitted by Alica Stephens

Current Roster

  • Alica Stephens, acting chair, 2022
  • Alica Stephens, vice-chair, 2024
  • Ethan D’Ver, secretary-treasurer, 2023

List of Previous Goals and Progress Made

  1. Elect a new chair 
    • Greg Sigman’s term is up in 2022, with a new chair to be installed and take office at the end of the Spring 2022 chapter meeting.
    • This past Spring we attempted to elect a new Chapter Chair but had no nominations. Following the chapter Bylaws, Alica Stephens became Active Chair until a Chair can be elected. We do have one nomination submitted for the election that will be held ahead of the Fall 2022 meeting.
  2. Resume in-person meetings, if the membership supports this. 
    • We were able to resume in-person meetings in Fall of 2021 at NYPL’s BookOps facility in Long Island City, Queens. This was a hybrid meeting and was well attended- 13 in-person and 7 online. For our Spring 2022 meeting we did a different kind of hybrid meeting. We met for a social hour and exhibition tour at NYPL’s Polonsky Exhibition guided by Rebecca Littman, who highlighted the music-related items in the exhibition. We then met online that afternoon for our business meeting. We had 7 attendees for the in-person social hour and exhibition tour, and 9 online for the business meeting.
  3. Allocate a sum of money to be donated to MLA’s Diversity Scholarship Fund.
    • We sent $500 to MLA’s Diversity Scholarship Fund and $500 to the Kevin Freeman Travel Grant. This was initially proposed by Eric Mortensen at the Spring 2021 meeting. We discussed specific amounts at the Fall 2021 meeting and approved the $1000 at that time.

List of Future Goals

  1. Increase membership and membership engagement.
    • Strategic Plan Objective 1.3: Cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with other organizations that offer financial as well as professional opportunities and advantages. Considering merging with low-membership or struggling arts or library associations that share a similar mission. 
    • Reach out to the four library schools in our area (CUNY Queens College, St. John’s University, Pratt Institute, Long Island University) and invite them and their students to be involved in our group.
  2. Elect a new chair.
    • Strategic Plan Goal Area 2: Develop and Retain Membership.
    • Hold elections ahead of our Fall 2022 chapter meeting, with a new chair to be installed and take office at the end of the Fall 2022 chapter meeting.
  3. Pursue new ways to hold chapter meetings.
    • Strategic Plan Goal Area 4: Strengthen Communication.
    • Create meetings that are professionally beneficial to our members by considering organizing a workshop conference or a joint conference with a nearby chapter.
  4. Update our official website.
    • Strategic Plan Goal Area 4: Strengthen Communication
    • Communicate effectively to our membership and the public by updating our website and creating a plan for continual site maintenance.