MALA Holiday Party and Meeting

Friday, December 5, 2008 6:30-8:30pm

The MALA holiday party 2008 was held at the home of  Louise White and Lucio Chiaraviglio. Louise and Lucio greeted a jolly group of about 25 of us with a gracious spread of refreshments that appetizers, dips, sweets, and a steaming pot of delicious chili--becoming an honored tradition! We shared holiday cheer, caught up with friends, and talked with new members, before we settled down to a short meeting.

The first order of business was to elect the slate of officers nominated for 2009. Congratulations to the following:

Gardner Neely, Kate Stirk - Co-Presidents
Kay Pinckney - Vice President -- Programming; Yuliya Hadzhieva, Program Committee
Steven Vincent - Vice President -- Membership; Will Smith, Membership Committee
Irene McMorland - Treasurer
Joel Glogowski - Secretary
Louise White - Historian
Nancy Bryant - Webmaster

The Historian and Webmaster, Louise White and Nancy Bryant, are non-elected positions, serving at the pleasure of the Board.

We discussed programming ideas and locations for 2009. Program suggestions included library professional education, effects of the economy on libraries and librarians, Web 2.0 continued, a program at Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, GA. Gwinnett library, and Tim Wojcik's visit to the Library of Congress, supported by the MALA Professional Development grant. We also discussed the strong possibility of a joint program with SLA, and liaisons with the Emerging Librarians group of GLA and others. In addition to programs, there was discussion of the preferred format for the membership directory (hard copy and/or emailed to members). Members and prospective members were reminded to pay their dues for 2009.

Louise's friend and children's author/educational consultant Babs Bell briefly told us about her projects and offered a series of door prizes, including poems, children's literature, lesson plans and posters.

Neil Shulman, physician and author of Your Body's Red Light Warning Signals and other books, also attended, with his wife Zoe and sweet child.

In lieu of party food, canned goods were requested for donation to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

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