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Written by Asante Cain, 2014-2015 MLA President   

President's Update - December 11, 2014

Poet Edith Lovejoy Pierce said, “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” As we look ahead to all that MLA has in store for the New Year – both challenges and prospects - I cannot think of a better phrase to sum up our agenda for 2015.

With a new crop of legislators moving into the House and Senate, we will be counting on you, our engaged librarians, to help educate them on the importance of your library and its role as the focal point of your community. MLA also will be looking to make sure the governor understands how critical early childhood literacy is and the extent to which libraries have contributed to its success in order to protect important funding.

In addition to timely workshops and conferences, we will be introducing new education programs in 2015 to provide more tools and opportunities to gain leadership skills. Our spring season will kick off with a new Project Management workshop to help library professionals achieve success, regardless of their project size. Our Executive Summit, formerly Director’s Summit, has been expanded to engage library professionals at the top and those on the way up. I am extremely excited about the mentoring component being installed in the program. After attending Executive Summit you'll have new tools to strengthen your own mentoring relationships and understand best practices to get the maximum out of a mentee/mentor relationship.

Grow as a leader within your organization and claim responsibility for your profession's professional development and advocacy by running for the MLA Board of Directors. Nominations are open through January 15, 2015. Help MLA author the book of Opportunity for the Michigan library community in the New Year. Pick up the pen today and write your own pages of success with MLA.

Make it an outstanding day!

Asante

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