Betsy Blankenship, The Ohio State University at Marion, Past President

I am proud to have coordinated the recent ALAO elections and the membership elected some excellent board members. All those who submitted a nomination as well as those who ran have my deepest thanks and appreciation for your willingness to run and your commitment to ALAO.  The committee had some tough decisions to make. Check out the President’s report to see who was elected. My congratulations to all who were elected!

I served on the ALAO Diversity Committee this year to help plan programming for the annual conference, the Spring Workshop and to help select this year’s Diversity Scholarship winner. Kudos to the committee for working so diligently to increase visibility, awareness and information of diversity issues to the membership , to improve the Diversity Committee webpage over the past year and to encourage library students of diverse backgrounds to make an impact on the future of librarianship by offering the scholarship!

In addition, the ALAO Communications Review Committee met in May to review and discuss ALAO communications, both to the membership as well as within the board. The meeting yielded some good insight and offered the next Leadership Board some possible directions to go to improve communications and ensure that we are reaching and informing membership of activities and events in a timely manner and providing information that is relevant and useful as well as ensuring that board members are fully informed and trained to meet the duties and responsibilities of their positions.

This is my last report as Past President. It has been an adventure and an extreme pleasure to serve you as Vice President, President and Past President over the last three years. I am honored that I have joined such a distinguished group of people who have served as
President of ALAO and feel privileged to have worked with so many really wonderful people on the boards. I made new friends and learned so much!  I take pride in the accomplishments of the boards I have served with and I know that the new leadership board, with Brian Gray, Eboni Johnson (and soon Krista McDonald) at the helm, will continue the tradition of strong leadership and serving the members through opportunities, education and support. I look forward to see what new chapters of success are written at ALAO!!