Wow! WLA Conference Wants You!

Four days of learning, networking, deep thinking and fun just wrapped up at the WI Library Association's fall conference in the Dells. While there will be reports of individual sessions in the coming weeks on this blog, I wanted to highlight a few reasons I think conferences where we come together are so vital:

• We meet, network & catch up with peers from across the state & across multiple library types.
• We have opportunities to learn things from different perspectives than our own and to stay fresh.
• We get practical information as well as mind-blowing new insight.
• We can have fun with our YSS peers who work so hard to make the conference meaningful and helpful.
• We can celebrate and support each other, cheering and honoring people like Leah Langby, IFLS youth consultant and this year's Librarian of the Year.
• We can take time away from work to refresh and retool.

Wait, you couldn't be there this year? Here are some strategies to make attendance at next year's conference in La Crosse (October 23-26) possible - and probable:

MEMBERSHIP
Join WLA as a member. It's $50 annually if you make $16K or less. If you make more than this, you pay an addition $3 for every $1000 you make. Membership saves you lots of money on conference registration and helps keep WLA strong. Besides benefits listed on the link, you get a strong lobbying voice; opportunities to lead; access to create great content for your peers through YSS committees; and life-long friendships. Your membership runs for 1 year from the date you pay (rather than Jan-Dec). Please join and help us keep WLA strong!

FREEING UP TIME
Plan to take a storytime, outreach and programming break on Oct 23-16, 2018 and let your community know that you are going to learn a ton to help them by attending the conference! Leah Langby shares some reasons why breaks work!

TOO EXPENSIVE?
I hear you. In order to make membership and conference attendance affordable when I was younger, I put a little $$ aside each paycheck for membership dues and conference expenses. I also asked my sweet mom, who gave me thoughtful but often unneeded birthday and holiday gifts, if she would cover my ALA and WLA memberships (win-win!!). Later, I also realized if I didn't go out to eat for one meal each month or skipped two barista-prepared double lattes monthly, I'd have enough for dues as well.

I DON'T KNOW ANYONE...
YSS will take care of you! The booth is full of friendly people and you can chat with so many people there who would love to get to know you and about your work and library. It is networking heaven!

Finally, La Crosse, right on the Mississippi River, is a beautiful, walkable friendly conference site with stores, shops, tasty eating places (BBQ; fancy dancy; bar food; pizza; tapas and noshes) close by to the conference center. It's historical and modern setting makes it a crown jewel of the west coast of Wisco. Hope to see you there!