Chair's Corner - January 2024 YSS Board Updates

This month's January YSS board meeting update is from Cathy Pescinski, our YSS 2024 Chair and Teen Librarian at Shawano County Library.

The YSS Board met for our annual "retreat" in January. Out of respect for Wisconsin liking to winter anytime anyone has an in-person meet-up planned we chose to meet virtually. You can thank us for the lovely weather, because, Wisconsin, as it is known to do, decided not to winter since we chose to meet virtually. 

It was a great chance for some of our new Board members to meet the others on the Board and get some background on what we do throughout the year. We discussed upcoming events such as the YSS socials at WAPL in April and WLA in November and the 2024 Performer's Showcase.  Several ideas for webinars were discussed including tweens, reader advisory, teen mental health, sensory storytime, bilingual collections, and understanding manga, anime, and fan fiction. A survey will be coming for YSS members to gauge their interest in these areas and to see if there are other topics members would like addressed. 

We will be meeting monthly (except for summer). If you have any questions, concerns, or input you would like to add to our meeting or about YSS in general, don't hesitate to reach out to me at cpescinski@shawanolibrary.org. We are here to represent all of you and to develop meaningful resources for the membership. Also, if any of these activities sound interesting to you, please consider running for a Board position this fall! Reach out to any of us for more information, stop us and say hi at any conference, or drop in on one of the YSS socials.

[Note: Want to read the December 2023 board meeting minutes that the YSS board just approved at their January meeting? YSS members can access the 2023 YSS board minutes as well as previous years’ minutes at the YSS page of the Wisconsin Library Association website. Do you want to read the minutes but are not a YSS member? Please consider becoming a member by joining WLA so you can stay updated on all the YSS action.]