YSS August 2023 Board Meeting Minutes

Wisconsin Library Association

Youth Services Section Board Meeting

August 9, 2023

1:30pm-3:00pm 

Present: Caitlin S., Marge L-W., Alison L., Linda J., Cathy P., Valerie S., Jenna G., Murray J.  

Approve August Agenda: Claire P. motioned, Cathy P. seconded

Approve May Minutes: Valerie S. motioned, Linda J. seconded

Welcome 

Old Business:

• DPI Updates - Jeni

• 1) The SEAL (Solar Eclipse Activities at Your Library) workshops in Eau Claire (9.19.23) and Fond du Lac (9.20.23) are both at capacity. I have started a waitlist for both but can't make any guarantees that space will open up. STARNet is only able to facilitate two free workshops per state.

• 2) Close to 80 School Library Media Specialists and Public Library Staff serving youth attended the "School and Public Libraries: What You Need to Know" workshop in Marshfield.

• 3) New and updated resources on the DPI Youth Services page. https://dpi.wi.gov/libraries/public-libraries/youth-services

• Open to suggestions, send them to Jeni. 

• Blog Check-in - Marge 

• Getting close to 900,000 views! Marge will make a big deal of it when we hit 1 million. Maybe see if WLA wants to celebrate that 

• Regional Meet-Ups - Murray and Caitlin

• Nothing planned for the fall as of right now. Caitlin and Murray will meet to get some ideas rolling. 

• YSS Presents Webinar Check In - Alison

• DPI Workshop Feedback

• Several mentioned information about STEAM programming 

• Maybe take the angle of revitalizing STEAM within programming

• Alison has moved on to pursuing some ideas about implementing math programming for a fall webinar. 

• Reached out to Dr. Melissa Hedges (Pre K-Grade 5 math curriculum specialist for Milwaukee public schools). Hasn’t heard back yet, but was told she would be willing. 

• Hoping for late September, but early November is also an option. 

• WLA Update - Linda 

• Board meeting in July 

• The Intellectual Freedom Task Force is now a standing committee. 

• Funding was fully secured with bipartisan support at the state level. Reminder to send a thank you to local elected representatives for their support. 

• Performer Showcase date will be moving, potentially to the beginning of December. Linda will let us know when the date is finalized. 

• Discussion about doing an annual YSS virtual conference in order to reach more of the membership who aren’t coming to the in-person conferences. 

• All day, completely virtual conference in Spring 2025

• Looking at every other year to stay alternating with the Power Up conference 

• Children’s Book Award - Murray

• One winner and ten honors were selected, but WLA doesn’t want the information released quite yet. 

• Alison will share the past template used to share the news with Jenna. 

• One spot open on the board - Alison will take care of finding and appointing candidates 

• Marketing Committee 

New Business:

• WLA Conference Planning 

• Social - Ashley / Caitlin

• General consensus is to keep the social at the CCBC, shift the time to 6-7:30, and offer a ride share from the hotel lobby that leaves at 5:45. Alcohol will no longer be served. 

• Caitlin will contact Tessa to make sure those changes work, then will contact Cindy and Laura. Once everything is confirmed, Caitlin and Ashley will work with Tessa to plan the event and come up with a description for the program. 

• Booth Update- Alison

• Not getting an individual booth, but will be a part of a WLA section booth 

• Need to come up with ways to reach people who stop by when there isn’t any YSS representation at the booth. 

• Luncheon - Claire: No updates 

• Candidate Recruitment - Claire

• Candidates for Director-at-Large spots and Chair Elect. Still looking for candidates for secretary. 

• Communicate with the Nominations Committee to make sure we get information and pictures of all the candidates. 

• Look into putting together an advocacy resource for people interested in being on the Board but need to convince their management to let them be involved. 

• Letter drafted from YSS Board to directors expressing interest in their staff member as a candidate? 

• Nomination for WI Library Hall of Fame - Marge 

• Nomination going in for a youth librarian, so put the award honors ceremony on the radar for WLA. 

Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 6 at 1:30-3 pm

Motion to adjourn: Claire P. motioned, Linda J. seconded 

 

YSS May 2023 Board Meeting Minutes

Youth Services Section Board Meeting

May 17th, 2023

1:30-3pm

Present: Alison L., Caitlin S., Marge L-W., Claire P., Jeni S., Jenna G., Ashley B. Cathy P.

Approve May Agenda- Claire P. motions, Caitlin S. seconded

Approve April Minutes - Ashley B. motions, Jenna G. seconded 

Old Business

• DPI Updates - Jeni Schomber

• Registration for the School and Public Libraries: What You Need to Know! Workshop closes on May 22nd. https://forms.gle/825CobCf66Q5kFyk9

• 55 of 50 spots registered! Priority will be given to registrants who have worked in libraries 2 or less years. 

• New Grants Coordinator, Arshad Iqbol, started on May 8th

• New WISCAT Technical Coordinator starting soon

• Interviews for ILL Librarian are this week

• Solar Eclipse (SEAL) - Looking to have workshops in Wisconsin https://www.starnetlibraries.org/about/our-projects/solar-eclipse-activities-libraries-seal/

• Looking at week of Sep. 18 

• Ideas for activities libraries can do throughout the year 

• As a state library, DPI has access to four solar eclipse activity kits to distribute around the state: 2 for adults, 2 for youth 

• Jeni is working on figuring out how to open registration for them and distributing them 

• WLA updates

• General

• Business Meeting - looking for time, was at 7 am last year 

• Conference Social - Caitlin & Ashley 

• Need to have a conversation with Tessa M-S. about potentially doing it at the CCBC 

• Make sure it isn’t the same time as the Dungeons & Dragons event  

• Luncheon - Claire 

• Ebony Ladelle - Speaker was officially announced!  

• Performers showcase 

• Laura is very happy with YSS for all of the recommendations

• Working on narrowing down a balanced group and sending out invitations, wanting to start registration in August 

• WLA Presents webinar series

• Looking forward (CCBC Booktalk, other ideas?)

• Connected with Jillian Heise, ideas for another panelist? Milwaukee Public Library?

• Science of reading - Ben Miller would be a good DPI contact

• Colorado libraries have had conversations

• School librarians might have thoughts 

• Potential collaboration with WEMTA? 

• Math programming (WI Math Council) - Crazy 8’s, math in storytime, etc. 

• Timing - hoping for late September

• WAPL Social Committee- How Did it Go?  

• Very low attendance - Consider not having social at WAPL

• Reframe as informal meetup? Have breakfast together, go out for drinks, etc. 

• Blog Update 

• new blogger - Jamie Mercer is a new blogger for us -  she is doing Friday Fun weekly with program ideas (she read about wanting bloggers in March YSS board minutes . Lacey Sheldon will be joining us in midsummer. Lindy Liedl, Hanna Collins and on occasion, Sam Jones on Tuesdays, Ashley Borman continue to contribute 

• Potentially move away from linking to blogs, since that is starting to go by the wayside

• Only keep national, major and active blogs so they aren’t as hard to keep up with if they go silent 

• Regional Meet-ups - Murray 

• Marketing Committee - Jenna, no updates 

• Children’s Book Award - Murray 

New Business

No meetings until August - Happy Summer Reading! 

Motion to adjourn: Cathy P. motioned, Ashley B. seconded 

YSS April 2023 Board Meeting Notes

Youth Services Section Board Meeting

April 12, 2023

1:30-3pm

Present: Ashley, Linda, Valerie, Jeni, Cathy, Murray, Claire, Jenna, Alison

Approve April Agenda-   Ashley motions, Jenna seconds, pass

Approve March Minutes  Claire Motions, Jenna Seconds, pass 

Old Business

• DPI Updates

• Teen Internship pilot program

• Have LSTA funds available for libraries to have a hired teen intern.  The teens would work on a connected learning project. Based off of PLA’s inclusive internship program.  The teens would work with the library to create a project/program based on the identified needs of the community.  Pilot is with 5 libraries, starting July 1st - end of August. 

• Summer workshop with school media specialists

• Professional Development opportunity for public libraries and school media specialists who are new to the field. It will be a 2 day workshop with programming, educational sessions, and networking opportunities. Save the date for August 1-2nd.  Location is TBA. 

• WLA updates

• General

• Board met in March.  41 people applied for the Leadership Development Institute, the first convening is at WAPL.  The hope is that it will be a successful pilot year with the new structure.   Participants are mostly public librarians, but there are some academic and special librarians as well

• The Freedom Task Force has been hard at work.  Recommendations were made to the Board as to how WLA can support Intellectual Freedom Challenges.  Some immediate recommendations were made, and also a long term vision. (5 year plan).  The plan is to make resources available in the future, so libraries have tools available to help them in the moment of a challenge.  

• WAPL price increase due to increasing hotel charges, and also food is included. The Board understands that this could be a barrier.  Conversations are ongoing to provide options to accommodate those who cannot attend due to cost.  How can WLA make it feasible and cost effective to encourage attending?

• Some ideas from the YSS Board are a fully virtual YSS specific conference, making it accessible to everyone- regardless of whether you can attend in person or not.  Could be a 1 day, biannual event, with the goal of creating a new model for sharing information. 

• Conference Social

• Ashley, Caitlin are considering options for date and time.  A few other YSS board members volunteered to help out.  Games being considered are BINGO, Really Loud Librarians.  Perhaps a site visit- maybe the CCBC after hours event if it were possible; prior conversations with CCBC imply that a YSS social would be an option, or a day-time bus trip from the conference. 

• Luncheon 

• Everything is set for the luncheon speaker! A formal announcement will be made a few weeks from now. 

• Performers showcase

• Save the Date November 10th.  Time TBA.  

• YSS will compile a google doc of their favorite performers to share with WLA

• WLA Presents webinar series

• Teen webinar series

• April 18, 3-4pm: Teen Programming

• May 11, 2-3pm: TAG/Volunteers

• All ready to go for April, still accepting registrations.

• Team just met about the May event.  It will have a panel of 4 presenters.  Details will be made public soon.

• Looking forward (CCBC Booktalk, other ideas?)

• Still thinking about book talk / book promotions for September.

• WAPL Social Committee

• Claire, Cathy, and Murray are working on details.  Program sharing (bring a 1 sheet handout with description of a program that could be implemented in another library).

• Blog Update -

•  all is well. 

• Marge is re-running the blog post on the YSS teen webinar on Saturday. 

• Board members, feel free to provide blog content! 

• Let me know if you need anything else.

• We might consider inviting someone from the Intellectual Freedom SIG to be a regular contributor to share information that is affecting libraries around the country.

• SIG meets 10-11 Mondays, Cathy will represent YSS

• Regional Meet-ups

• Still ironing out details, ways to combine WAPL social with meet-up.  CCBC is a possibility if a visit doesn’t work out at WLA

• Marketing Committee

• Marketing working on upcoming webinar promotions

• And the Performers Showcase Save the Date announcement

• Children’s Book Award

• Childrens Book Award had its first meeting on Monday and are working their way through the list.  Final meeting will be in May to decide winner and honorees. 

New Business

• Can we reschedule next meeting to May 17th? Same time?

• Next YSS Meeting will be May 17th 1:30-3pm

Claire motions to adjourn, Linda seconds

Minutes recorded by Caitlin Schaffer, secretary