Call to Action

[Courtney Pentland]

This is a call to action! Join your state association AND volunteer to support your colleagues across the state. 

(It's long, and I kindly as you to read to the end.)

Please help Nebraska School Librarians Association continue to grow and influence others in very deep and meaningful ways. It changed my life. And, I am the better for it.

I have spent 10 years either being a board member or being a committee member/chair for the Nebraska School Librarians Association. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to have been involved with this group for this long. I have very dear friends I never would have made otherwise. I have made professional connections I would not have made otherwise. I am a better person and better school librarian for having served our state association and for the people I have met and grown with along the way.

Some of the board members and I were talking at NSLD on Saturday, and they said the only reason they became a member initially or volunteered for a committee or to run for the board was because someone asked them to. 

While I am no longer on the board or serving on a committee due to volunteering at the national level, I will never stop advocating for school librarians in Nebraska and the communities they service or for NSLA.

This is me asking YOU to become a member (or recruit members) and/or to volunteer to help on a committee. (P.S. Memberships expire on Sept 30. You can check your membership status on the website).

Your voice and your expertise, no matter where you are on your school library journey is valued and needed. Our profession is under great strain right now, and we need all hands on deck.

This is the only professional association in Nebraska that is focused solely on school librarians. It is run by VOLUNTEERS who are all also full-time school librarians. 

These amazing humans need you. They want you to become involved and engaged. JOIN the association. ATTEND events. But, just as importantly, VOLUNTEER for committees. 

Some of the committees only take a few hours of your time a few times a year, like scholarships & awards. Others will be more of a time commitment and have a larger, longer lasting impact like advocacy or professional learning.

The more people working together, the lighter the work for everyone AND the better all types of voices are represented in the decisions made that affect school librarians across the state.

I'll be honest. There are times when board members who have served for a while feel stretched very thin and feel very burned out. They need your support and your help.

We need this professional association to be strong and to continue to grow. And, that comes from people, just like you, who are passionate about school libraries.

We need the professional learning they provide to folks who do not get it through their schools or districts. We need their work with partner associations to address adverse legislation. We need the scholarships they provide to folks in library school to continue to help those who need it. We need the community being part of an association creates so that we can continue to grow and learn from each other. 

Please consider reaching out to conta...@gmail.com to volunteer for one of the committees (Professional Learning, Advocacy, Membership, Scholarships & Awards, & Publications)

P.S. I wrote something similar for the Knowledge Quest blog that you are welcome to share as well.

https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/dont-just-join-engage/

P.P.S. This is what I wish I'd had the ability to say on Saturday when presented with the Meritorious Service Award. I am so proud of the work I have done on behalf of the association and school librarians in Nebraska, and I am incredibly honored to have worked with all of the people I have met along the way.