The Vice-President's focus throughout the entire year was to produce the regional conference for which we, at ACRL New England, are  so well known. Our Annual Meeting, held on June 1 at Brandeis University, was a large success. We had 196 registrants. We had 10 corporate sponsors, and the sponsorship of Brandeis Libraries for the Breakfast. Most of the feedback from our evaluations has been very positive. Respondents overwhelming (86%) gave the registration process a "4 or 5" on the evaluation, meaning satisfaction or a highly satisfied.  Kudos to Kendall Hobbs for such a fine job and for initiating the online registration form.  Many people suggested adding the convenience of using an online credit card for payment, a suggestion I'm very interested in exploring. 

 

The overall satisfaction with the conference was 80% giving it a "4 of 5" rating. By far, the main complaint about the conference was that a microphone for questioners in the main hall went dead. (It ran out of battery, and was replaced, but then the second mic shortcircuited in the second session!). On our planning for next year area of the evaluation form,  62% of evaluation respondents said they were "unlikely" to attend a 2-day conference. However, a large number, indicated they would like a 2-day conference.  Most people heard about the conference from the ACRL NEC listserv, but a large percentage, 35% heard about the conference from a professional colleague, so "buzz" is still an important part of creating interest in and attendance at meetings. Librarians and library staff who are not members of ACRL NEC would not get messages from the listserv, so it's important to find ways to have those members who are on the list to remember to share it with their colleagues in their home libraries.

 

Our meeting will be in the black, but as of right now I don't have the final figures, not having been received the food bill from Brandeis, and we haven't seen the final expenses yet from out of town speakers.  If all the sponsorships are paid, I expect us to be well in the black on this event. I will be submitting a final accounting of this event as soon as the bills are received.

For me, one of the great values I’ve experienced through ACRL New England has been meeting librarians and other library staff who are dedicated to their profession, and who are willing to voluntarily join together to accomplish even more. I’ve had just such an experience with the incredible group that helped plan our recent conference “Space: The Final Frontier” held on June 1, at my home university of Brandeis. We had some fine speakers with new information and ideas, good food, time to talk to vendors, go on tours, and especially meet and discuss with each other.

All of this was possible because many fine people came together and made the details happen. I’d like to say, on behalf of ACRL New England and myself, a very loud  THANK YOU to members of the ACRL Program Planning Committee, and also the many librarians and staff at Brandeis who volunteered and formed our “local arrangements group” that aided in the logistics. Members of our committee included Cynthia Churchwell, Kendall Hobbs, Suzanne Wones, Susan Raidy Klein, Naka Ishii, Bob Schieier, Nancy George, Matt Sylvain, Stephanie St. Laurence, Colleen Anderson, Jody Walker, Janet Spiller, Sandy Hurd, Shin Freedman, Beatrice Pulliam and Diane d’Almeida. At Brandeis, we had help from Darwin Scott, Lisa Wiecki, Jason Bernard, Joanne Adamowicz, Kathy Button, Amira Aaron, Kathy Cannon, Jenny Hart, Anne Woodrum, Ralph Szymczak, Karla Fribley, Sarah Walkowiak, Tim O’Neil, and Amy Kolosseus. In addition, I’d like to thank students at Brandeis who helped stuff conference packets, including Vicky Bell, Phuong Ho, and Ari Fertig.  A special thank you to Brandeis’ Chief University Librarian, Sue Wawrzaszek, for supporting our efforts to hold the conference at Brandeis, and for sponsoring our conference breakfast.

Judy Pinnolis