… by outgoing President Susan Powell
As of June 2020
2019/20 Accomplishments
- The annual meeting was held in September 2019 in Reno, NV with over 50 attendees. Hosted by Chrissy Klenke, Earth Sciences, GIS, and Maps Librarian at the University of Nevada Reno, the meeting featured two full days of programming plus two pre-conference workshops on basic python programming for map and GIS librarians andbest practices for map and GIS librarianship.
- The 2019 Scholarship Committee (Phil White, Nicholas Beyelia, Taylor Hixson, Anita Martinez, Susan Powell, Andy Rutkowski, & Sarah Zhang) concluded another competitive scholarship program with the goal of encouraging diverse voices and new perspectives in the field of map and geospatial librarianship and within our organization.
- The two recipients (Rennie Lum and Mia Partlow) attended the 2019 annual meeting, wrote articles for the Information Bulletin , and are currently serving on the 2020 Scholarship Committee.
- Lisa Lamont (Business Manager) worked with vendors to begin digitizing WAML’s print publications.
- The WAML membership approved new mission and vision statements for the organization. These were drafted by the Ad Hoc Mission/Vision Statement Task Force (Phil White, Jessica Benner, Louise Ratliff, & Ken Rockwell) and finalized by the Executive Board, with several opportunities for WAML members and meeting attendees to help shape them.
- We conducted a successful election in which Evan Thornberry was elected Vice-President/President Elect and Louise Ratliff was elected to a second term as Secretary.
- Led by Matt Toro, we conducted a survey of the WAML community to gauge preferences about the 2020 annual meeting in light of COVID-19, which resulted in the decision to hold the meeting virtually.
- With MAGIRT we co-hosted the first two in a planned series of educational webinars.
- The Ad Hoc Membership Task Force (Greg Armento, Nicholas Beyelia, Susan Powell, Bruce Godfrey, and Heather Ross) reviewed membership management options and strategies and submitted its report to the Executive Board.
Continuing Business & Goals
* Note: contact person/people listed in parentheses
- Approve Scholarship Committee’s charge (Phil White)
- Refine and approve specific guidelines for sustainable scholarship program funding (Susan Powell/Bruce Godfrey)
- Review report from Ad Hoc Membership Task Force (Greg Armento)
- Develop action-oriented plan to address systemic racism and racial equity within WAML, spatial librarianship, and our adjoining professions (TBD)
- Conduct review of honoraria and appointed positions (Susan Powell)
- Complete digitization of WAML publications and dispersal of remaining print copies (Lisa Lamont)
- Encourage and assist ongoing work of the Ad Hoc Web Task Force (Julie Sweetkind-Singer)
- Address website-related concerns including investigating institutional ownership of WAML domain and the disposition of old Map Librarian Toolkit files that are still live (TBD)
- Develop branding and messaging (Matt Toro)
- Archive and create digital access for Reno 2019 and earlier annual meeting conference materials (Susan Powell/Andria Olson)
- Refresh Continuing Education Committee and Web Communications Committee (TBD)
- Plan for 2020 virtual annual meeting (Matt Toro)