President’s report to the 2010 Annual General Meeting

Post date: Mar 11, 2010 8:49:22 AM

In April 2009 The International School Libraries Network (Singapore) incorporated, a process that began in March of that year. The decision to incorporate was made in the wake of the successful Hands On Literacy Conference held in November 2008. The conference was conceived by Katie Day and brought to fruition by a team made up of Katie – UWC, Pam Duncan, Ben & Angela Gravina from AISS, Sarah Eccelston - ISS, Stacey, Megan & Lisa from CIS, Desley Pendergast – Etonhouse, Kate & Jan from OFS & myself. The conference, whilst successful was incredibly stressful because, as an unincorporated group we had to rely on others to provide our finance and manage it. It was decided that it was essential that the Network was able to manage its own finances if we were to hold another conference. With a profit in excess of $7000 we incorporated and opened a bank account in May 2009.

ISLN Executive

The Executive Committee consisted of myself (Barbara Philip) as President, Ben Farr – Vice-President, Stacey Socholotuk – Secretary, Lisa Patton –Treasurer and Katie Day – Liaison Officer. Members of the executive met regularly and information was communicated to the members in relation to ISLN’s activities and future direction. Today we will all step down from our positions. Ben, Stacey & Lisa have decided not to stand for re-election. I would like to thank them for everything that they have done; it has been a privilege working with them.

Early Days

The Executive Committee is aware that The Network is in its infancy. The year has flown by and whilst we feel we have achieved a great deal (I will detail this below) we have plans to achieve even more in the 2010 -2011 year. There has been discussion about using our funds to host PD specifically for library staff or to sponsor authors to enable schools with more limited budgets to afford a visiting author. We are committed to bringing our shared databases with supplier and author details up to date to assist members new to Singapore with an easy transition. We hope to establish some formal or informal mentoring for those who would like it, as well as Teacher-Librarian of the Year award

Subcommittees

During the year subcommittees have worked on the Red Dot Awards, Hands On Literacy 2010 and Readers Cup. The Executive Committee would like to thank all of the members that have volunteered their time on these committees, and continue to do so.

Publications

The Wiki and its offshoots were edited by Katie, with assistance from members of the Executive Committee. The Wiki has kept ISLN’s profile to the fore for both members and visitors. I know that Katie will be relieved when we fill the extra position of Webmaster that has been created on the Executive Committee. It will be fantastic to have someone else working on this task with her. Katie has worked long and hard to maintain our online presence and I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for her vision and her hard work.

Professional Development

At every meeting we share our expertise with one another, but we also share information on professional development opportunities that we have been lucky enough to attend ourselves. One of our earliest initiatives as an incorporated society was to promote Kevin Hennah's visit to Bangkok. Approximately 10 of our members attended this fantastic session and were able to network with library staff from around the region. ISLN supported this by paying the registration fee for member participants in a lump sum to enable members to incur minimal bank fees. Other members have been to Hong Kong, Hamburg and attended PD here in Singapore that they have shared with the group. Members of ISLN also supported and presented at the TeachIT conference in November.

Conference

Planning for the Hands On Literacy conference in 2010 began in May. This year’s conference will be held at Tanglin Trust School on 13 November. In November 2009 Jacqui Makselon hosted our general meeting in her fabulous new library enabling members to see the wonderful venue for the conference. Thank you Jacqui & thank you for offering to host the conference on behalf of ISLN. Ross Todd has been confirmed as the keynote speaker and we hope to have in excess of 300 delegates. With 249 days to go, I imagine that the hard work is just about to begin. I would urge all members to offer what ever help they can to Lorena and the sub-committee. Thank you to Lorena and the HOL committee members.

Red Dot and Readers Cup

Red Dot voting started today and runs for the rest of this week. Once again, thank you Katie for the idea and the hard work. Readers Cup will take place in May (10th or 11th). ISLN was pleased to be able to offer school members four free books each from the nominated books and to organise the purchase of the hard to get titles from Australia. ISLN also offered deferred payment on those titles purchased for schools that requested it. Through our meetings we have shared information on local authors who were prepared to visit our schools to support the Red Dot Award.

Relations with other organisations

ISLN was pleased to support the Singapore International Schools ICT Network by presenting and attending TeachIT. We are privileged to have a wonderful relationship with the National Library Board thanks to Judy Kong. Members of the Executive Committee & Judy met with Mr Ramachandran in January to discuss links between the National Book Development Council and ISLN. Several members look forward to attending the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) from 6-9 May this year. In the future we hope to receive discounts for our members for NBDCS events. We intend to expand our relationships with other library and educational organisations throughout the next year with a view to reciprocal arrangements with discounts for conferences, organising library tours etc.

I would also like to thank the team from Follett for their ongoing support of ISLN

Social Events

The Executive Committee (led by Ben) has organised several social events after the general meetings and we have enjoyed the company of visiting authors such as Fred Lipp, Sarah Brennan & Nick Toczek.

When I look back on the events that have taken place since the last HOL conference I am astounded by what we have achieved. I have been a member of well-established networks in the past, often their strength lies in stability - members who have supported them for years. We do not have the benefit of that stability. We are new and our membership is mobile. Some of our key supporters and hardest workers - Pam, Sarah and Desley left while this incorporated network was just an idea, but like true professionals they worked on and supported that idea until the day they left Singapore. We are all fortunate to have been colleagues of people like them. New people have arrived and are equally as committed to the network. I thank them all for that commitment. It is not easy starting somewhere new and coming into what appears to be an established group and instantly knuckling down and becoming part of it as you have. I hope that this brief overview has shown you that we are not yet that established and we need all the help and expertise we can get.

Personally, I am grateful for the support and guidance I have received from the Executive Committee. Thank you for the time and expertise that you give to our professional network. Thank you to all members for your involvement in this association. Your thoughts and actions give direction to a network which aims to support its members and ultimately, student learning.

Barbara Philip

President

International School Libraries Network (Singapore)

10 March 2010