The other candidate was the amazing Ann Dutton Ewbanks. She is a very articulate and passionate voice for school libraries, so I was honored to be on the ballot with her. In the months that followed, we had the candidates forum at ALA Midwinter, as well as the chance to pass out some bookmarks and stickers! Besides a few posting on my Facebook page and a few emails sent to friends and colleagues, that was about all there was to campaigning.

Voting began in mid-March and ended on April 23rd. The results were announced on Friday. It was quite a day at school. Luckily the bulk of my day I had classes in working on research projects, so it gave me little time to wonder as I waited for the phone call. I have such an amazingly supportive school family. Teachers and staff came through all day, “Have you heard yet?” “Have they called?” “Make sure to tell us as soon as you hear.” About 2:30pm, the phone rang with Julie Walker, AASL Executive Director, on the other end to share with me that I had been elected the 2011-2012 AASL President.

I am so honored and humbled by the opportunity the members of AASL have given me. There are amazing leaders on the AASL Board and I’m excited about the chance to work with them to continue to move our association and profession forward. I’m sure in my three years I’ll serve (President-Elect, President, and Immediate Past President) there will be successes and challenges. I look forward to all of it because I know we have an amazing group of leaders, members, and staff who will help work through it all together.

I believe that life often presents us with a variety of opportunities. Some of them turn out better than others, but you never know what will happen until you say “yes!” I am so excited about this next adventure and glad I said “yes” when this opportunity came along. We all have a variety of circumstances in our professional and personal lives, but I hope when the next opportunity comes your way…you’ll consider saying “yes”, too. You never know where it might lead.

The video clips from all the candidates’ speeches are posted online on ALA Connect. If you are a member of AASL, please do take the time to vote beginning March 16, 2010.

Thank you for the opportunity to run for AASL President.  I thought I would start out telling you a little about how I got in to this profession.  15 years ago a little flyer from Ball State University changed the course of my life.  It advertised a program for school media services.   I always knew growing up I wanted to be in some sort of field related to education.  When I was in high school and the district tech director wasn’t in the building, I was often the next person in line to be called if something went wrong.  Thinking I wanted the director’s job someday, I asked what kind of degrees she had.  The response – home economics!  I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be following the path.   My job during high school was working at the Speedway Public Library, so when that flyer came from Ball State it sounded like that might be the right fit!

While I’m not sure I completely understood what I was getting myself into, I did quickly discover how this was the perfect profession for me.  When I was student teaching, my supervising teacher strongly encouraged me to join ALA/AASL and our state association, AIME.  She was from the generation where you joined because that was part of your responsibility in being a professional.   I dutifully listened and sent in my dues.  But it is so much more than just paying dues — it is about finding ways to contribute and be INVOLVED.

The opportunities for leadership in our state organization came around, as did the chance to serve AASL in a variety of capacities over the years such as chair of the Affiliate Assembly (did you know you could be elected when you were 1000 miles from the meeting?) or chairing the 2007 AASL Conference.  These chances to give back to the profession are something I value and treasure because they made me a better school librarian for my students and staff as well as helped refine my skills as a leader – skills that I can use as President of AASL to benefit you.

I believe and know that the future for our profession lies with INVOLVEMENT.   School librarians are leaders in teaching 21^st Century skills; yet, due to budget shortfalls, positions are being cut.  INVOLVEMENT begins in our schools by designing instruction and providing resources that meet the needs of our students and teachers and basing these resources on the AASL learning standards.   As leaders we need administrators to see us directly impacting student learning.  Being INVOLVED is convincing decision makers that school library programs are transparent in all curricular areas and are a good use of scarce dollars.  I believe we have to be INVOLVED in the profession, recruit new members, and show them how they can be actively INVOLVED in AASL. The future for our field is defined through professional involvement.  The more active members we have the larger voice AASL has to advocate for school libraries.  As a candidate for President of AASL I will continue to work on legislative initiatives and strengthen our profession by completing targeted concerns in the AASL strategic plan. These are unsettling times, but by being INVOLVED and working together, we can fulfill a vision where school libraries are a necessity in every district and every school.

When I leave here today, I’m going back to the 470 students and 40 staff members of North Elementary School and my day job as the library media specialists.   But I know that by being a part of the AASL community, I have a network of people I can rely on to help me in time of need, to share and brainstorm ideas, and celebrate the successes.  As AASL President, I want every school librarian to see the AASL community and say, “I have to be a part of that!”