Past MLA President Mark Funk posted a parting presidential message of sorts. It was about this year's meeting and how at this year's meeting there seemed to be more young and active members than ever before. These young people aren't just sitting around, they are really really busy. They are presenting papers and posters, they are speakers, they are sitting on committees, they are networking (virtually and face to face), and they have ideas. In short they are engaged participating members. As one these members would say, "Woot!"

Mark mentions the demographic change that is just beginning to occur within MLA. Many older members are getting ready to retire in the next few years and the old method of having younger members learn the "MLA ropes by watching on the sidelines for years, until they've 'paid their dues," isn't going to work. Good news is that the new and younger members (some of us younger members have 10 MLA years on us so we aren't totally new) are ready and willing to learn and participate now. In order to do this, MLA's current governing tradition needs to adapt and change to let this happen. Mark believes that some of the answers can be found in using the Web 2.0 tools to help open up the MLA governance, make things more transparent. As he put it, "Open the windows and doors, and allow our members to see both how and why decisions are made. Allow them to question and comment during the process. Allow them to gain in a few years the kind of MLA experience that took people of my generation 20 or more years to gain."

Seven years ago was my first MLA conference. Perhaps it was because I was so new to the profession and I was a little overwhelmed by my first MLA meeting, but seven years ago I think I could have counted the number of younger librarians on two hands. That is probably a little bit of an exaggeration, but this year a couple of us "seasoned" young librarians reminisced about Orlando (where many of us met for the first time) and we commented about how neat it was to see so many of our peers attending this meeting in Chicago. I attended the New Member Breakfast this year and Mark's speech about his first MLA meeting really hit home with me. While I was not spending my entire time in the career center like Mark, I can remember being completely overwhelmed by everything and everybody. It seemed like everybody already knew everybody and they were all working on this and that project. I thought about joining a Section or a SIG but I didn't.

I am sure the Orlando meeting had the New Member Breakfast and opportunities for new members to get involved. I just didn't see it, or it didn't make an impression on me. That is why this year's meeting made such an impression on me, because I feel Mark as well as many other MLA members really pulled out all of the stops to try and get us to "connect" and get new members involved in the process. I really appreciate it. As a younger member who is just starting to dip her toes into the MLA pool, I have found that sitting on a couple of those committees have really been an eye opening and helpful experience. I may not have the years of knowledge behind me, but I can learn from others to see how things work and then every once and a while interject a thought or comment. Sometimes it is a fresh perspective and sometimes it was something that had been tried before. I have learned a lot and enjoyed it and best of all, the positive experiences has made me wanting to do more. That is good, because as Mark said, there will be a time when the older members have retired and the new members will be the seasoned ones who will hopefully be fostering other new members.