I am starting very early on my priorities as President. I am not yet officially President elect (that happens at this MLA) and the current President elect (soon to be President) Linda Walton has not officially released her priorities. But, ever since I was nominated I have been thinking about my priorities.
As I mentioned I am early to the Presidential priority party, but I want to start early because I think it will take me a while to refine them.
Here is very unofficial rough timeline of the Presidential priorities.
- President Elect year – Attend MLA Board meetings to get familiar with current issues happening within MLA. Work with the rest of the Board to help the current President and with his/her priorities. Start thinking of and create my own Presidential priorities and present them to the Board.
- Presidential year – Present the priorities to the membership and create task forces or have committees assigned to help achieve the priorities.
- Past Presidential year – The priorities work from the task forces, committees, etc. either wind down or evolve. With the help of the rest of the Board, work with the task forces or committees as they wind down or evolve.
In a nutshell I have one year to think of my priorities, one year to get them started and see them to their completion or evolution. In reality not every Presidential priority is able to finish in that timeline. It would be difficult and unwise to abandon unfinished priorities from previous Presidents. Some priorities can be finished within a year, but others require several years to finish, or they evolve into regular, ongoing MLA activities (committee charges, HQ staff assignments, etc.)
While I am looking at my predecessors’ Presidential priorities I want to also take into account the MLA membership’s thoughts on what my priorities should be.
I am asking MLA members to think about what my Presidential priorities should be as they relate to MLA’s mission. Please keep in mind, I will also be working on previous priorities AND there is a bit of time crunch unless I go mad with Presidential power and throw the bylaws out the window and declare myself the Monarch of MLA. (Just kidding…but it is a catchy name)
Rome was not built in a day. My ultimate goal, independent of any priority, is to help others and inspire them to be active and work to better MLA and medical librarianship. I think of it a bit like this…. One snow flake is small and easily melts by itself, but when it is packed in a snowball with other snow flakes as it rolls down a hill, it becomes a stronger force to be dealt with. I cannot do it alone.