Dear NJLA Members,

Thank you for a successful 2024 Annual Conference!  Special thanks to the Conference Committee, Honors and Awards, Fundraising, Member Services, the NJLA Store, everyone who sponsored or facilitated a program, and everyone who jumped in to help at the registration table or behind a desk!  With 999 attendees, including 61 exhibitors, we are back to pre-COVID attendance levels. Our post-conference survey was emailed directly to attendees, and we would love to hear your feedback.

NJLA’s Executive Board met on Tuesday, June 18. Here are some of the highlights.

• NJLA's Strategic Plan is scheduled to be finalized at the next Executive Board meeting on Tuesday, July . Thanks again to the conference attendees who engaged with the NJLA Core Values Poster, and to NJLA’s Chapter Councilor to ALA, Laverne Mann, for creating it and managing the process. Pending Executive Board approval, NJLA’s new mission statement will be, “Developing library workers, uniting the library community,” and NJLA’s new Core Values will be:

• • Professional Development

  • Transparency

  • Member Engagement and Collaboration

  • Sustainability

  • Advocacy

  • Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

  • Unite All Library Workers and Advocates

  • Joy and Community
    
    

• Following Executive Board approval, NJLA signed a contract with Hard Rock Casino - Atlantic City on June 18 for a merged conference in 2026–28 with the New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL). We are excited about this opportunity to unite library workers and advocates in person once per year, and to collaborate more closely on our shared goals and objectives.
  

• The Executive Board approved a 2024–25 budget that reflects NJLA strong, stable finances. The budget includes funding to create an Event Planner staff position. We expect an experienced, talented Event Planner to help NJLA’s committees create even better in-person experiences for NJLA members at the Annual Conference, single-day forums, and other events, while improving the experience for the NJLA volunteers who lead the planning and staff the events. We also expect NJLA’s Event Planner to decrease costs and increase revenues. 
  

• We continued working with NJLA’s lobbyists, Porzio Governmental Affairs, to advocate for fully restored, flat year-over-year funding for Library Network aid in New Jersey’s 2024-25 state budget, and for New Jersey’s Freedom to Read bill, which passed through the Assembly Education Committee on June 6. Brett Bonfield delivered testimony before the Education Committee, along with Public Policy Co-Chair, Jennie Pu, Permanent Construction Task Force member, Jeanne Marie Ryan, and the daughter of Nick Bastean, a member of the Public Policy Committee. We await the next committee hearing for the bill.
  

• NJLA’s Mini-Grant Task Force awarded its first grants. Congratulations to the Professional Development Committee for their "Career Satisfaction Through Engagement and Empowerment" program and the Retired Members Section for "Ready, Set, Retire."

A Note from Brett on the NJLA Store

On May 24, just before this year’s NJLA Annual Conference, I sent a note with an inaccurate and misleading headline, “NJLA Store Closing in 2025.” While the rest of the information was true – Cheryl McBride will be retiring from the store after the 2025 NJLA Annual Conference and she plans to celebrate with a yearlong blow out sale to end all everything-must-go blow outs – I wrote a terrible headline. We expect the NJLA Store to continue in some form after Cheryl’s retirement. We do not yet know what form it will take, and look forward to working with NJLA members to figure it out. While Cheryl is irreplaceable, the lesson she has taught us rings true. You like supporting NJLA and libraries in a variety of ways, and that includes by shopping! We expect to offer you that opportunity for the foreseeable future. I apologize for misleading you.

Board meetings are open and we welcome your attendance. Check njla.org/executive-board-agendas for dates and meeting links. You can also find 

Organizational Updates at njla.org/organizational-updates.

We appreciate you,
Brett, Katy, and Alicia