Redhaired Future Librarian

Conference: First Time Attendees’ Orientation

The first thing we did at the conference after checking in was to visit the first time attendees’ orientation.

The leaders of the different divisions and special interest groups got up and spoke to about 15 or 20 of us about what presentations they were sponsoring. They also encouraged us to join MLA. A fun thing they had us do was “new member bingo.” We were to find five different people to interview and write down their answers. One had to be a new member (identified by a blue star on their name tag), one had to be a first-time attendee (identified by a gold star), one had to be a special interest group member (identified by a ribbon), one had to be a division member (identified by a ribbon), and one had to be a vendor (identified by being in the exhibition hall with stuff to sell. Heh.) My classmates and I started trying to interview each other, but ended up reaching out and interviewing others. I talked to two people I didn’t know from the campus library, one graduate of the program, and a woman with the Missouri Association of School Librarians. The forms were then entered for a drawing, to win a Dell PDA. My roommate won!

This might seem frivolous, but it was important because people had a tendency to stick tight with the group they came with. Although my group stuck together pretty tightly (and found a classmate who moved away this summer!), it was great that we reached out and made contact with other people we might have been too introverted to approach otherwise.

One of my classmates told us that when she went to ALA, they had a new attendees’ orientation with tips on how to get the most from a conference. I would like to see that added to the new attendees’ orientation. Next year, the conference will be here in central Missouri, so I think we might have a chance to help.

I’ll post more about the conference as I have time. I’ll discuss the sessions I mentioned here, in order. (Unless someone posts a comment because they want to read about a specific session.)