Week 6 – Feb 17  

Blog post is late this week because Laurel is on holiday and frankly, I forgot!  

All OLA councils met last week for their first full meetings of the year. I always love this moment in the calendar. Fresh workplans, and sharpened pencils. It is where strategy starts to turn into action across public, school, academic, and health sectors. Governance might not be flashy, but it is the engine room of a good association!  

Final planning details are coming together for Freedom to Read Week, which kicks off next week. 

A few reminders: 

• Pre-order your merch if you have not already.
• Plan your displays, panels, and conversations.
• And do not forget the digital Day of Action on February 23. 

Last week, I met with the team at REEL CANADA to talk about how we can support Canadian Film Day on April 15. Libraries are such natural partners for this work. We are community conveners, we champion Canadian creators, and we know how to host a good screening. More to come on how OLA members can plug in, but if you have ever thought about hosting a film screening, this might be your sign. 

I also had my monthly meetup with my ED counterpart at BCLA. These standing conversations are some of my favourites. We talk candidly about what is working, what is hard, and where we can collaborate. Right now, we are preparing for an upcoming Partnership meeting and aligning on shared member initiatives.  

Staff have been deep in Super Conference data and clean-up mode. Attendance patterns, session feedback, revenue analysis, engagement trends. We are pulling it all together into our post-conference report so that decisions about next year are grounded in evidence, not just vibes. 

We are preparing to welcome our Seneca library tech placement student this week. I love bringing students into the work of OLA!  

We also did something radical. We cleaned up our Google Drive. 
Are we naturally organized? Shockingly, no. 
Did we try? Yes. 
Is it still a work in progress? Also yes. 

See you next Tuesday, 

Michelle