At the May CALL business meeting, we officially celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chicago Association of Law Libraries, and it was wonderful to see so many members come out, from those who were attending their first CALL meeting to those who have been members for decades. Thank you to the Meetings Committee and the 70th anniversary planning committee for making it such a special and enjoyable experience. We continue that celebration of the 70th anniversary with many of the articles in this issue of the CALL Bulletin.
In addition to being a celebration of CALL’s 70th anniversary, the May meeting was also a time to look to our recent past and celebrate what we’ve done over this past year. It was great to see Robert Martin presented with the Agnes and Harvey Reid Award and Sean Rebstock win the Award for Outstanding In-House Publication for the second year in a row. CALL is such a great organization because we have so many people who are willing to contribute their time, their knowledge, their creativity, and their ideas. Anyone who has been involved with CALL for a good length of time knows how much of the work of the organization happens in its committees, and I appreciate everyone who gave their time and energy to a CALL committee this past year. We will be making the annual reports of the committees available soon, and I encourage everyone to take a look at them and celebrate all of their accomplishments over the past year.
I am especially grateful to the six individuals who served with me on the Executive Board this past year. I want to recognize Julie Pabarja for her sage advice and mentorship as Past President; Clare Gaynor Willis for her thoughtfulness and willingness to take on new challenges as Vice President/President-Elect; Diana Koppang for her energy and attention to detail as Secretary; Tom Gaylord for his humor and for spending so many hours looking at Wild Apricot as Treasurer; and Lindsey Carpino and Konya Lafferty Moss for being exemplary and dedicated committee liaisons and board members.
Finally, the May business meeting was a time to look forward to the future. At the end of the meeting, I handed the president’s gavel over to Clare Gaynor Willis, who will lead CALL into 2018. I am confident that Clare will do an excellent job in continuing the work we have started over the past year, including writing a new strategic plan for CALL and planning the joint meeting that CALL is hosting in Milwaukee in October, along with LLAW, MichALL, MAALL, and MALL. Joining us on the board will be Joe Mitzenmacher as Vice President/President-Elect, Annie Mentkowski as Secretary, and Scott Vanderlin as a Director. I am excited about working with all of them and all of you as we continue the great work of CALL this upcoming year.
Best regards,
Todd