As temperatures get chillier and we enter the holiday season, this is a good time to reflect on the accomplishments of CALL and its members during warmer months!
Since the beginning of the 2013-2014 CALL term, the CALL Board has had the pleasure of meeting with each of the committee chairs to discuss our goals for the year and our plans to move forward with the CALL 2011-2016 Strategic Plan. Many of our committee chairs are first-time chairs, and I’m happy to see that all of the committees have started to make significant strides moving forward on their ambitious agendas.
Halfway into the Strategic Plan, we have made great progress. An annotated version of the CALL Strategic Plan, updated with our progress as of May 2013, is available as an appendix to the Board’s September 2013 minutes. You will continue to receive annual updates on our Strategic Plan at the beginning of every CALL term.
It’s hard to believe that two CALL business meetings have already passed. Our September meeting at Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse was one of our most well-attended meetings in recent history, with about 120 members registering! Our speaker was University of Chicago law professor Randal Picker, who spoke to the membership about copyright issues with respect to e-book technology.
In November, our members enjoyed a lovely meal at Wildfire while listening to Kip Kolkmeier, senior counsel to the Political Law and Government Relations practices at Perkins Coie in Chicago, and lobbyist for the Illinois Library Association. Mr. Kolkmeier discussed several fascinating issues going before the state legislature this year, and even indulged our collective desire for scoop on the Illinois political scene. Vice-President/President-Elect Margaret Schilt has done a fantastic job of choosing interesting and engaging speakers; I can’t wait to see who she’s chosen for the next two meetings.
Special thanks to our Meetings Committee co-chairs, Beth Schubert and Jesse Bowman, for your hard work in planning and organizing our business meetings. At these meetings, our amazing Community Service Committee members outdid themselves again by collecting school supplies for Chicago Public Schools, home supplies for veterans through A Safe Haven, and an impressive total of $475 for the American Cancer Society and Honor Flight Chicago.
Our Continuing Education Committee has also been busy. This fall, co-chairs Heidi Kuehl and Scott Vanderlin surveyed the membership to find out what kinds of programs you want to see. In October, the Committee hosted an Ignite-style technology roundtable at DLA Piper (conference room generously provided with help from Julie Pabarja). Debbie Ginsberg, Meg Ebersole, Joanne Kiley, Katrina Perez, and Kara Young all gave excellent talks on various technology issues and solutions that impact both law firm and academic libraries. It was wonderful to see this program so highly attended, and I look forward to learning more at future CE events.
The rest of our committees have also accomplished a great deal this year. The Bulletin is undergoing a revolution of sorts, experimenting with new columns and formats. Konya Lafferty, Joe Mitzenmacher, and the Government Relations Committee has begun a shadowing program to allow their younger committee members learn more about CALL involvement and the profession in general. The Public Relations Committee, chaired by Debbie Ginsberg and Lauren Odom, have begun to investigate restarting the CALL meet-ups.
The Placement & Recruitment Committee, co-chaired by Annette Cade and Eugene Giudice, continue to keep us updated on the latest job openings, while the Membership Committee, led by Therese Clarke Arado and Christine Klobucar, is constantly busy keeping our membership records and Directory up to date.
All of the accomplishments of our committees mean a full slate for our Archives Committee, also chaired by Therese Arado, who should be receiving documents from all of our committee chairs and Board members—hint, hint!
One of our busiest committees has been our newly combined Nominations and Elections Committee, who has given us a fantastic slate of candidates for the upcoming 2014-2015 CALL Executive Board election. Your nominees are:
Vice-President/President-Elect:
- Debbie Ginsberg, Chicago-Kent College of Law
- Julie Pabarja, DLA Piper, LLP
Treasurer:
- Stephanie Crawford, Schiff Hardin, LLP
- Valerie Kropf, DLA Piper, LLP
Director:
- Jesse Bowman, Valparaiso University Law School
- Robert Martin, Chicago-Kent College of Law
The election will start February 18, 2014 and end March 15, 2014; you’ll receive notice from the Nominations and Elections Committee as the election approaches. Extra special thanks to the Committee—Juli Jackson (chair), Kathleen Bruner, Ramsey Donnell, Lenore Glanz, Denise Glynn, Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Joan Ogden, and Susan Retzer—for all your hard work and for your excellent slate of candidates!
It has been wonderful to work with CALL in 2013 and I look forward to continuing all of our great work in the year to come. Happy holidays!
Maribel Nash, CALL President, 2013/2014