As I write my final president’s letter, I cannot help but be proud of what we accomplished in a very challenging year. While I am sad that I did not get to see your faces in person at our business meetings, executive board meetings, continuing education events and countless social events, we persevered.
We had 72 virtual attendees register for our May Business Meeting. The Community Service committee donated to Chicago Books to Women in Prison.
Congratulations to this year’s CALL award recipients. John Klaus (posthumous) and Jean Wenger on the Agnes and Harvey Reid Award for Outstanding Contribution to Law Librarianship. Gretchen Van Dam on Lifetime Achievement in Law Librarianship Award. Matt Timko for Outstanding In-House Publication Award.
I would like to thank Diane Rodriguez, AALL Vice President, for speaking at our CALL business meeting and highlighting our chapters’ accomplishments. Including CALL’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, our adaptable nature in hosting virtual social and continuing education events including our media club. Also, a big congratulations to the Government Relations committee, led by Sarah Reis, for updating Finding Illinois Law which will be featured on HeinOnline.
CALL ended the May Business Meeting with a giveaway bonanza featuring 25 AALL registration fee grants for the Annual Meeting! AALL also offered 1 additional registration fee grant to our membership. This is a wonderful example of how CALL transitioned in the times of Covid to offer additional grants to our membership. For that, I am very proud. Thank you to our Past President, Jessie LeMar, for leading the Grants and Chapter Awards committee.
Thank you to the outgoing CALL Board members for their service: Jessie LeMar (Past President), Philip Johnson (Secretary) and Megan Butman (Director). Welcome to our incoming-board members: Scott Vanderlin (Vice-President/President Elect), Sarah Andeen (Secretary) and Carrie Port (Director)!
The CALL board agreed to extend our Strategic Plan through 2023. This will give the board and committees extra time to fully carry out the plans. While there is still more work to be done with diversity and inclusion, I am confident CALL will continue to serve out its mission to ”support legal information professionals through advocacy, education, and engagement.”