Subcommittee Updates

Welcome everyone to the SLAQ Brisbane Sub-committee AGM for 2009. Thank you all for coming out on such an inhospitable afternoon. I would like to pre-empt my report with my resignation from the position of sub-committee president. I thought I’d just slide that in there at this point so those of you who may have the yearning to take up the yoke of this office may ponder the option while I deliver the rest of my report.  I have been president for the past three years and feel that, now the SLAQ 2008 Conference is over, it is the right time for a change at the helm. I have had a fulfilling time and honestly feel that it is the PD that money just can’t buy. I would like to thank the committee members for allowing me the opportunity to be involved in a very real sense in the Teacher Librarian community.  That opportunity has enabled me to contribute to the networking, mentoring and professional development of colleagues, this has been rewarding both professionally and personally. So if you have the time to spare and the desire to be involved – I urge you to consider nominating.

It would be an understatement to say that the SLAQ 2008 conference planning, preparation and implementation did not underpin everything we did as a committee last year. Indeed, your dedicated conference committee met continuously, emailed prodigiously, budgeted responsibly, organised tirelessly and presented to you one of SLAQ’s most successful conferences to date – an estimated $20,000 was made for future PD. The feedback we received from delegates was overwhelmingly positive with only minor concerns to keep in mind for the next venture. I would like to reiterate what an honour it was to work with such a dedicated and committed team of professionals.

Owing to the heavy demand placed upon committee members by the conference, the Brisbane sub-committee decided that it would be the main focus for professional development for 2008. However, Cathy Oxley and I did continue the Brisbane sub-committee’s obligation to provide on-going PD for our members by joining forces with the UQ Cyberschool in February. We each presented, to a packed audience from the teacher librarian community, a workshop on Web 2.0 technologies and their application in the classroom. I also continued SLAQ’s obligation to provide PD and mentoring to members by presenting another seminar on e-learning in the 21st century classroom to members of the Gold Coast SLAQ sub-committee in October.

Other activities did manage to get a mention last year. In February, the committee spent time designing and sourcing new SLAQ folders to use as a professional advocacy tool. New bookmarks, were also designed and produced to be included in the new folders. The first “outing” for the new look folders,  was the 2008 QUT stepping out day attended by Chris Kahl, Robbie Rentz and Hilary Hughes. The Stepping Out Day affords all educational professional associations as well as educational resource suppliers the chance to advocate for members and to ply their wares. The SLAQ booth was manned all day and proved a valuable PR exercise with graduating teachers.

I know 2009 will bring its own rewards and the committee will continue to meet its obligations to members regarding advocacy, professional development and mentoring. I would like to now table my report.

Last updated 20 March 2009