Hello everyone!

I am excited to share that the Conference Committee has chosen a venue for next year’s NCSLMA conference. After securing quotes from several convention centers around NC, and taking into account the feedback from the future conference survey, we are thrilled to announce that the 2025 and 2026 NCSLMA Conferences will be at the Concord Convention Center at the Embassy Suites in Concord, NC. Mark your calendars for October 8-10, 2025, and October 21-23, 2026. 

In full transparency and brutal honesty, I wanted to share what led to this decision and how the conference affects NCSLMA financially.

Conferences are expensive and they are getting more expensive each year. 

NCSLMA loses money every year on our conference. We rarely bring in enough money in registration and vendor fees to cover our expenses. The exceptions to this are 2022 and the virtual years. Our last year at Benton, the conference cost $120,000 and we brought in $103,000 in registration (475 attendees) and vendor fees. Last year, at Koury, the conference cost $165,000 and we brought in $115,000 in registration (435 attendees) and vendor fees. We have to make up the difference from our membership fees and our non-expansive savings account. 

The cost of conferences has gone up exponentially over the last several years. We’re not doing much different except paying for more food, as that is something that we heard overwhelmingly from our attendees that they wanted that AND because the cost of food has gone up a ton. Our food minimum was $50,000 in 2024 and will be $65,000 in 2025 and 2026. Food is so much more expensive than it was even two years ago. We will end up spending about $170 per person on food if we have 500 people attend. The minimum this conference will cost is about $150,000 because that’s the current cost of a conference with our size attendance. We will spend $110,000 on the space and food, about $20,000 on AV and vendor booths, $10,000 on speaker and author fees, and $10,000 on swag and miscellaneous conference expenses. Yes, we have to pay people to come talk to us and to sign their books for us. At a minimum, we pay their travel and hotel costs, but many authors also ask for a stipend, which we 100% understand as they are giving up their time to travel to us and to spend the day with us. This is another cost of having a conference like ours.

This is why we had to raise registration costs last year, but we will not raise them again this year or next. We are raising our vendor fees slightly to begin to bring us more on par with what other organizations our size charge for vendor space. We did that last year as well. This is also why we can’t afford to give free registration to presenters. While we absolutely wish we could, free registration for 100 people is not sustainable for a conference as small as ours. 

We decided on Concord for a few reasons. Their cost was one of the lower quotes we had and we were able to secure a two year contract, keeping pricing the same for next year. They have the same “all-in-one” feel that Koury had, but even more intimate, giving it a camp-like vibe, which is perfect for Lori’s “We Are Family” theme. The hotel rooms on site are very close and the meeting space is inclusive and intimate, but not tight. The hotel rooms are high quality and great for sharing. Wink wink nudge nudge. Every room is a suite, so there are one or two beds, a bathroom, and the living room with a pull out couch. While the hotel rooms will be slightly more expensive ($194 per night) than at Koury ($172) last year, they also come with that amazing Embassy breakfast buffet (and made to order omelets!) as well as the manager’s reception coupons, which will help us keep our food budget close to the minimum, rather than going way over in order to provide breakfast for everyone. They have assured us that attendees will get the best posted rate, even if it’s cheaper than the block rate and we get credit for every room an attendee books. This was an issue we had with Koury. We committed to rooms at their $172 rate, but they were selling rooms $30-40 cheaper than that, so people were reserving outside our block and we didn’t get credit towards our commitment. We 1000% understand saving money on a hotel and do not begrudge anyone who did that. But that almost ended up biting us in the foot because we had to cover the difference between the rooms we committed to and the rooms that were booked in our block. We are grateful to Duke Energy taking all of those rooms at the last minute, saving us from a potential $10,000 expense. 

The future conference survey results overwhelmingly showed that you preferred the conference to be in the middle of the state and I intentionally added Concord and Charlotte to that because we had already requested quotes from there. While things to do in the area were not high on the benefits of a conference, it will be nice to have options for dinner while you’re at the conference. There are numerous restaurants within a five minute drive of the convention center. Concord Mills Mall is right there, and IKEA is not far. There are also two restaurants, a spa, a coffee shop, and a pool at the hotel. 

There are quite a few conference-specific benefits to Concord. This is the boring part. Feel free to skip. There is a built in registration table and office space attached to it, allowing for storage right there. So we won’t have to threaten to buy Heelys so we can get back and forth faster. There are three rooms that are slightly removed from the session spaces where we can finally have our getaway room, a makerspace room, and a collaboration room. I am particularly excited for that! We’ve wanted to do that for years, but haven’t been able to find the space. We will have the convention space to ourselves on Thursday and Friday. So we won’t have to worry about wandering into a room that isn’t an NCSLMA session. We did ask for wifi to be included in the cost of space. While wifi is provided for free for hotel attendees, we do understand that not everyone can stay there. We have pre-purchased wifi for a set number of devices and will have a code for a limited number of people who are not staying at the hotel. There is a parking fee at the Embassy, but our attendees will get 50% off of that for the next two years. The current fee is $8 per day.

That is everything I can think of without going into mind-numbing boredom. This is already a ridiculously long post. Kudos if you’re still with me! As always, feel free to send me an email with any questions or concerns you have. The conference committee is very excited about this venue and we hope to see as many of you there as possible. 

In Librarianship Solidarity,
Kristy

If you’re reading this, first of all, thanks! It’s nice to know I’m not typing into the void. Secondly, this was supposed to be my April blog, but as we’re already into May, you’ll have to excuse the abundance of information this post will hold. The end of a school year is my least favorite time of the year with testing, book and technology inventory, and I thought having a book fair during this season was a good idea! What was I thinking? 

Registration for Conference 2024 opens soon! Those whose conference proposals were accepted will be notified this week and I can tell you that we have some amazing sessions coming your way. Don’t forget that your registration includes breakfast and lunch both days as well as the 2nd annual party known as NCSLMAJama! Conference registration closes on September 13, 2024. Due to our location change and its lack of walkable food options, we will have to go up in price this year to accommodate the increased food budget (inflation - grrr), but we are doing away with Early Bird pricing. Everyone will pay the same rate, through September 13, when it will go up. After September 13, you will have to pay in person, on site. We heard you about having to get checks cut right around the closing of one budget year and opening of another. We don’t want you to stress about that. Just make sure your registration is paid by September 13, or we will have to cancel your registration and you will have to re-register at the higher rate and you must pay on site. 

But we have found another way to reward you for registering early because there’s also some special swag coming your way this year…

You may remember that Amanda Jones is one of our keynote speakers. If you register for the conference before September 13, you’ll receive a copy of her new book That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America as part of your conference swag! We wanted to make sure that everyone had a book for her to sign after her closing keynote, so make plans to not only attend her keynote address that is sure to be stellar, but hang around a few minutes after to chat with her and have her sign your copy of That Librarian. 

But we have another keynote speaker to announce and I’m fangirling as I type this…Darcie Little Badger!

She is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award, and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist (not to mention it’s spot on the 2023-2024 high school Battle of the Books list! Her third book, Sheine Lende, is the prequel to Elatsoe and will be published in 2024. If you want a free copy of one of Darcie Little Badger’s books for her to sign at conference, make sure you register before August 1!

As we get excited about Amanda Jones, Darcie Little Badger, and seeing our school library friends at conference, we must also remember the other reason we all join our state’s professional organization…community. You may not be experiencing cuts, downsizing, or bans, but you know someone who is. We can be their Cardigan Crusaders (physical cardigans optional) and work to make sure to support our librarians next door. Take a moment to sign the petition to support librarians in Franklin County, and let us know if you’re experiencing cuts and would like help, or if you are ready and willing to stand up and speak up for our fellow School Librarians by filling out this Google Form.

I’m proud to be part of NCSLMA in all we do, from standing up for our profession across the state to curating an annual conference to feed our minds, bodies, and spirits. We are all better together. Jennifer Abel’s conference theme a few years ago reminded us all that we are not alone in the library, and though we may be strolling through Jurassic Park, just take a look around and you’ll see that your Jeep is packed with other school librarians supporting you. In the original Jurassic Park movie, Dr. Malcolm said, “Life finds a way.” Well, librarians find a way, too, as long as we stick together.

Conference may be seven months away, but we’ve already started our marathon jog of planning. On January 23, the conference committee spent all day at the Koury Convention Center. We toured every room we’ve reserved for conference, ate the soon-to-be-NC-school-librarian-famous cornbread from from Joseph’s, and finalized details for our events. Things are going to be different this year in our new location, but these changes are upgrades and I know you’re going to love them! 

Koury Convention Center and the Sheraton make for a convenient conference attendance experience. Without dealing with weather, you can leave your hotel room and walk quickly to any session. All of our conference sessions are right on the same floor, with the exception of the ballroom, which we’re only using for our group sessions, breakfast, and lunch. Not only are they all on the same floor, they are all pretty much in a circle so if you think you’re lost, you can just keep walking! Our vendors will be set up on the same floor out in the beautiful foyer by all the session rooms! You are going to LOVE how convenient everything is this year!  We also have a wide variety of sizes and styles of session rooms! There is a large tiered theater-style room, a large mini-ballroom, and more traditional sized session rooms. No matter what our presenters need, we have a space for them to give their best possible presentation. There’s also  a Starbucks in the conference center if you need an afternoon pick me up, and lots of places to relax and chat with your fellow school librarians spread throughout the convention center.

However, Koury isn’t surrounded by walkable restaurants like in downtown Winston-Salem. In fact, unless you’re eating at the Four Seasons Mall or at Joseph’s (previously mentioned with the stellar cornbread), there isn’t really anywhere to eat without driving. To solve this dilemma, we’re feeding you! Included in the cost of your conference this year you’ll be served breakfast and lunch both days! Thursday evening we have all kinds of goodies available for you at our 2nd Annual NCLSMA Jama so if you skip dinner Thursday night we’ve got you covered! 

Speaking of NCSLMA Jama, there is an actual CLUB in the Sheraton and it’s a time capsule you will not want to miss! Right outside of the club full of dancing and music, you’ll find another bar and lots of couches and cozy chairs for relaxing. We plan to have a Dungeons and Dragons game you can join, board games you can play, or just a space to talk to your library friends!  Whether you are looking to dance or relax, NCSLMA Jama is the place to be! 

To make the best use of the space and your time, conference is now officially beginning on Wednesday night! You can register as early as 5pm on Wednesday, October 2, so we hope you’ll head to Greensboro, check in to your room, register, and then get ready for our opening mini session! We’ll do our NCLSMA yearly business meeting and also do a “Conference 101” presentation. We’re all new to Koury, so let us make life easier by helping you know everything you need to know about the two days you’re about to enter into. 

If you are getting excited about conference, you may want to consider submitting your proposal to present during the open call to present. You can submit your proposal through April 7th. We’ve even created this doc to help you create the perfect proposal. All proposals are scored blindly, which means the committee members working on this do not see who submits which proposal. Focus on crafting a solid title and description for your best chance at acceptance. 

There are so many more things to talk about, but I need to save something exciting for my April blog! I knew from reading Kristy’s blog posts last year that planning a state-wide conference was an intense undertaking, but the complexities still take me by surprise sometimes. Through each question, concern, and stumbling block, the conference committee is right there beside me. I couldn’t do any of this without them and I’m thankful for all their hard work every day. You’ll be thankful, too, when you experience what a walk in the park (the non-Jurassic kind) the 2024 NCSLMA conference turns out to be!

Well, friends, we made it to 2024! I don’t know how your 2023 went, but mine felt like I was trapped on the struggle bus as it rolled uncontrollably down a hill full of potholes, and if I’m being honest I still feel that way, but I’m so glad to be in a new year filled with new things! The one thing that always takes away that struggle bus feeling is being an active part of NCSLMA and I’m thrilled to be entering into my year as President-Elect. 

If you don’t know me, HI! I’m Faith Huff and I’m a middle school librarian in Gaston County. I’ve been in education since 2005 and in the library since 2016. I loved being a teacher, but being a school librarian is my happy place. Kristy was right when she said “Magic Happens Here” as she named our conference last year and I’m always excited to make magic and see the magic you are all creating in your own libraries. 

I want to take a moment to thank Kristy Sartain for her hard work as President Elect and planning the 2023 NCSLMA Conference. Along with the Conference Committee, Kristy did an amazing job and I am in awe of her and her team. I also want to thank her in advance for the millions of questions she’s already answered for me and all the ones still to come as we get ready for the 2024 NCSLMA Conference. Kristy and I met in 2020 as part of the NCSLMA Leadership Academy and it’s been a privilege to watch her grow as a librarian and as a leader. She’s the reason I finally felt brave enough to run for President-Elect because not only is she awesome, she created an NCSLMA Conference Committee! Knowing I have her support AND Heath Radford and his team behind me makes planning the next conference seem not only doable, but fun! 

The 2024 NCSLMA Conference will be held Oct. 3-4 in Greensboro at Koury Convention Center. We’re excited to try something new this year (at least new to me!) and are creating some unique experiences for you that can only be had at Koury. Not only are we shifting locations, we’re also hosting conferences for two full days on Thursday and Friday instead of moving into Saturday. We know from conference feedback over the last few years that this is something you have been wanting and we’re excited to see how it goes. Your feedback on anything we do is so valuable and we use it, so make 2024 the year you tell us what you think after anything we offer. NCSLMA serves you, and we can only serve you well if we know what you need! 

The transition to Koury has been a little rough so far. Due to some staffing changes at Koury, we’ve had some hiccups getting ahead like we were hoping. On January 23 we will be touring Koury Convention Center with our contacts as well as sitting down and finalizing all the details. We’ll be looking at all the rooms and deciding what locations will best serve us in the convention center, as well as talking about food and drinks and NCSLMA Jama and everything else that makes our conference one of my favorite things each year. NCSLMA Jama is leveling up this year…I cannot wait to tell you more! Hopefully in my next blog post if all goes well at our meeting!  

There is one thing I know for sure about conference….we have one of our guest speakers confirmed. I’m excited to announce that Amanda Jones will be speaking at our conference as well as signing copies of her new book, That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America which will release August 27th of this year.

Amanda has been awarded the Louisiana School Librarian of the Year (2020), Library Journal Mover & Shaker (2021), School Library Journal Librarian of the Year (2021), and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! She is as tough as she is kind and I tell her often that I’m not sure I could do what she’s done. She tells me I could and that all librarians could. I hope no one reading this ever has to find out, but knowing someone like Amanda has paved the way and literally wrote the book on it makes me feel a little better. Check out her website for more information about her and her school library’s website has been more than inspirational to me as I’ve definitely taken some of her ideas and put them into place in my own library. 

I’m looking forward to the year ahead and serving as your NCSLMA President-Elect. I intend to take this role, and my job, seriously, but never myself. Am I going to give 100% in this role? Yes. Am I going to have a blast doing it? Absolutely! Here’s to 2024! 

Now that the 2023 Conference is officially in the books, I can pass the torch on to Faith Huff, Heath Radford, and the Conference Committees. While I struggled while helping to plan the conference (and please know, if I say “I” did something, I mean the team, unless it was a mistake, then that was me), I really did enjoy the actual event itself. It was so nice to have so many people tell us how much they were enjoying it. Yes, things could have been better. We know that. We are probably more keenly aware of things that could have gone better than anyone would ever know. But a lot of things went really well. And I mean really well. 

We received some great feedback from the 80 of you who took the time to send it. Thank you so  much for filling out that form! We went through it and used it to help us decide how to continue planning the 2024 conference.

Before we get into that, I wanted to share some data with you about this year’s conference. I am all about transparency, so here we go. We had 500 people register for conference. 475 actually checked in. The majority of the attendees (66%) were elementary or K-8 school librarians. Just 33% of us were secondary librarians. We had just under $70,000 in registration fees. Our vendors helped contribute about $30,000, so we brought in right at $100,000. We’re still waiting on final costs for Benton as they have to tally up all the food costs, but we’re expecting to pay around $75,000 for the space ($24k) and the food ($51k). We had to pay $17,000 to the companies who set up the technology and the vendor booths. Hotel costs and travel expenses for our special guests added up to about $8,000. Keynote and speaker fees totaled $5,000. Supplies and swag and other conference expenses were about $13,000. We expect for this conference to cost around $118,000. All my degrees are in words, so this total will probably be off a little. :-) 

Some of the recommendations to change for future conferences are completely out of our control and I wanted to take a minute to address those. We can’t control the size of the session rooms. At Benton, they were all the same size. At Koury, they will be different sizes, so scheduling will be a bit of a nightmare. We will have rooms that can seat anywhere from 32-188 people. We also can’t control which vendors come but it seems many people think we do? We contacted not only vendors from previous conferences, but also vendors that we thought would be a good fit for everything we do in the library. We sent out emails asking our members to contact vendors they would like to see at conference. We are so appreciative of the vendors that do come. The ones who didn’t come, didn’t come. We can’t make vendors come to our conference. We are grateful to the ones who did come. Seriously grateful. We had to add vendors in the main ballroom because that was the only place to put them. We had to juggle the space we had available and the need for session rooms and the need for vendor income and and and. It was the best that we could do with what we had. We will have more vendor space at Koury, so that’s good. 

We definitely plan to tweak and improve the Author Alley. The authors who attended really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere and time to talk to everyone who came in. We will work harder to communicate the schedule. The setup will be better as well. Another suggestion was to have more food and drinks available. The problem with that is that food at conferences is ridiculously expensive. Seriously, a can of soda costs us $4.00 at a Convention Center. The food and drinks we had this year cost around $51,000 with tax. Convention Centers charge sales tax, plus a 23% tax on top of that. Our food minimum at Koury will be $50,000, so with taxes, at a minimum, we will spend $65,000. That is over half the conference budget. We will have more food than this year and it will come at a cost. But with such a good chunk of people saying they wanted more food and drinks, it seems like that is definitely a need. Expect conference registration fees to go up a little to help with that. The good thing about Koury is that they have restaurants and cafes on site. However, nothing else is in walking distance. Well, the mall is right there. And parking is free. So that’s a benefit!

Now on to the good stuff! Everyone across the board LOVED Donna Washington. I am glad so many people stayed to listen to her. She is an absolute treasure and I am grateful she agreed to be at our conference. Amy Hermon’s keynote got the conference off to a great start. We all love her and so many people commented about how great it was that she mingled with everyone, it seemed. I still can’t believe she agreed to be our opening keynote! I hope you had the chance to listen to the podcast dedicated to our conference. It’s long, but so so so good. It’s great to hear all of your voices! A lot of people commented on the overall vibe of the conference, that it was fun and lighthearted and magical. And that is what I was going for. I’m glad it came through. I wanted us to have time to relax and learn and connect. And it sounds like that happened for most of you. Another positive was the “classroom” seating in the rooms. I hate going to a conference and having to balance my laptop in my lap. I have a Microsoft Surface Pro, so it’s not easy to do that. The tables were there for a purely selfish reason. The only drawback of that is that it did cut down a little on available seating in the rooms, but I think it might have been worth it? Another minor request was to have something available during lunch, but here’s the thing. WAY more people said they preferred not having something during lunch. It was close to  a 4-1 ratio who preferred not having something planned during lunch. We know we can’t make everyone happy. That is impossible. So we go with the majority from the feedback we receive. 

And finally, we heard so many positive comments about the quality of the sessions. This. This is why we come to conference and keep coming back. It’s because of the presenters. We are doing such great and awesome things in our libraries and having the venue to share what we are doing is the entire reason for having a conference. We hope to have more session slots open next year so we can have more people presenting. Fingers crossed! If you didn’t find a session that you wanted to see, you have seen a need at future conferences! Please submit a proposal when the call to present opens. If you didn’t see enough middle or high school sessions, encourage your fellow librarians to submit session proposals. 

I want to thank, yet again, but never enough, the people who helped with planning this conference. Heath Radford, Emily Golightly, Colleen Graham, Mandy Keziah, Marcia Wingerd, Jennifer Abel, Jenny Umbarger, Pam Sands, Natalie Ezell, Jackie Bathony, Jen Cox, Laura Ullom, and Robert Yancey. You all are rock stars and I will never be able to tell you how much it means to me that you were there to help with whatever needed to be helped with. This team has set the bar for future conferences and I know we are in great hands.

Bookishly yours,
Kristy

I already knew I wouldn't be good at planning a conference. When I get overwhelmed, I tend to shut down and go into survival mode. You can't plan a conference when you do that. If it weren't for the team of AMAZING people helping with this thing, it wouldn't have gone on. Heck, it still might not just because I have something to do with it.

But I was really not prepared for the sheer number of e-mails I would be receiving, especially as it got closer. The number of people who wait until the last second to respond when given a deadline, or who reply after the deadline. The number of people who don't respond at all, causing even more work on our end. We are currently at 415 people registered, an increase of like 45 in the last couple of days, which is awesome. However, I already ordered swag and now I don't think I ordered enough. There are a number of checks either in the mail or about to be mailed and while I have been giving as much grace as I absolutely can, there are deadlines for a reason. We have to pay real bills and real people to put on this conference. Attending the conference is always the highlight of my year and I'm hoping it is the same for others. But planning something this big for this many people when you have a full time job and a ton of personal things going on is not for everyone. Heck, it's probably not for MOST people. Today alone I received 34 e-mails to my NCSLMA e-mail address that needed to be answered. Thank goodness my district made it a remote learning day so I could actually answer them. Can you imagine a school librarian in the midst of giving out Chromebooks or starting the school year and having to answer 34 additional e-mails from the ones they receive from their school e-mail? That's why I can't get to everyone in less than 48 hours and why e-mails get buried so quickly.  

I am looking forward to the conference so much because I love going and seeing everyone there. It's a great time for camaraderie and learning and for some of us who live far apart, the only time all year we get to see each other in person. Right now, though, I want to cry. And y'all - I have freaking amazing help. These conference chairs and committees are KILLING it. I cannot imagine planning this behemoth without help. Just today, I remember I have to order three things that are pretty important to the conference - badge tags, signage, and ID tags. They have been on my list for weeks to order. I remembered today. Have I done it? Nope. Will I do it this weekend? I hope so. Probably. Someone text me on Saturday and remind me. :-) 

I did order the swag this week. It probably won't be enough. I received an e-mail from the company I ordered them from asking if I had a loading dock because one of the items will have to come on a pallet because of the quantity. Um, at my house? A loading dock? *sigh* No. So now they have to send a special truck. So everyone better love these freaking NCSLMA bags with the embroidered logo. I don't want to hear a single negative thing about them. The only thing I should hear is that they are absolutely perfect. hahahahahahahahahahaha

Apparently I'm going slightly manic. Honestly, I don't know if that's new and/or when it started. Definitely before today. I got a massage today and the lady (who prefers being called a Bodywork Therapist and I'm loving that) said she was very worried about the amount of stress in my shoulders and neck. Yup. You and me both. But come October 8, I can breathe again. Maybe even sleep all the way through the night. 

I absolutely love NCSLMA. Seriously, one of the greatest things that ever happened to me professionally was being chosen for the Leadership Academy in 2019 for the 2020 inaugural cohort. The friends I made in that group and the opportunities that have come from it have been immeasurable. I will do anything for this organization. Just please don't ask me to plan a conference ever again. Please. Pretty please. With whipped cream on top. 

Howdy all! Remember me? It's been two months since my last post and I am very sorry about that I promised transparency and information and I haven't been doing that.

So let's catch up.

After my last post, I basically curled up in a ball and cried for a while. Then for a few weeks, I was afraid to even open my e-mail. Very little got done on my part until I pulled out of it. Thankfully, I have AMAZING committee chairs and a fantastic co-chair and they carried the weight. I seriously could not have gotten through all of that without them and the support of Jenny U. and Jennifer A. And also with the help of Brew Crew. I absolutely love the community that NCSLMA is and I hope I am able to participate in it for a very long time.

The last couple of weeks, we've been e-mailing people and arranging accommodations and making decisions. But this weekend? This weekend, the committee chairs went on a retreat to end all retreats! We rented a house for a few days and got so much done! We made lots of hard decisions that should never be on one person. 

I cannot thank Emily Golightly, Colleen Graham, Mandy Keziah, Heath Radford, and Marcia Wingerd enough for their help and leadership this weekend. 

We were able to accomplish so much to work towards the end of planning conference. I can't even list all the decisions we made and what we finished, but trust there was a long list. There is still a lot of work to do, but after this weekend, I feel so much better about where we are and where we're going. I did work on the Featured Speaker page, so if you want to see who has confirmed being at the conference so far, check that out at Featured Speakers. It will be updated as progress continues. 

We're trying to get to Benton in the next few weeks to determine and finalize the seating and vendor layout. We're trying to get a mix of classroom and theater seating in the rooms. I am a big fan of having desks when I'm learning so I can spread out a little and not have to type on the laptop in my lap. I'm also a physical note taker, so I like having a notebook as well. Yes, I'm high maintenance. I know that. :-)

I've sent out a couple of e-mails about early bird ending. If your have not paid your registration by July 14 at 11:59pm, your registration will be canceled and you will have to reregister at the next rate. Presenters, your presenter discount code expires July 14 at 11:59pm, so make sure you register and pay ASAP. 

We're up to 184 people registered as of this blog post. We have a cap of 550 due to space, so we still have plenty of spots. But I'm pretty sure they'll start to fill up soon. This is shaping up to be a fun conference where we'll get to learn and grow together! Also, we have a ton of door prizes. Make sure you're following our social media so you can see what you could win. 

Registration Link
Conference Information Link

Facebook Page
Facebook Group (request to join and answer all membership questions - only for NCSLMA members)
Instagram
Twitter

I hope you all have a happy, healthy summer and I'll make sure to keep you up to date better than I have been doing. 

But seriously, thank you to the Conference Committee. I know myself pretty well and I know for 100% sure that this conference would not look anything like it does right now if I were the only person planning it. 

Thank you!

Kristy

T- I don’t even know and after today, does it even matter?

One thing I was not prepared for was the Call to Present. After accidentally deleting the entire thing and having to start over, I thought, “This couldn’t get worse.” I was wrong.

The e-mails of whose proposals were accepted and were not went out yesterday (Sunday). I was unprepared for the vitriol that would be directed towards me from people whose proposals were not accepted. I did explain in the e-mails that the proposals were evaluated and scored using a rubric by several people. We took the averages of those scores and arranged the proposals in order of that. We have fewer than 90 available session slots and had 160 proposals. I would have loved to accept everyone’s proposal. But it just couldn’t happen. The committee never saw any presenter’s name. The evaluations were done blind, with just the session title and description. I did that so the merit of the session would be how it was evaluated. Not by name recognition. Was that wrong? Obviously so. I have never received so many e-mails where people are mad at *me* and ready to drop NCSLMA and not have anything to do with us. 

I understand being disappointed. I truly get it. I have applied for tons of awards, grants, sessions, etc. that I didn’t get. Did I think I deserved them? Abso-freaking-lutely. Did I lash out to the committees who made the decision? Abso-freaking-lutely not. Did I send a polite e-mail asking for feedback so I could do better next time? Yes. I did receive one of those and I am grateful for it. I will e-mail you back after I have had time to recover from the other e-mails I read today. I probably wouldn’t have been so upset about this whole thing if it had only been one or two e-mails. Y’all. So far, it’s been almost a dozen. That many people angry at *me* because their session wasn’t chosen. 

The committee that read the proposals and helped score them gave so much of their time to go through 160 sessions. Should I have gone through every one of them and said, “Well, that person is this person so they deserve for me to cancel out what the committee believes.” Maybe I should have. But then I would have had to eliminate sessions who scored higher to make room for sessions who scored lower. That doesn’t sit right with me. I value EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. Who took the time to submit a proposal and those who helped score the proposals AND those who are planning this conference. This is not a thin-skinned person’s position. And I don’t usually have thin skin, but after what I received today, I’m reconsidering everything about being President-Elect and planning this whole conference. 

But I committed to this and I’m going to see it through. Obviously with several people who now hate me, but the friends I have made while being involved with NCSLMA make it worth every tear I have cried today and every e-mail draft I didn’t send because I am not that person. 

Anyway, there’s other conference stuff going on, but I’ll write more about that next week. I’m done with this week.

First, the reminders.

There is just under a month left to submit your proposal to present at Conference. 

Vendor registration is open. If you have a vendor that you love to see each year, let them know you can’t wait to see them in October!

The Magic in Your Library promotion will be going through September. If you haven’t submitted some magic you’re making, please consider it.

And now, the updates.

In the two weeks since my last post, there have been even more meetings. I know. You’re surprised. I can tell. 

The PR committee met to catch up on things. And y’all! They are WORKING! We already have our first door prize donation from a local Winston-Salem business. Camino Bakery (Downtown 4th Street location) has donated six coffee mugs and they are NICE! When you’re planning your time outside of the sessions, please consider adding them to your list of business to visit. 

The Featured Speaker committee has been BUSY brainstorming and then contacting storytellers to fill our storyteller panel. Emily had some ideas on how to get even more storytellers, so we’re going to meet soon to discuss that. It was a brilliant idea and I’m mad I didn’t come up with it. 

***The President Council met and decided we could keep the registration rates the same as years before. We also decided to lower the presenter registration rate to $50 (and that will include some special NCSLMA swag). When we looked over the survey results (if you haven’t filled it out, check it out here), most people said the cost of conference kept them from going. While we can’t lower it, we can keep the cost the same. We hope to be able to still provide a fantastic conference experience and some awesome swag. We want you to be able to sport NCSLMA logoed stuff everywhere you go and show your pride in our organization!

Speaking of swag, we’re currently running a sale of 20% off everything in the NCSLMA store. 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week and I look forward to updating you again soon on what all is going on with the conference!

Kristy

T-33

I feel like every week I say things are happening, but that’s because things are happening every week! It’s exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

This past week, the Call to Present went out. We’re up to 10 submissions already. Keep them coming! The Magic in Your Library promotion went out as well. The PR team is really looking forward to hearing your stories so we can share what you are doing with the world. 

Speaking of the PR team, we met briefly on Tuesday. Mandy created the Magic in Your Library form and the group fine-tuned some of the tasks they will be working on. They have such great ideas and will help make conference a special experience!

The Featured Speaker committee met Sunday and we got a LOT done. We met for almost an hour and a half. Remember, I really do love meetings AND I absolutely adore Pam and Emily so I was just excited to see and talk to them. :-) We discussed the changes from years past and the Featured Speaker and Storyteller Guild rosters. I’m very happy with their vision and plans and can’t wait to see what storytellers they are able to secure.

I have been listening to the School Librarians United podcast and one of the episodes was with the Conference Planner for another state’s school library organization. She said people kept asking her if she was stressed about planning a conference for so many people and she said she wasn’t, that she trusted the people she was working with. I am so lucky to have such amazing people helping out. I’m a bit of a control freak (don't laugh or roll your eyes - I know what I am) and I am absolutely going to stress about it, but I know all of these amazing librarians are fantastic and I’m not stressing because of them. I’m stressing because it’s who I am. LOL I have met so many amazing people and I am honored that they wanted to be part of the planning of this conference. 

Speaking of amazing people, Heath is still working on getting the rooms straight at Embassy. He has probably spent hours at this point trying to get someone there to respond to his e-mails or phone calls. We try to stick with e-mails so there is a paper trail and because we all have full time jobs that do not include conference planning. Fingers crossed that this week we’ll have those rooms firmed up.

Outside the conference, things are happening with NCSLMA as well. Our book club, Page Turners, meets on Saturday to discuss Mad Honey by Jodi Piccoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. It’s not too late to sign up for the book club! Jennifer Long is our new Book Club Coordinator and she has taken to it like a duck to water. Or a librarian to a book club. Hahahahahahaha 

We also have the Winter Tune Up starting Monday. Check out ncslma.org/winter2023 for our winter PD opportunity. Each day this week, the recordings will be linked so you can learn and earn! The PD certificate will be available on Friday so you can submit them to your district for CEUs. Shoutout to Lori Munroe and the Regional Directors for putting it together this year! 

Be on the lookout this week-ish for the notification that our Awards, Scholarships, and Grants are available. Did you know that you can apply to be the Media Coordinator of the Year even if your district doesn’t choose one? Self nomination is absolutely encouraged! Share your magic with the Robin Rhodes and the Awards Committee!

Y’all know I like to talk and write a lot, but I thank you for reading this far. I hope these glimpses of the behind the scenes of planning a conference help paint the bigger picture of what all goes into it. We put on our conference really as a love letter to our members and I want you to know that we keep that in mind with every decision that is made.