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Rosalind Dennis, GLMA President
School is going full force! Labor Day has come and gone! There is a hint of cool crispness in the air! Fall is finally here, and the annual conference of the Georgia Council of Media Organizations (GaCOMO) is less than a month away.
Co-sponsored by the Georgia Association for Instructional Technology (GAIT), the Georgia Library Association (Georgia Library Association), and the Georgia Library Media Association (GLMA), GaCOMO is Georgia’s only statewide library conference. The theme, “Beaches, Blogs and Books,” can be experienced by all who attend the conference October 17-19, at beautiful Jekyll Island, GA. Though the early bird discount has expired, the conference registration is still quite affordable. Registration for members of one of the co-sponsoring organizations is $125; for non-members, $140. One day registration is also available for $75 (members) and $85 (non-members). If you are still not quite sure about attending the conference, perhaps a look at the Conference Highlights will convince you to register today for GaCOMO!
Conference Highlights
Wednesday, October 17
- Pre-Conference Workshops
- Reception for First Timers & Presenters
- General Session – Keynote Speaker: Deborah Wiles, Children’s Book Author
Thursday, October 18
- Sampling of Concurrent Sessions
- Gone to the Dogs: Books, Bones, and the Reluctant Reader
- Technology Boot Camp for Teachers
- Lexiles, Librarians, and Leadership
- GHRAB (“grab”) Bag of Project Ideas Using Primary Sources!
- GLA School Library Media Division/Georgia Library Media Association (GLMA) Luncheon -- Kim Siegelson, Speaker
- General Session
- LMSOTY District Winners introduced and Georgia LMSOTY announced
- Keynote Speaker: Leslie Fisher, Technology Guru
- Authors’ Reception
Friday, October 19
- Sampling of Concurrent Sessions
- GLMA Grants for Your Media Program
- Georgia Performance Standards Start in the School Library Media Center
What’s New in GALILEO
- And the 2008 Nominees Are…(Georgia Children’s Book Award program)
- “Nuts and Bolts” of Reader’s Theater
- General Session – Keynote Speaker: Frank Winstead, Educator/Retired Library Director
- Georgia Library Media Association Fall Board Meeting
For comprehensive conference information, visit the Web site (http://www.georgiacomo.org/) to view a list of hotel accommodations, pre-conference workshops, concurrent sessions, exhibitors, presenters, and authors who will be attending the authors’ reception. Great conference sessions/exhibits, networking opportunities, restaurants, history, and the beach life await you on Jekyll Island. We hope to see you there!
GLMA – Ready, Set, Go! For the first time in recent history, all district chair positions are filled. I want to publicly welcome our newest chairpersons: Fran George and Drenda Sternenberg, Chattahoochee District; and Beth Shoemaker, Heart of Georgia District. The GLMA leadership recognizes that only as we strengthen the individual districts will we strengthen our state organization. We need to have all of our members actively participating in the organization through the listserv, district meetings, and statewide meetings. In fact, many districts have already met for the first time this school year. Their meetings have included professional learning opportunities, discussion of library best practices, and author visits. Please take a minute to visit the Web site http://glma-inc.org/officers.htm/ to identify your district and chairperson. Then, contact your District Chairperson to take a more active role in district and GLMA activities.
We must spread the word and improve the understanding of our stakeholders by explaining the role of the school library media specialist in school improvement. We must communicate how the school library media program can positively impact student achievement.
We must also reach out to our legislators. It is helpful to send our legislators postcards and letters, and make phone calls to inform them of the needs of your school program, but the best way of letting our legislators know what we do and what our programs need is to invite your legislators to visit your library. Pick a time when your library is busy with a special event or activity. Show them what you have been able to purchase with the restoration of some of the library media funding. Share specific examples of why you need better funding. Have the camera ready, as legislators want to have their names in front of their constituents. By helping them, you will also be helping our profession. Thanks for all you do! Ready, Set, Go!
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President-Elect Message
Crazy Busy?
By GLMA President-elect Sherry Grove
Are you too busy? Are you always running behind? Is your calendar loaded with more than you can possibly accomplish? Is it driving you crazy? Well, you’re not alone. I, too, am one of those people who have grown into a “crazy busy” lifestyle. Crazy guilty, crazy exhausted! I am an empty nester with a full-time job, a part-time job, a house, a gym membership etc. My life seems like one long, seemingly endless to-do list.
In his book “Crazy Busy – Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD,” psychiatrist Dr. Edward M. Hallowell shares ideas about the problems (overcommitted, speeded-up lifestyles) along with some practical solutions.
I’ve been down the CrazyBusy path and I recognized myself in some of Hallowell’s examples. Pushing myself harder, multi-tasking, addicted to incoming e-mails, IM’s, text messages, cell phones all 24/7 while feeling like it might all come crashing down around me at any time.
I roll my eyes when he presents anecdotes about screensucking, taildogging and frazzing at work. I completely identified with descriptions of dealing with gemmelsmerches, doomdarts and kudzu from info addicts and then I begin to worry that the Megaloctopus is going to chomp me up one day soon.
Not familiar with these “Crazy Busy” terms? Let me explain about these words Hallowell uses to describe problems people face in the modern world:
Screensucking: Wasting time looking at any screen – video game, television, computer, etc.
Taildogging: Allowing the tail to wag the dog. Going fast or pushing harder on yourself, your kids or your business just because people are doing so and you don’t want to be left behind in life’s great race.
Frazzin: Multitasking ineffectively
Gemmelsmerch: Stuff that distracts you from what you want to do or should do.
Doomdart: An obligation you have forgotten about that suddenly pops into your consciousness like a poisoned dart.
Kudzu: The unstoppable, unkillable stream of unexpected minor requests from people everywhere that slows humans down.
Info addicts: A person addicted to keeping up second by second with what is going on and relying totally on other people’s judgment to select what belongs under that term.
The Megaloctopus: A best made of people who try to steal your time. It pursues you daily, extends its tentacles and tries to stop you from accomplishing tasks.
Although Dr. Hallowell offers a number of suggestions for fixes, he also goes a step further to discuss how being busy, overloaded and forced into ineffective multitasking can present opportunities of creativity, ingenuity and inspiration. He describes how to cope with the rampant busyness of our high-speed, globalized modern life, turning “the rush, the gush, the worry and the blather” into allies. You can have the things you want with the speed, volume and emotional energy of a crazy busy lifestyle if you can manage to find the time to read “Crazy Busy.”
And, oh, by the way, take the time to renew your membership in GLMA and encourage colleagues who are also “Crazy Busy” to join our ranks!