If you are reading this issue of the “The Media News Leader,” it is probably because you are currently a member of GLMA. Because you are a member, I am going to ask you to do something important for your organization… I am asking each member to recruit other colleagues to become GLMA members.

Why? Because you already know the benefits of membership in this organization:

But, maybe you don’t know that this organization strives to represent not just you, the member, but every media specialist in the state of Georgia.
If our governmental relations coordinator learns of important legislature that will affect Georgia media specialists, she makes sure that she provides this information for all of the media specialists, not just the ones who are GLMA members.

If our organizational maintenance coordinator plans activities for the GLMA Summer Camp (Leadership Institute), the activities are planned with every media specialist in the state in mind, not just the ones who are GLMA members.

If the GLMA president, the president-elect, the immediate past president, the 2002 calendar year president, the treasurer, the governmental relations coordinator, and the organizational maintenance coordinator wait at the capitol on Library Day until 3:00 to attend the Education Sub-Committee meeting, it is so they can tell the house committee members about the budgetary constraints of all of the media specialists in Georgia, not just the ones who are GLMA members.

So, why should you become a member of an organization that is already doing so much for you and you haven’t even paid your dues?
Because it is time for you to pay your dues.
It is time for you to step up to the table and become an active, no, not just an active, but a proactive member. Your voice matters, you action matters, and your leadership in student success matters. And, we always need and welcome more leaders.

If you know persons who will, along with you, make great members and leaders in our organization, e-mail this website to them and be sure to ask them to read my message. It wasn’t so long ago that I was just a media specialist in Georgia, not a GLMA member.

Millicent Drake Norman,
GLMA President, 2004

So much has happened in the library world since our last issue. The GLMA annual board meeting in January. Library Legislative Day in February. Read Across America day in March. April is National Poetry Month and we’ll be celebrating National Library Week in April (18-24).

Around now we’re all looking forward to completing our inventories, gathering up the wayward books, and generally winding down the school year in anticipation of the Summer break. Even though it’s a hectic time, it is the perfect time to take a breather and reflect on the school year.
Did you or your library media program improve this year? How? Did you get involved in the letter-writing campaign to convince our legislators to keep the media controls on the budget in HB 1190? Are you in a more positive place in your school than you were last year?


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