[Libs-Or] Call for 2021 OLA Conference Committee volunteers

[Lacey Legel]

Hello all!
As you've hopefully heard by now, OLA has decided- with the safety and
well-being of our membership in mind- to make our 2021 conference a virtual
experience. This will be a new adventure for all of us- but especially for
our 2021 conference committee! We are currently looking for some wonderful
volunteers to fill roles on our conference planning committee. The
committee roles are a little different this year as we will need some folks
with slightly specialized skills to help us navigate some of the more
technical aspects of the virtual conference experience. We welcome former
volunteers or newbies and will happily pair up volunteers to share roles &
responsibilities. There will be a second call for volunteers after the new
year to help with various roles during the conference (things like
moderators, interviewers, tech assists, etc).

All committee work will be done virtually. The conference is scheduled for
April 21-24, 2021 and you can expect varying time commitments depending on
your role (for example, registration and A/V work will be lighter until Jan
2021 while programming work is underway right now). There will be monthly
conference committee meetings, every 1st Tuesday of the month from Nov 2020
- April 2021 (we will meet on the 13th in Oct 2020). There will be 2
program selection meetings in early November 2020, which we encourage all
committee members to attend but will not be mandatory (except for program
coordinators).

Conference committee work is a great résumé builder, allows you to flex
your awesome organizational skills, and is deeply satisfying volunteer work
since you get to witness the outcomes of your influence and the fruits of
your labor as our membership engages with the many aspects of the
conference. Committee volunteership also fosters excellent communication
and team-building skills, allows for creative thinking and mentorship, and
builds friendly networks between colleagues in library work across our
state. I like to think of the conference committee (which I have
volunteered for over the last 4 years) as friendly, welcoming, fun work
shared between a group of amazing peers who all get their chance to shine
and show off their amazing expertise and dedication- the voice and work of
every member matters and the end result is a conference that we can all be
immensely proud of.

In keeping with our theme of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI, for
short), I would like to encourage volunteers who are passionate about EDI
and who wish to play a part in planning a diverse and engaging online
conference to express their interest, even if they have no prior OLA
committee experience. I would also like to encourage members from all
corners of our state to volunteer as the virtual format will allow our
membership to engage in ways we may never have been able to before- and it
would be ideal if we could include programs, activities, stories and
participation from as many perspectives as possible.

Here are this year's conference committee roles with current volunteers
listed. *All roles can & may be shared between 2 volunteers:*

   - *Program Coordinator* (KT Austin, Wilsonville Public Library) -
   coordinates the requests for proposals (RFP), responds to questions about
   the RFP, collects and shares RFP data for the program selection meetings,
   runs the program selection meetings, finalizes the program selections &
   contacts all those who submitted programs, works with conference chair, OLA
   administrator, and presenters to create conference schedule, is point
   person for communication and response to presenters. Traditionally, an
   individual who fills this role may be asked to serve as the conference
   chair for the following year.
   - *Website Coordinator* - will be responsible for working with our
   conference software provider and the committee to build the layout of our
   conference website. The web coordinator will need to work with all our
   other conference coordinators to ensure that each piece of the online
   conference website is both visually pleasing and operational, from ads and
   exhibitor booths to program presentations. There is lots of room for
   creativity and flair in this role and it is a terrific opportunity for
   someone who loves web design and is a wizard at graphics.
   - *Registration Coordinators* (Alice MacGougan, Salem Public Library,
   and Shirley Roberts, OLA Administrator) - assists the OLA administrator
   with launching and running online conference registration, responds to
   member questions about registration, helps troubleshoot any registration
   issues prior to and during the conference, creates registration reports
   leading up to and following the conference.
   - *Volunteer Coordinator* (Kathy Street, OR Trail Library District) -
   leads the call for volunteers to do things like moderate program panels,
   interview speakers, provide tech help to presenters or assist in potential
   regional in-person activities. This person would solicit volunteers,
   maintain communication with volunteers, assign volunteer roles, and ensure
   that all volunteers are ready to fulfill their roles during the run of the
   conference.
   - *Exhibitor/Sponsorship Coordinator* - solicits exhibitor participation
   in the conference, solicits sponsorship of the OLA conference, maintains
   communication with exhibitors and sponsors, provides specifics for what OLA
   needs exhibitors to provide us for building their virtual booths, ensures
   exhibitor booths look and operate as agreed, ensures that sponsorship
   advertising is properly placed and operational, follows up with exhibitors
   and sponsors to gage their satisfaction with the conference.
   - *Tech Coordinator* (Jeana Menger, Emporia University) - coordinates
   technical aspects of our conference software with Zoom meeting software to
   ensure smooth transitions in presentations and across the board
   accessibility for conference attendees. The tech coordinator may need to
   assist the OLA administrator in negotiating Zoom licenses and ensuring all
   software being used for various aspects of the conference website are
   compatible and working properly. The tech coordinator will determine the
   need and roles of additional tech volunteers, if necessary, and provide any
   training needed. This role provides a great opportunity for someone to
   learn the inner workings of Zoom Meetings and to learn the ins and outs of
   the conference software platform (which will be decided upon in October).
   - *A/V Coordinator* - creates and shares guidelines and advice for
   presenters and speakers to create high quality audio and video recordings
   for submission, answers any A/V related inquiries that presenters, speakers
   or exhibitors may have, reviews all A/V submissions to ensure quality
   standards, troubleshoots A/V issues during conference. A terrific role for
   someone who may already have experience in creating online programming or
   creating appealing videos (helloooo YouTubers!).
   - *Communications/Publicity Coordinator* - updates OLA conference
   website information as it becomes available (olaweb.org), communicates
   conference information/submissions to various outlets, such as the OLA
   Hotline, libs-or list, and OLA membership. Promotes conference attendance
   through notices to library school attendees and alumni associations,
   literary organizations, and other library and library-adjacent groups. A
   great role for a creative person (or people) who loves promotions and is
   great at spreading the word.
   - *Social Activities Coordinator* (Alisa Williams, Multnomah County
   Library) - come up with some creative ideas around fun and interesting
   things we may be able to include in the online conference that are not
   directly program related, potentially coordinate regional meet-ups or
   "pods" to engage in conference related activities or social opportunities
   (dependent on the status of covid infection rates as we get closer to the
   conference), and determine volunteers needed for regional activities and
   provide any training or information to them. We need some folks who know
   how to create FUN and joyful engagement, even in an online format. This
   role is wide open for someone who has creative ideas, loves out-of-the box
   thinking and is an absolute whiz at non-traditional forms of community
   engagement.
   - *Speaker Arrangements Coordinator* - assists the OLA President and OLA
   Conference Chair in finding keynote and guest speakers, provides
   communication, payment and scheduling information to speakers, provides and
   follows up on all speaker contracts. Serves as the contact person for all
   speaker inquiries and ensures that speaker presentations or interviews run
   smoothly and on time.

If you are interested in volunteering or have questions, please contact me
at olaconference at olaweb.org or lacey.legel at gmail.com. If you are
volunteering for the committee, please let me know if you have any
experience that pertains to the role that interests you, what your primary
and secondary roles of most interest are and what special sort of awesome
you will bring to the committee. We would like to have all committee roles
filled no later than October 9th.
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!
Lacey Legel
Multnomah County Library
2021 OLA Conference Chair
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