[Asis-l] Congratulations to ASIST Chapter of the Year Award winners: LACASIS & SOASIST!!

[beata_panagopoulos at Harvard.Edu]

ASIST 2004 Chapter of the Year Award
Jury:  Patricia Carter, Nicole Hennig, Karen Howell (Chair), Mies Martin,
Gail Thornberg

Chapter of the Year (co-winners)

Los Angeles Chapter
  and
Southern Ohio Chapter

Congratulations to the Las Angeles and Southern Ohio chapters of ASIST for
winning the 2004 Chapter of the Year award!  LACASIS and SOASIST are model
ASIST chapters, with strong membership services, interesting programs,
involved member volunteers, and award programs to recognize dedicated
chapter members.


LACASIS

LACASIS consistently recruits and develops strong chapter and ASIST
leadership.  Much of this can be attributed to their focus on recruiting
new membership and involving them in chapter activities.  Each year the
chapter appoints a Coordinator for Membership Recruitment, Welcome, and
Retention. At the conclusion of each meeting or event, the Coordinator
sends a letter to potential new members. This year 216 recruitment letters
were sent to non-member program attendees.
Student members are very important to the growth of future leaders in
LACASIS and ASIST.  LACASIS reaches out to students by appointing a Student
Chapter Coordinator who, along with other LACASIS Board members, visits
library and information student events, including career  fairs,
professional association days and resume workshops.  Students are recruited
as volunteers for the Annual Fall Workshop and in return receive free
workshop registration. The chapter also sponsors a Student Scholarship
competition, which awards travel to an ASIST Annual Meeting and student
memberships in ASIST.

SOASIST

SOASIST did a remarkable job of planning, organizing, and carrying out
events for this last year. The chapter shows excellent attention to
membership interest by surveying them about program topics they would like
to see. This year SOASIST was determined to leverage its funds for the
benefit of ASIST members as well as for the wider community.  The chapter
hosted Thomas S. Blanton in Dayton, Ohio, and offered his seminar on the
USA Patriot Act free of charge.  This was an outreach program designed to
keep the public informed of the implications of the congressional act on
the U.S. Constitution.  The chapter viewed the cost of the program as an
offer of public service, true to the values that we in the information
science community hold.  The chapter issued press releases in local
newspapers to reach out to the community.

SOASIST collaborates on programs with other organizations such as the
Central Ohio Chapters of ASIS&T and SLA, the Miami Valley Computing
Societies, and the Greater Cincinnati Library Consortium.  This helps the
chapter reach a broader audience and makes effective use of their
resources. The chapter also posts HTML/PDF slides of most of the past
programs.

The enthusiasm and leadership of this chapter is very evident, and makes
SOASIST a chapter on the move, as their newsletter motto so aptly states.

Please join us in congratulating both the Los Angeles Chapter and the
Southern Ohio Chapter for being “model chapters” of ASIST.


--
Karen Howell
Past Chapter Assembly Director

and

Beata Panagopoulos
Chapter Assembly Director