[Chapters-l] 2008 ASIS&T Chapter Awards - and the winners are ...

[Beata Panagopoulos]

Announcement of the 2008 ASIS&T Chapter Assembly Award Winners

I would like to heartily thank the Chapter Awards Jury for their fine work 
judging the submissions we received.  The jury consisted of:  Amy Wallace, 
Deputy Chapter Assembly Director, and the Chapter Advisors:  Penny 
O'Connor, Linda Rudell-Betts, Allison Brueckner, Rachel Clemens, Barbara 
Dunham. 

Throughout the year, ASIS&T chapters host fascinating programs and 
workshops, sponsor scholarships, do outreach into communities for ASIS&T 
and offer our members myriad learning and networking opportunities in a 
local setting.  Everyone working at the chapter level is strengthening 
ASIS&T and growing our membership.  A huge round of applause goes out to 
all of you!

Please read below, not only the names of the winners, but also the 
description of what they achieved. I think you will agree that they are 
amazing.   Many congratulations to you all! We look forward to honoring 
the winners at the Chapter Assembly meeting in Columbus, Sunday, Oct. 26 
in the McKinley Room. 

Beata Panagopoulos
ASIS&T Chapter Assembly Director
*******************************************

Chapter Event of the Year
The Chapter Event of the Year Award goes to two excellent programs, 
“Working Together, Working Differently: How Millennials are Changing the 
Way other Generations Learn, Interact, and Do Commerce” hosted by the 
Potomac Valley Chapter and “Tag You’re It: A Dialog Between Social Tagging 
and Traditional Classification hosted by the Los Angeles Chapter.  Both 
nominations received nearly identical scores with a common theme of 
participant engagement.  Each event also had its own distinct strengths 
and benefits to members. 

The Potomac Valley Chapter event included a behind-the-scenes docent tour 
of the Library of Congress, a discussion of local networking 
opportunities, and a two-hour Socratic discussion based on The Pew 
Research Center's report, "How Young People View Their Lives, Futures, and 
Politics: A Portrait of Generation Next,” led by Roberta Shaffer, the 
Executive Director of FLICC/FEDLINK.  The discussion was lively and 
heated, and no doubt left everyone with a clearer picture of different 
generational concerns on the way people learn, interact, and do commerce. 
The chapter was able to keep the event low cost for members and free for 
students, which resulted in 58 attendees of which 21 were students. 
Reviewers were impressed by all that the chapter managed to pack into this 
single program, the various options for participation, and the chapter’s 
commitment to providing a low cost or no cost program. 

The Los Angeles Chapter event gathered speakers from various sectors to 
present information on social tagging and open a dialog on its 
relationship to existing classification practices.  Speakers represented 
public libraries, academic libraries, and museums.  In addition to 
facilitating dialog, the event was also a financial success since the 
chapter was able to secure free facilities and lost cost catering.  All 
presentations and handouts were made available on the LACASIS website 
(www.lacasis.org).  Reviewers noted the timeliness of the topic, speaker 
diversity, and the opportunity this interactive program presented to 
membership. 

Chapter Innovation of the Year
The Chapter Innovation of the Year Award goes to the Los Angeles Chapter 
for its business Wiki (lacasis.wikidot.com).  The LACASIS business wiki, 
launched in August 2007, is a private web-based collaboration space for 
board-members to conduct chapter business.  The wiki has played a role in 
nearly all chapter activities, including document archiving, member 
contacts, program planning/discussion, and meeting date/location 
information.  Knowledge-sharing amongst the board members has been greatly 
facilitated by this implementation.  The board members have also 
experimented with the survey tool widget to further reduce the need for 
managing email and alerts to notify members when content has changed. 
Reviewers viewed the business wiki as an effective and efficient way for 
members to plan and communicate as well as a powerful means of archiving 
and documenting the information for future chapter leaders. 

Chapter Member of the Year
The Chapter Member of the Year Award goes to three people who are doing 
extraordinary things for both their chapters and ASIST: Rachael Green 
Clemens (Carolinas), Christine Quirion (New England), Bo-Gay Salvador (Los 
Angeles).  As you read the information below, keep in mind that Rachael is 
a student, Christine jointly serves as program chair and chair of one of 
the most active chapters, and Bo-Gay is retired. 

Rachael was instrumental in helping to charter an ASIS&T chapter for North 
and South Carolina in 2007. She utilized her years of extensive experience 
with ASIS&T to take a leadership role in the formation of the local 
chapter. As Program Committee, she led the coordination and promotion of 
the chapter’s inaugural program entitled, “Institutional Repositories: The 
Great Debate.” The event, which took place in April 2008, drew an 
enthusiastic and diverse audience from the local library and information 
science community.  Reviewers noted her unconditional commitment and 
ability to juggle so many efforts on behalf of the Carolinas Chapter.

Christine Quirion is a true leader for the New England Chapter.  This year 
while performing many Program Chair duties, she also served as the Chapter 
Chair. Her efforts to keep members involved and engaged in a time of 
transitional leadership were a key factor in keeping the New England 
Chapter active and vibrant.  In addition, she experimented with new 
technologies such as blogs, podcasts, and Skype to help keep non-Boston 
members informed and involved in chapter activities. Reviewers were 
impressed by her willingness to jump right in when needed and her 
innovative approaches. 
 
Bo-Gay is an indispensable resource for the Los Angeles Chapter. This year 
she served as Hospitality Chair, which means attending every program, 
greeting members and program speakers, tracking incoming payments for 
programs and program registrations, and maintaining the chapter’s post 
office box.  The reviewers commented on her continuous level of commitment 
to her chapter over the years as well as her key role in making events 
happen in a chapter that hosts a number of large and small programs each 
year. 

Chapter Publication of the Year
The Chapter Publication of the Year Award goes to the Los Angeles 
Chapter’s Observation of the American Society for Information Science and 
Technology (OASIS) Newsletter (oasisnewsletter.wikispaces.com/).  The Los 
Angeles Chapter has been publishing the OASIS Newsletter for over 40 
years.  As the times have changed so too has the format.  The chapter 
migrated from print to electronic in 2004.  Electronic delivery over the 
years has included access to a PDF version, a database driven newsletter, 
and the current wiki format. 

This year the new editor, Grace Lau, increased the variety and volume of 
content and encouraged a wider range of contributors by featuring at least 
two member submissions and providing students with an opportunity to 
publish articles in this professional forum.  As a result, each of the 
three issues featured at least one student submission from either UCLA or 
SJSU.  Reviewers noted the newsletters’ clean, crisp, concise layout as 
well as the richness of its content.  All were impressed by both the 
diversity of the authors and the editor’s dedication to seeking fresh 
perspectives.