Sunday, January 27, 2008

Introducing Karna O'Dea, aliaACTive Convenor 2008

It was suggested to me that I should introduce myself as I am now taking over the role of aliaACTive convenor from Sherrey Quinn. Most of you already know of me from my role of the AGLIN Information Sharing Officer for the past 3 years. This function has now in the capable hands of Nicola Cross.

I currently work in the Metadata team at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. I have been involved with ALIA as an active member for the past 15 years. I believe you get out of an organisation what you put into it and decided to practice what I preach in this role. I have a very hard act to follow after Sherrey Quinn who kept aliaACTive going over a great number of years. I have asked Sherrey to stay on the ALIAActive committee to contribute her experience and commonsense approach and appreciate the efforts of all other committee members such as Dianne Walton-Sonda, Gaik Khong.

We have a full programme of Information Sharing Forums (ISFs) for you in the next six months and really value your suggestions for others. However I will leave it for Nicola to expand on this. I look forward to seeing more of you at our ISFs and other joint ventures. My philosophy for the aliaACTive convenor role is the African proverb, "if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with people.

Karna O'Dea
aliaACTive Convenor

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Changes to ALIA ACT Executive

Changes to ALIA ACT executive:

A special thanks to Sherrey Quinn. While Sherrey will be continuing to work for the ACT ALIA group as a committee member and ALIA ACTive Awards Sub-Committee member, I thought it would be timely to note her outstanding and extensive service. Sherrey has been convenor of the ACT group for the past 2 years, taking up the role with gusto, following several years as secretary and treasurer. Sherrey is a quiet achiever, who has kept everything flowing in the background and, perhaps more importantly, has ensured that we have had a wide range of opportunities for ACT library staff to mingle, develop and to celebrate our achievements.Sherrey has made so many events work well for us in the ACT. She has made the annual dinner the place to be, has kept our contribution tonational ALIA planning alive through organising and contributing to NAC meetings and has passed the baton on to a younger generation (including the wonderful proactive editors). The time she has devoted to ALIA, particularly considering that she is in the private sector, istremendous.Sherrey has a wonderful range of skills which has made the ACT group hum along - her enthusiasm, ability to motivate her colleagues and herability to keep an eye on what needs to be done are outstanding. This year Sherrey's work was recognised with an ALIA fellowship, a very welldeserved reward.Sherrey thanks for everyone in the ACT and even more thanks for agreeing to keep contributing.RegardsRoxanne