Getting the Word Out: Jumpstarting the SLA-NY Communications ...

Amy Sarola | Director of Communications | linkedin.com/in/amysarola?|?amy.sarola@oliverwyman.com

Amy Sarola is a researcher in the Health and Life Sciences unit at the global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, a Marsh & McLennan company. She has an undergraduate degree in biology and is a former practicing attorney who specialized in intellectual property law. Amy received her M.L.S. from St. John?s University in January 2011.

Hello everyone, I am Amy Sarola, the 2012 Director of Communications for SLA-NY.

I hope that after reading this sentence my name seems at least vaguely familiar. If so ? great! ? that means that you are receiving and viewing the notices that I post to the SLA-NY listserv. If not, please do have a look, as the Chapter is doing some great stuff under our new President Donna Severino?s dedicated leadership. And if you are not subscribed to the SLA-NY listserv, you can find out how to become a member here.

Last autumn, I was very honored to be asked to take on the role of Director of Communications for SLA-NY for 2012, and looked forward to working with Donna to further her vision of creating a well-defined, sustainable system for communicating with the Chapter?s membership. I knew that it would be a big (more on that later), but exciting job.

My specific goal as Director of Communications is for all SLA-NY notices to be posted in a timely, coordinated manner across all media formats that the Chapter has at its disposal, namely, the listserv, website, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As a sophomore information professional not too far removed from my M.L.S. studies, I also thought that it was important for SLA-NY?s communications to reach students at the local library schools so that these individuals could begin to engage with the Chapter immediately upon embarking on the journey to their new careers as librarians and information professionals.

I knew that I would need a lot of help in order to accomplish these goals. Until this time, all of the heavy lifting associated with disseminating SLA-NY communications had incredibly been done by just two people: ?former Director of Communications Lynn Schlesinger, and webmaster Stan Friedman. So I recruited some enthusiastic volunteers to form the initial version of the SLA-NY Communications Committee: Nicole Dupras and Katie Hut on Twitter/LinkedIn and Facebook, respectively, with Stan staying on as webmaster, and Davis Erin Anderson and Rebecca Chadwick serving as the library school announcement team.

In order to maintain a timely notice system, Communications Committee members committed to a one business day turnaround for postings. And for seamlessness, I created a backup for each role to be utilized when a Committee member is temporarily unable to fill his or her duties due to work obligations, vacations, etc. Through these measures, I hoped to instill confidence among SLA-NY program coordinators that the Committee could and would fulfill its mission.

The Communications Committee has made phenomenal progress in developing, testing, and utilizing a workable system for disseminating SLA-NY communications to the membership in a very short period of time. I?m proud to say that the word is officially out, as we are now receiving unprompted requests for promotional assistance from Chapter program coordinators, and we have also received feedback that our efforts are making a direct contribution to an uptick in attendance at events such as the Midtown Luncheon.

In fact, so much progress has been made that we are already embarking on what I have termed ?Phase II? of the Committee?s mission, which relates to communications with the Chapter?s membership beyond SLA-NY event announcements, including cross postings of notices from other SLA divisions and chapters, increasing social media commentary on topics of interest to special librarians; updating the Chapter website to make it more user-friendly; and liaising with our Advertising and Membership Committee colleagues on Chapter sponsorship and marketing materials. The individuals involved with these efforts, several of whom were recruited through Donna?s call for volunteers, including Hannah Behrens (social media), and Johanna Goldberg, Jodi Nelson, Jackie Rider, and John Tomlinson (a proper website support team for Stan).

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell you about all of the exciting work that the SLA-NY Communications Committee is doing. I am very proud of the results that we have achieved thus far in our relatively short existence, and it is my hope that the procedures that we have put into place will be our legacy to future SLA-NY Communications Committees. Finally, if you have any question or comment about the Committee, please do reach out and communicate with me at amy.sarola@oliverwyman.com.

Source: http://newyork.sla.org/getting-the-word-out-jumpstarting-the-sla-ny-communications-committee/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=getting-the-word-out-jumpstarting-the-sla-ny-communications-committee

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