16 October 2025 Illinois Library Association Conference Rosemont, IL Day 3 Trustee Day

 

The last day of the conference is known as trustee day. As an Intern for ILA was setting up the room for breakfast. Getting the handouts, table tents in place. There was also a backpack filled with Library merchandise for trustees. The breakfast started with the president elect of the Library Trustee Forum saying a few words about the forum and introducing this years library Trustee of the Year. A brief presentation on the new iLead trustee training portal  and a lot of networking for forum members.

Spicing up your Passive Programming was the next session. Since the pandemic passive programming has exploded. This was beyond just the spice programs. It was about all kinds of programming that could be for patrons in a passive way. Could be done in the library or taken home.

The upswing was started with the spice when folks were making their own meals during the pandemic. Some libraries started to send little spice packets and recipes out with the books that were picked up in the parking lot of the library. This became popular and spread around the other libraries. They also discussed puzzles from the library of things. Plant swaps and seed libraries have been popular as well. Lot of great new ideas for passive programming.

Illinois Public Library Standards  session discussed the updated standards for libraries in Illinois. The new version is completely online. Although they use the word Standards, they are recommendations only. With the varying sizes of libraries and funding issues. They are meant to be a path to follow. They added several new sections to the old standard book version 4.0. will be reviewing the new version this weekend.

The Highlight of the day Meeting Dr. Montague in person. Meeting Dr. Montague was a great experience. Met several other CSU Students as well.  Glad to see that CSU was represented. The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and the U of I Champaign Urbana and Dominican were represented at the conference. Dr. Rae said the CSU was going to be at the upcoming ALA convention this summer.

Trustee Day Lunch was presented to the largest group of trustees at an ILA conference. With over 160 attendees for the luncheon. The attendees were addressed by the President of ILA, The Executive Director of ILA and Leslie Bednar the CEO of the Illinois Heartland Library System. They are responsible for the new iLead trustee training portal. As President of the ILA Trustee Forum, I was able to address the group about advocating for their library and all libraries by attending the ILA Legislative meetups.

Tips and Tricks You Can Use to Advocate for Your Library is presented by the ILA Advocacy Committee and Public Policy Committee. This session discussed the ILA Legislative Meetups and how to approach the legislators. Encouraging all to get to know their legislator by attending other events that they may attend. The Ready Set Advocate training is an online tool to gain more knowledge of the interaction.

Witness Slips is a way to let your representatives know how you stand on an issue. This is done for each piece of legislation you can register if you favor or are opposed to the legislation.

ALA was also represented to discuss the national legislative issues that need support from the library community. The ALA uses an email letter process that is available online to show your support or opposition.

Great conference experience. Made a lot of new connections. Next years event will be in Peoria, IL

 PLA Forces: Force 3 Building Community.  The focus of Trustee day programming were the different aspects of being a library trustee. The trustees are part of the community. They know different people than the director. They may know the mayor , and City council Their legislators get to know the trustees as they push for legislation that will help libraries. The day looked at ways trustees could use there connections to advocate for libraries.

Force 4 Asset driven impact. The day also had a mock board meeting; the CEO of ILA went over the items that the trustee can help out with talking to their friends about the great benefits the library has for the community. 

Work total 8 hours                  Semester total 65