ALA's Midwinter Conference, 1/19/02

Advancement of Literacy Award Committee

Sharman Gerdes, Chair

Our meeting took place at the Sheraton Hotel at approximately 2 p.m. on Saturday with three members and one chair attending the meeting. The other three members (one electronic) had submitted their discussion and votes prior to our meeting to the chair. Group discussion involved selecting the winner of the award--- Center for Literacy of Philadelphia, PA and ways to promote the award in the future. We only received two nominations and since it is difficult to secure nominations we recommended that this committe meet again at the ALA conference in Atlanta to outline better goals for this committee for FY 02/03.

We would like to redesign the application form to make it clearer that the 3 criteria should relate to the four (4) areas that are checked on the nomination form. This will be turned in as a draft to Nicole Wheatley. We also felt there needs to be more visable marketing for the award and its recipient, such as a logo design for "advancement of literacy" that could be used to design a pin or camera ready art for the award recipient to use on brochures or other information they give out. Also, we want to draft a letter that would go directly to all publishers and groups that promote literacy so that they can either nominate others or themselves for the award.

Members Present

Sharman Gerdes, Chair
Elvita Landau, member
Sandra Newell, member
Frances Black, member

Members Absent

Catherine Cook
Tina Roose
Laura McCaffery

Visitors

none (Peggy Sullivan came by)