WLA Recruiting New WeLead Class

We are extremely enthusiastic to announce that recruitment has begun for a new class of WeLeaders (Wisconsin Emerging Librarians Exploring and Developing). WeLead was an initiative that began in 2005 as part of the WLA Membership Committee. The program was created to cultivate a group of leaders that would in turn strengthen WLA.

For 2010, we are accepting application for three to five protégés. The WeLead program offers incredible benefits to the participants. The protégés receive a one-year WLA membership, stipends to attend the WLA annual conference for three years, a stipend to attend one additional conference (WAAL, WAPL, WEMA or SSS) during the three-year initiative, an appointment to a WLA committee, special leadership programming opportunities, and they are paired with a current leader within WLA to serve as their mentor.
Many of the previous protégés has become involved within the leadership of WLA, and we are proud of their accomplishments. Both Kelley Hinton and Kyle Neugebauer were on the planning committee for last year’s WAAL conference in Green Lake. Melissa McLimans and Katharine Clark have both participated in WLA leadership positions – in MATS and P2C2, respectively. To learn more about the experiences of the current class, we encourage you to attend their panel, After the Honeymoon: Strategies for Success as a New/Emerging Librarian, at the upcoming WLA conference,

We are also recruiting new mentors to work with our new class of protégés. The WeLead Task Force indebted to the mentors who have partnered with the 2007 class: Claudia Backus, Emily Rogers, Deb Shapiro, and Linda Vincent. These mentors have been checking in with their protégés to ensure that any questions they have are answered and have been helping them to network within WLA. The program would not work without them. If you are interested in sharing your expertise, please consider applying to be a WeLead mentor. The return on your investment is enormous!

We also wish to thank the tireless WeLead task force: Jess Bruckner, Kirsten Houtman, Ann Hunt, Gretchen Revie, Tasha Saecker, and past chair Anna Lewis. WLA is supporting the protégés through generous contributions from WAAL, WAPL, Embury, Ltd., the WLA Foundation, and CSRT. A sincere and hearty thank you to the WeLead contributors!

For more information on the program, as well the application form (for both protégés and mentors), please visit http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/welead. The deadline for applications is January 31, 2010 at 5:00 p.m.
-- Pamela O’Donnell, Chair, WeLead Task Force, podonnell@library.wisc.edu, 608-263-2014