June 5, 2023
Happy Summer, APALA!
I am amazed at how fast the year has flown by and we are now approaching ALA Annual in Chicago. In my term as APALA President, I have certainly learned a lot about leadership and also that at the heart of everything we do, our values really do matter. They are what drive the work forward and with integrity. There have been some significantly heavy events that have impacted the Asian American community over my term and throughout it all, I have been grateful for the APALA community.
I am really proud of many things that APALA and its members have accomplished over the last year, including:
- The Finance and Fundraising Committee creating sponsorship opportunities for the literature awards and receiving a couple of sponsorships to fund the banquet
- JCLC, where APALA members got to present and connect with each other, despite hurricanes and other challenges
- Several online webinars and programs that have been hosted by the Programming Committee, including the Alice Sparkly Kat and the Asian Health Coalition workshops
- A new Talk Story logo and the first pilot run of the “Best of the Best” APALA Book List, which will be announced at ALA Annual 2023
- The APALA Emerging Leaders Program finishing “APALA for Another 40,” their recommendations to preserve APALA history
- Collaborating with Third State Books (the first AAPI publishing house) and the Very Asian Foundation on panels at ALA!
If you are attending ALA Annual, I hope you can join us at some of our APALA events and also support President Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada closing out her year as ALA President.
This has been a momentous year and it has been an honor serving APALA as the President. Looking forward, I will still be involved with the APALA Executive Board as part of my duties as Past-President. We have some amazing folks joining the 2023-2024 APALA Executive Board and I am excited to work with them in the upcoming year. I also want to thank the last year’s committee members and chairs for all of their hard work and welcome all of the incoming committee members and chairs. APALA is 100% member-run and everything we do is because of you!
So big thank you to APALA members for moving our organization forward. It has been an honor to be your president and I can’t wait to see what’s up ahead for APALA.
Annie