The Life of a YALSA Board Fellow: A Look at the Busy and Rewarding Experience of YALSA's Most Recent Board Fellow

Since June 2015, I have served as the 2015-2016 YALSA Board Fellow, a position that has been both stimulating and eye-opening. After several years of serving on YALSA committees and task forces, I decided to apply to the Fellows program to gain insight into how YALSA works. I wanted to see things from the inside and learn more about the division as a whole. I also wanted to nurture my beginning leadership skills and discover more about myself as a leader. I knew from my previous volunteer work that YALSA is an association with many opportunities for members to participate in a variety of roles and types of responsibilities. Some of these are obvious, others not as much. Additionally, I wanted to learn more about how YALSA itself works and serves its members, and how the association's efforts have a broader impact on the day-to-day work of youth services library staff. After looking at information about the Board Fellow program, and reflecting on how my participation could influence my future, I decided to apply. I'm very thankful that I decided to take this brave (for me anyways) step. While also being a dissertating doctoral student in the School of Information at Florida State University, serving as the Board Fellow has been no small challenge. Juggling my dissertation and Fellow duties has at times been overwhelming. But I pushed through because I knew at the end of my term as the Fellow I would grow extensively as both a practicing librarian, a youth-focused researcher, and as a YALSA member. And indeed I have. Getting Started From the start I felt warmly embraced by a group of individuals who are as passionate about working with and serving teens as I am. In my career as both a librarian and doctoral student, it isn't often that I have been so inspired by the passion and motivation of the people around me. The Board truly enjoys the work they do for and with YALSA members, youth library staff, and young adults. Through my board activities and efforts, I have been able to witness the variety of opinions, thoughts, and personalities that are necessary to create a healthy, successful, and functioning board of an association. Although my experience with board work prior to serving as a fellow had been limited, I now realize how many different opinions, viewpoints, and qualities of individuals are necessary to create a board that is able to produce high quality and thoughtful work for its members. I began my work as a YALSA Board member during our Board orientation at the start of ALA Annual 2015. In this meeting I met other newly appointed or elected Board members who would be working alongside me to continue the inspiring efforts that YALSA has made in serving and working with youth library staff in libraries across the country. During these meetings at Annual, I learned more about the Board, its members, and the process of serving on a board--no small undertaking. Many of the procedures and protocols can be overwhelming for someone new to this type of work. This has been especially true for me. Thankfully, I had a mentor assigned to me by YALSA. She continues to be a wonderful resource. From the outset of my term she offered me guidance and insight into how the Board operates, what my role is, how to work with a diverse group of people, how to engage during smaller breakout groups, and what it takes to serve on such a fluid and responsive Board. Over the course of the orientation process and early meetings, I developed a more solid grasp of what my work would entail for the next year. I had a lot ahead of me, much more than I realized when I initially applied to be a Fellow. Yet, I believe that I have met these challenges and helped, in some small way, to improve the work of YALSA. A Great Opportunity During my term on the Board, I also took part in YALSA's strategic planning process. Strategic planning is very new to me, and at times I felt flustered during our work. …