 Good morning and welcome to a big talk from Small Libraries 2017. I am your host Krista Porter here at the Nebraska Library Commission in snowy Lincoln, Nebraska. It is actually snowing today. We have a full day of sessions of it today. We are going to be having there are seven 50-minute sessions each of the top-of-the-hour. We've got lunchtime lightning rounds, five-ten-minute sessions happening there. Our schedule is available on the website, so please do follow along there, so you can see who's going to be coming up first and who's coming up next. You might want to, all right, sorry about that. Vicky, I'm just going to have, there's a lot of noise coming when you're moving around there, so if you could mute yourself until you're ready to talk, that would be awesome, and then just unmute and when you can talk. There, perfect. All right, so if you have any questions throughout the day, please do use your go-to webinar interface. There's a questions section to type in there. I see a lot of people been chatting already. Oh, somebody's having a snow day in Brainerd. Yes, I'm not surprised that they are getting some weather up there as well. And if you have any issues or technical issues, you can type them in there as well, and I can hopefully help you out there. All right, I'm going to hand over to one of our co-sponsors here. Here we go. Judy, you have the presentation, correct? Yes. All right, you should be able to bring that up on your screen. Okay. There we go. All right, and first with us this morning, a big talk from Small Libraries is co-sponsored by the Nebraska Library Commission here in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries. They do actually have an annual conference they do that I'm sure you're going to be talking about here, but on the line with us from ARSL is Judy Calhoun, current president. Good morning, Judy. Good morning, Chris, so welcome everybody across the country who join us this morning. I'll let you take it away with your presentation for you and also with Judy, well, actually not with Judy, but elsewhere, but promoting in to join us is also Vicky Bartz, who's the vice president and incoming president for ARSL, and Meredith Wickham, who's their co-chair of their new Marketing and Membership Committee, and they've got a short presentation for us this morning. All right, thank you. She said I am Judy Calhoun. I am the current president of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries. I'm here in Arkansas speaking from you this morning, and our incoming president, Vicky Bartz, is coming from St. George, Utah, where she's doing a little business out there. And we also have Meredith Wickham, our chair of Marketing and Membership, who's from in Mississippi or Alabama. I think Mississippi is where Mississippi. We're so glad to be with you all this morning and know it's going to be a good day filled with information and lots of great tips. Good morning. ARSL was first established in 1982. ARSL's home base was at Clarion University in Pennsylvania until 2007 when it became an independent organization with an expanded board and a committee structure. Our first conference as an independent organization took place in Sacramento, California in 2008. Since then, a concerted effort has been made to move around the country each year. Two of ARSL's most popular benefits are the website and the listserv. Members have access to a wide variety of rural information and news in one location on ARSL's website, a one-stop shop for all things rural. Our listserv allows members to regularly share success stories and problem-solving on rural library issues. This year is our members-only roundtables discussion group. Whether you're a brand new library staff or a seasoned director, we can all learn from each other. Our willingness to share ideas, talents, and the expertise we carry over from our previous experience makes this a wonderful opportunity to learn and improve our library skills. One of the best ways for you to find out what ARSL is all about is to join us and become a volunteer. Volunteers can help in a number of ways, including participating in committee work, representing ARSL at local and state gatherings, and being part of the conference. Our website has information on volunteering, but you have to be a member to join the fun. Our new newsletter is another way we interact with our membership by sharing tips and articles from featured libraries about the ways they have been successful in everything from policy writing to grants and programs. We will be using it as a platform to share organization news such as varying partner agreements. Pride ourselves and our commitment to providing a conference that is 100% relevant to those in small and rural libraries. Our sessions are selected specifically to be hands-on practical learning opportunities that you can readily apply back home. Much like big talk for small libraries, we are focused on the needs of small and rural communities. ARSL is so affordable. You won't find a better deal anywhere for your membership dollars. Membership provides access to professional development opportunities. Advice from the listserv also found fondly dubbed the collective wisdom. Ample ways to network, roundtable events, and many ways to volunteer. Probably the thing we hear the most when we ask people what they like best about ARSL is the warm welcoming nature of our members. This is a group of people who are all about doing what it takes to serve their communities no matter the obstacles. Relevant ideas are shared and lasting friendships are formed not only at our annual conference but also on our listserv. Board members are open to our members. Our board meetings are open to our members and we encourage participation by the membership. The board meets every other month and the various board committees meet on the off months. The dates and links to the Zoom meetings are posted on our website under the about us tab and board of directors. It is important to remember that we are a working board and our members spend a number of hours of their own time working hard to make ARSL the best it can be. We are growing. One of the major benefits of membership is the opportunity to get involved. As an entirely volunteer led organization we need committed individuals both on our working board and as volunteers. Our committee structure allows opportunities for folks to utilize their skills to help ARSL with PR needs program development conference planning and much more. We truly hope you will join us in St. George, Utah September 6th through 9th for conference experience you won't soon forget. Believe me it is beautiful out here. Our affordable pricing includes all but two meals and the rates are posted on our website. News about confirmed keynote speakers and other exciting events will be shared soon and you can always watch for emails and view our website as details unfold. We thank you for the opportunity for letting us speak to you today and we hope that all of you listening out there will become members of ARSL and we happily would like to meet you at our conference this year. Thank you Christa. Thank you Judy and Vicki and Meredith. I would like yes I have actually been to the conference when it was in Omaha Council Bluffs. I forget a couple years ago. Omaha? It was in Omaha yes here in Nebraska and we popped up there for it and I would definitely recommend attending. It was a great conference if you're a small and rural library. This is definitely the conference for you to make an effort to go to. It was a great experience. We may be small and rural but we have a big conference. It is about 500 people. It's close to 500 every time. Yes and we did have one question about ARSL or ARSL. I didn't know. Someone wants to know if you're able to expand into Canada at all if that is something. I believe we do have some Canadian members. Okay so then if you are Canadian Canada definitely give to another website and see if you want to participate. All right thank you very much everyone.