Open Meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month for folks to discuss timely topics and hear Chapter Updates.

Next meeting:

• Thursday, April 3rd, 2025
• 9:00am - 10:00am Pacific Time
• Zoom info:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84231786254?pwd=kZu0Uv5TnLE4kSxskeODDHPbAkbE5s.1

Meeting Topics: 

• Discuss and process the termination of NNLM Region 5
• • Share job opportunities for impacted colleagues.
  • Share “impact statements”* to help illustrate the immense impact NNLM Region 5 had, and what has been lost. 
• Chapter Updates – scholarships, meet-ups, conferences.
• • Please let us know if you’ll be attending or presenting at MLA:  https://forms.office.com/r/6kPZT2q73e

Looking forward to seeing many of you on Thursday – remember, you don’t have to be a current member to join our open meetings! 

*Note that, as always, this Open Meeting discussion is an opportunity to share how changes in our field are impacting our work; this is not formal impact statement collection venue for any advocacy efforts.  The loss of R5 support directly impacts Chapter business; specifically co-sponsored events, CE, and the effect on member's opportunities to earn AHIP credits.  It is within these parameters that we will discuss what this loss means for our Chapter and our members.

Joining us from OHSU in Portland, Marijane won the drawing for a free year of MLA membership offered during our PNCMLA membership and renewal period. Upon learning of her selection, Marijane replied "Oh wow!  The drawing was why I decided to reinstate my membership but I really did not expect I’d win it." We are thrilled to have her reinstated with PNCMLA and to support her engagement with MLA over the next year. 

Looking forward to seeing many of you on Thursday – remember, you don’t have to be a current member to join our open meetings!

During the holiday season PNC/MLA members and our colleagues joined in the celebrations by organizing 2 meetups – one in Seattle and one in Portland. Despite some last-minute fine tuning, we had an excellent turnout and most importantly, lots of fun! It was fantastic to socialize in person. We would like to thank the 2024 PNC/MLA board for supporting these local in-person meetups and their generous donation of the delicious appetizers!

PNC/MLA held a meet-up in Seattle at the Elysian Brewery on Capitol Hill on a very rainy Friday the 13th. Our group shared festive beverages, delicious food, and wonderful conversation.  Board members Ekaterini Papadopoulou (Seattle University), Teresa Jewell (University of Washington), Frances Chu (Providence), and Mary Beth McAteer (Virginia Mason) joined together with Carolyn Martin (NNLM Region 5), Margaret Holt (University of Washington), Amber Mak (University of Washington), Deb Gallaher (Bastyr), Heidi Hetzel (Seattle University), and Ann Glusker (UC Berkeley). We had a great time together!

From left: Margaret, Teresa, Carolyn, Amber, Heidi, Deb, Frances, Mary Beth, and Ekaterini. Not Pictured: Ann Glusker. 

On Friday, December 20, 2024, another group met at StormBreaker Brewing in Portland. Present were organizers, Heather Hawley (Legacy Health), Nicole Vollum (University of Western States), and Basia Delawska-Elliott (Providence). We were joined by Melinda Davies (Kaiser Research), Tim Zeigler (University of Washington), and Jonathan Ratliff (Samaritan Health). Jonathan came all the way from Corvallis to share some holiday cheer with us! 

We had a wonderful time learning about each other and discussing everything from library school, through library advocacy, to publisher relations.

 

From left: Heather, Melinda, Jonathan, Tim, Nicole, Basia. Picture courtesy of our amazing server, Andrew. 

We hope to turn these meetups into regular events and to see more of you there in the future! Stay tuned for more details.

Happy New Year from PNC/MLA  - as you may know, a new year means a new board - be sure to visit 2025 Board List to see those changes. 

Membership:

Remember to renew your PNCMLA membership for 2025! You have a chance to win an MLA membership if you renew before January 17^th. All members who have renewed for 2025 with an "Active" member status and renewal date of Jan 1, 2026 will be placed in a drawing for MLA membership dues.

Open Meetings:

We will continue to hold monthly open meetings for all PNC/MLA members, or those interested in hearing more about PNC/MLA.

Open meetings will be the first Thursday of the month on Zoom, for our next meeting, we will be discussing the creation of an AI toolkit for the chapter, opening discussions for a PNC/MLA 2025 Conference, and planning more in-person meet-ups after the successful end-of year events in Portland and Seattle.  

Next meeting:

• February 6th, 2025
• 9:00am - 10:00am
• Zoom info: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7609792815
• Passcode: 937557

Hope to see you at our next meeting or meet-up!

In this presentation, our guest presenter will share the premise of the IMLS-funded program, 'BIPOC Become Librarians' which addresses the lack of diversity in the LIS profession.

Please join us on August 7th 2024 for the latest PNC-MLA Health Equity and Diversity Speaker Series talk: 

Challenges for Agricultural Producers and Workers: How to Assist Those on the Front Line 

  Our Board has been hard at work this year meeting almost weekly to discuss various topics related to membership engagement, annual meetings, professional development, chapter finances, scholarships, and much more. This time together as a Board is very valuable but we also agree that the voice of our membership is the most important resource we have. 

Therefore, we would love to invite PNC members, or those interest in learning more about our chapter, to join us for a monthly meeting to get to know each other, ask questions, give feedback, and have some virtual connection time!  This opportunity is open to library students, library staff and librarians alike. We want you all to come chat with us!

The meetings will be held the first Thursday of the month through the end of the year from 9am-10am PST . The dates are as follows (note: we may use one of these as our fall business meeting as well):

Please email mary.mcateer@vmfh.org for the meeting link or with any questions. 

We look forward to seeing you all soon! 

As MLA Portland quickly approaches, we are excited to gather together as a community nationally and locally. PNCMLA would love to plan a brief get together for our regional members (and non-members, come join the team!), so please take a moment to fill out this brief interest survey:  https://take.quiz-maker.com/poll5179444x58ea422B-156

We have also created a PNCMLA Discord server to coordinate during the conference. There is a channel for members to post their presentation times and locations so we can show up with some local support. Join the server here: https://discord.gg/cDzZEGZXs6

And last but not least, we are so happy to announce the recipients of our 2024 PNCMLA conference scholarship:

• Megan Benfield
• Frances Chu
• Ann Dyer
• Irene Miller
• Sara Ostlund
• Ekaterini Papadopoulou

 We are happy to report that a total of $1000 was donated to the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums following the 2023 PNCMLA Conference. Standing for the meaningful intention behind Indigenous land acknowledgement, PNCMLA is committed to the active support of regional Tribal libraries and their work. 

The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM) is "an international non-profit organization that maintains a network of support for Indigenous programs, provides culturally relevant programming and services, encourages collaboration among tribal and non-tribal cultural institutions, and articulates contemporary issues related to developing and sustaining the cultural sovereignty of Native Nations." 

To read more about and donate directly to the amazing work of ATALM, you can visit their webpage.