If you, your staff, your trustees and friends have not yet done so, please consider joining us for the Fall session of Turning the Page 2.0, the 6-week free online course in advocacy from the Public Library Association and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who know the importance of these skills. Many Vermont librarians and trustees have taken this course and used what they learned to help their library.
Whether you have a capital campaign starting up, want to prepare each year for Town Meeting, hope to add staff or programming, or simply want to get a well-focused and well-honed message out to your community with a strong, coordinated voice, this training is tremendous.
Meanwhile, registration is OPEN at: http://www.ala.org/pla/
And please register with me to join us in-person or online on September 12 in Berlin, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm. You can write (christine.friese@state.vt.us) or phone me (802-828-2714) to register or to ask questions.
Listen to what VLA President Deborah Lambert had to say about the training:
“We learned how to identify specific activities to meet our goal and in the end how to measure our success. Although ultimately all of the participant’s goals were to raise support for their libraries in one form or another, each and every one of us had a different plan developed especially to appeal to our individual communities. Turning the Page 2.0 puts the focus on developing and implementing a firm advocacy plan for “your” community, no matter how big or small. “
Before the training begins, we will host a state-wide kickoff September 12 at our Midstate Library Service Center in Berlin and virtually if you cannot come in person. You will hear from others who have taken the course and used what they learned as well as from the PLA coordinator of the program and have the chance to ask questions. You will use the online training software that is used in the course (Adobe Connect) so that when the course begins you are already comfortable with the tool and can focus entirely on the course content.
The class involves 1 hour per week over six weeks of online course plus 1-2 hours of preparation each week. I do realize that this is a time commitment (18 hours in all) and I would not strongly encourage this course were I not sure that it provides powerful skills your library team needs to tell its stories. I also encourage you, as I’ve said before, to bring together a team made up of staff, trustees and friends so that you have several library supporters with the skills to pull together an effective campaign when you need it. Each team member can register for the online course at the time and day most convenient to their schedules but you can come together to work on a focused project . There are morning, afternoon, evening and one Saturday morning virtual classroom sessions.
In addition, part way through the course we will offer a webinar where all the Vermonters taking the course can meet and share how to most effectively use this here in Vermont, and to pose questions. Details will follow.