The New Jersey Law Librarians Association (NJLLA) Executive Board for 2019-2020 was as follows: Wei Fang, President; Brittany Persson, Vice-President/President-Elect; Kathy Taggart, Treasurer; Kathleen Agno, Secretary; Sarah Connell, Member-at-Large; Jootaek Lee, Member-at-Large; and Dennis Kim-Prieto, Past President.
This year the association struggled with member engagement. To address this issue, the decision was made to move forward and form a special committee to update the NJLLA bylaws and committees to accurately reflect the type of engagement and work wanted by the membership. This work will commence in 2020-2021. NJLLA also decided to move our peer-to-peer listserv to a new platform.
The annual holiday party in December was a success as usual, and donations were collected at the event for local charities.
Due to COVID-19, most of the association activities halted. Spring programming did not take place, and the Grants & Awards Committee did not administer any grants. The Executive Board discussed at length how NJLLA should pivot in the coming year to meet the changing needs of our membership.
NJLLA concluded the year with its Annual Business Meeting. Originally scheduled for May 2020, the meeting was converted into its first ever Virtual Annual Business Meeting, which was held on June 19, 2020. At the annual business meeting, NJLLA announced the results of the electronic election which ran from June 15, 2020 – June 19, 2020, and welcomed its new Board: Brittany Persson, President; Kathy Agno, Vice President/President Elect, Wei Fang, Past President; Kathy Taggart, Treasurer; Karen Botkin, Secretary; Latoya Rosario, Member at Large; and Janice Schouten, Member at Large.
Following the annual meeting, Members had an open discussion about how we and our libraries are handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
NJLLA total membership for the 2019-2020 year was 88 members, a decrease of 7 from the previous year.
Respectfully Submitted,
Brittany Persson, Vice President, President Elect 2019-2020