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TIM CHERUBINI: Good afternoon. My name is
Tim Cherubini. I'm executive director of the

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Chief Officers of State Library Agencies,
and I and my colleagues are here to do an

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abbreviated session as folks finish up their
lunch today on the topic of continuing education

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for librarians. And this is something that
we've touched upon that's come up in a couple

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of the different conversations today. In fact,
we were all just talking about how the notes

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that we had put together to talk with you
about now have many, many annotations on them

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based upon the discussed today so this will
be very fresh, I think.

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So we have just three projects that we want
to tell you about today, three areas that

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we've worked in to both share information
about our experiences, to raise awareness

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of some of the issues that we encountered,
and perhaps touch upon some trends and gaps

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and we hope also some good information for
IMLS on future directions for funding. So

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I'm going to start just brief introduction
to the speakers. As I mentioned, I'm Tim Cherubini.

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We also have Chrystie Hill, who is community
relations director for OCLC. We'll be hearing

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from her third, and we're going to start with
Anne Craig, who is director of the Illinois

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State Library. So with that, Anne, I'll turn
over the podium to you. Thank you.

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>> ANNE CRAIG: Well, thank you, Tim. This
year, we have ten state library agencies concurrently

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conducting ILEAD in their home states thanks
to a grant from IMLS. Ten state libraries.

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Let's hear it, ooh!
[Laughter]

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>> ANNE CRAIG: There you go. So ILEAD was
designed to be exportable in the first place.

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We did this because state library agencies
have very limited resources, and our administrative

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structure has worked very well. The same in
each state, well, the days of the sessions,

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the keynoters are broadcast, different in
each state. Well, we tailor the sessions to

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the team needs. The biggest lesson learned,
though, is that commitment from the top down

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and the bottom up, essential. Without engaged
support from our sister state libraries, this

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ambitious program could not function.
So the primary goal of ILEAD is to identify

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a community need, like joblessness, or English
as a second language, and then using technology

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tools and leadership skills to address that
need. Why do we do ILEAD U? Well, Illinois

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has almost 2,000 multitype libraries, and
we hear from librarians. They want to be more

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connected with their constituencies. Sometimes
they just don't know how. ILEAD gives them

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the time and the sand box and the skills to
do just that. How does ILEAD U work, you

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say? Well, teams of five library staff come
together to make a product. Each team has

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a mentor, and each person on the team has
a partner back home, a community representative

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who gives feedback about the team product
during the program.

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We meet three times in person, and each session
has its own deliverable so at the end of the

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program, in October, each team has a great
product that addresses the need they're trying

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to meet.
In March, the teams make a video oops. Sorry.

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Okay. Yes. They make a video. Mostly to help
them focus, but also to gel as a team.

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[Music playing].
This is a group of Chicago law librarians

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that built tools for law students.
[Music playing].

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Yeah, so we're in Springfield, guys, okay?
Mr. Lincoln. Yeah.

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In June, we have a poster session to help
the teams work on their elevator speech, or,

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in this case, their elevator music. This group
is the robot test kitchen that helps library

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staff understand robotics.
[Music and singing].

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In October, it's the big reveal! And here's
the team of five different Chicago public

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library branch librarians talking about their
project to make transportable video story

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kits for their 80 odd branches.
>> I'm Josh. And I work in West Garfield Park.

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Now, every day I go into that library and
I see all around me personal, great, positive

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things happening. I see, you know, a team
planting lettuce in the community garden.

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I see a guy sitting there quietly playing
checkers with his grandson. Now, if you search

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for "News articles" at West Garfield Park,
you get man shot and killed. You get see drugs

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and arrests and murders and theft. Practically
everything going on record about the neighborhood

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is these tragic human stories after tragic
human stories.

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Now, ILEAD U has given us tools to start
putting on record the more personal and more

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positive side of life in the neighborhood.
>> ANNE CRAIG: Also in October, the teams

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described, for the record, how, if another
library wanted to replicate their project,

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how they could do it. This is team Lebris,
academic librarians who built an institutional

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repository.
>> Do you think any library could use this

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product that we created?
>> Yes, we do. It's one of the things we've

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talked about as the product has progressed,
and obviously, we first and foremost focused

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on the libraries that are members of our consortium.
I think one of the strengths of this is that

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it really can be used for anyone anywhere,
not just looking at other schools who want

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to join our specific repository, but really
any other school or group of schools that

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wanted to get started, this concept of a box,
model to follow, you're not starting from

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scratch.
>> ANNE CRAIG: We tell them from the beginning,

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they cannot fail because the experience is
about the journey, not the end product. We

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emphasize learning to work in teams, leaving
the library to go to where the constituents

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are, and growing leadership skills. All with
the goal of connecting in very concrete ways.

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The state libraries involved have substantial
skin in the ILEAD game. It may be difficult,

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though, for other state libraries to continue
in coming years without support. It takes

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time to build momentum and recognition among
the state's library community.

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The big "So what." Our evaluator tells us
that transformative learning is actually occurring,

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and that the projects have produced substantial
benefits.

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Does ILEAD really matter? Many of our sister
state libraries are using ILEAD to accomplish

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focus projects. Here's team Spectra working
on a technology product to help librarians

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address the needs of patrons on the autism
spectrum as part of our National Leadership

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Forum Grant.
We've had countless groups go on to do conference

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presentations, workshops, and like the engaging
ones, apply for and receive grants. This year

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we had two finalists, the Library Space Camp,
and a winner of the Knight News Challenge,

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make it At Your Library, come out of ILEAD U.
Last year's robot test kitchen that you saw

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earlier is doing a techsoup program next week.
To wrap it up, here's a "Does It Matter" video

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from last year.
>> ILEAD has given me the time, opportunity

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and resources to learn about a variety of
subjects I never would have learned about.

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There have been fantastic speakers. I have
developed great relationships with the people

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in my group and I have been able to do a lot
of networking here in Springfield and I feel

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my team has contributed a good and useful
product and I feel we're contributing to the

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field of librarianship.
>> I signed up for ILEAD, and I ended up learning

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a lot more about myself than I thought I would
and about leadership and how to become an

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active agent in my own library and do good
things.

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>> ANNE CRAIG: You might recognize David in
that picture. He's the head of our instructor

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corps. And this is graduation.
So that's ILEAD U in a nutshell, and now

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I'll turn it over to my copresenters. Thank
you.

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[Applause]
>> TIM CHERUBINI: Thanks, Anne. Wow. You know,

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not only are we doing this after lunch, I'm
speaking to you after Anne, and that's such

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an energetic project and really love it. Not
that this next project doesn't have energy

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around it. It's just a little different. And
I should note that Anne actually played a

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key role in the project I'm going to tell
you about now. The COSLA received a grant

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from IMLS under the Laura Bush 21st century
program. About 15 months ago. We're actually

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wrapping the grant up as we speak. The bulk
of the work concluded at the end of April,

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and we're in some kind of final stages with
some of the evaluation. This grant is called

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we've called it the Connector Project, and
I want to explain why we use that word connector.

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And one of the ideas or concepts behind this
project was to break down some silos and

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then actively connect the remnants of those
brokendown silos to create a new mode of production.

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And what were these silos and how did we put
things back together on them is what I'm going

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to talk with you about today.
So the problem, the silos, the silos that

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we were looking at and the problem, really,
that we were trying to solve is that across

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state library agencies, it is very common
to find, within that agency, a person or a

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small group of people who are dedicated to
providing continuing education for librarians

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within that state.
This group of people has actually been very

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inventive over the years, and they themselves
have been getting together informally for

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well over 20 years. Yet, they were seeing,
and we were all seeing, that there was a lot

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of redundancy in what was being produced,
how it was being produced, topics that were

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not being addressed because there wasn't enough
time for each agency to do it on their own.

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So working in even though these folks were
talking to each other, there were still some

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pretty heavy silos in how the work of producing
continuing education programs was being done.

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So the connector project was developed, and
it really had two aspects. One was to really

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take a look at this problem and see what we
could do about it and it really stressed a

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very close look at codevelopment and codelivery
of continuing education across state library

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agencies.
The second aspect of the connector project

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was to also connect COSLA and this aspect
of COSLA to other types of institutions and

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projects to further leverage this idea of
collective action. So on the first aspect

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of the project, which is the codevelopment/codelivery,
I mentioned that the continuing education

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professionals did have a history of working
with each other, and accomplished quite a

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bit. But in much the same sense that Anne
was talking about commitment, what COSLA really

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wanted to test is that wouldn't this all be
even better if not only the continuing education

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coordinators at the agencies were working
together, but if they involved the library

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development directors, also a common role
within state library agency staff that's very

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outward facing, and the state librarians,
or the chief officers of the state library

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agencies.
Bringing these three roles together this was

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the hypothesis of the project would result
it would give better result in the sense that

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there would be great commitment, there would
be greater variety across what people were

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going to be able to able to bring to the table,
greater chance of very solid community connections,

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greater chance for sustainability in the long
run because you would have more involvement

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from a broader spectrum of folks within the
agency.

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So the project really focused on bringing
together these three roles in to a coordinating

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committee approach. We actually had four state
librarians, four library development directors

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and four continuing education coordinators
serve together over a 12month period 12 or

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13month period to actually look at this problem
of codevelopment and codelivery of continuing

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education.
There was actually a step in this, too, which

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was that we asked this group to formalize,
take a look at the infrastructure, the environment

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that we had around some of the inputs to developing
continuing education. What were the resources

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that we had? What was the infrastructure that
was in place for this. Some of this was finetuning

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because the continuing education group had
been sharing information all along. But the

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coordinating committee took this a little
step further, and did things like kind of

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upped the game a little bit on developing
a resource directory. They took the state

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reporting, the state profiles that were being
developed, and developed them even further,

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brought them to a different level. They took
this idea of needs assessment one step further,

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and produced products that actually helped
create a base of knowledge from which decisions

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could be made about where were the best opportunities
for codevelopment and codelivery. All of this

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was really the coordinating committee's work,
established a consistent and a really supportive

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environment for this collective action.
Now, one of the things that occurred throughout

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the project is that at first, the coordinating
committee took the lead on all of the pieces

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of work, but as time went on, it became apparent
that even with that many people on the coordinating

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committee and that range, there was benefit
to bringing other folks in, depending on what

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the topic was, from other aspects of state
library agency work. So they moved in to more

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of a working group model, the coordinating
group kind of was the steering the activity,

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completing some of the work itself, but then
also, subdividing, and, in some cases, bringing

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in other people from other state library agency
roles to complete other aspects of the work.

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All of this proved very, very beneficial because
the amount of product, the amount of number

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of deliverables that this group was able to
produce in a 12 or 13month period actually

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exceeded what we had originally planned, and
through some surveying that we had done throughout,

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it became apparent very early on that this
was such a hit that COSLA should really, you

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know, find a way to continue this, and I'm
very happy to say that after looking at the

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results, after talking with the folks who
were involved in it, after looking at the

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deliverables, the COSLA board did vote to
continue this whole effort of the connector

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project, and basically operationalize it,
making it part of our daytoday activity. So

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the grant was successful in that the approach
was proven. We learned a lot from it. There

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was a demonstration of commitment, which was
greatly needed because there are so many things

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going on that, you know, if you don't have
the commitment to the organization behind

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it and leaving it totally to volunteer effort,
that's a lot of pressure on the volunteers.

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And we are institutionalizing it. We are in
the process right now of putting together

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the followup committee and the followup effort
to the connector project as the grant ends.

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So as this work continues, there are still
some open questions and some gaps and perhaps

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some of these will turn in to funding opportunities
as well. One area that I'll be asking the

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committee to the successor committee, we haven't
named it yet, to really take a look at is

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the criteria for topic selection when it comes
to where they'd like to go in terms of the

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codevelopment, codelivery.
The topics that were selected during the grant

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cycle were training for folks who were stepping
in to library director roles for the first

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time. What did we call that, library director
101 training. And that was a good topic. We

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think that's going to have a lot of traction.
Second topic that was really given a lot of

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attention was training for library trustees.
Again, something that I think is universally

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known to be a need, and is being addressed
in various ways by various organizations.

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But one thing that we're going to challenge
the group moving forward is to really look

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at their criteria for topic selection. And
build out for the greatest impact. Make selections

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for the greatest impact on state library agencies.
And this may not be the top votegetter in

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the survey. And as this morning, when we were
talking about the different kinds of skills

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that might be needed, this came to mind, because
I think you do want to know what the top votegetters

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are in a survey, but we also want to encourage
this community to look at what are some of

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the more challenging, newer types of things,
some of which were in the room this morning,

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that may not ever end up being a top votegetter
on a survey because of the way the surveying

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is done, and it's a disparate process, but
we know deserves some attention and could

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be giving good attention by this particular
configuration of folks.

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When it comes to those assessments, we do
want to look at greater sharing of needs assessment

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data. COSLA has developed some and will develop
some more and we know there is other data

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out there about what is it that librarians
feel that they need in terms of their own

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continuing education. We want to more fully
consider the dissemination of the training

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and the other information that emerges from
the product. I think that to some extent,

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we want to be turning outward more to explore
new ways of teaching and learning and interacting

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that we're hearing about that are social and
active that we may not actually apply to ourselves.

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That's important for us to do as well, especially
as we see some shifts and we want to create

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some shifts in how librarians are trained
and really pursue training on their own.

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We also want to identify the benefit of this
shift of collective action within state library

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agencies. We are pretty close, I think, to
be able to describe some case studies of what

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the impact of this new approach to public
library training has been within a particular

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agency, and specifically if this collective
approach works, what can the agency do that

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they wouldn't have been able to do because
the collective action is producing the product.

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Now, I mentioned that there was a second aspect
to this connector project, and that was connecting

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COSLA and its continuing education efforts
to other projects, to other efforts nationally.

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And rather than actually talk about that,
we did that, but I'm actually going to turn

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to Chrystie now, because the project that
Chrystie is going to tell you about is actually

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one of the prime examples of where COSLA turned
in terms of leveraging this collective action

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even beyond COSLA itself.
>> CHRYSTIE HILL: Thank you so much. It's

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a pleasure to be here. I strongly believe
that staff in our institutions, libraries,

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archives and museums, is our greatest asset,
and so I love being on the stage with my esteemed

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colleagues, but also in the room with all
of you, who also hold that so dear. It also

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makes me a little nervous because I'm like,
these guys are my friends!

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[Laughter]
So I appreciate the chance to share about

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this project with you.
The Coalition to Advance Learning is a broad

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coalition of archives, libraries, museums
and their allied institutions. We're all committed

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to working together, and in deliberate coordination
and across all of these boundaries to both

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devise and strengthen continuing education
and professional development, programs that

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will not only transform our workforce, but
also lead to measurable impact on our nation's

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communities. No big deal. Right? We can do
that.

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This group was founded by 22 members that
include individuals, institutions and service

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organizations from the archives, libraries
and museums sectors. Five of those founding

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members were from archives, five represent
museums, ten represent libraries of all different

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types, and two of those organizations work
effectively across all three sectors. So where

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did this project come from? In early 2013,
OCLC actually had much smaller ambitions,

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and that was to gather stakeholders from across
public and state library spaces to discuss

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a shared approach to continuing education
for public libraries across the nation. We

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really wanted to just very informally host
a discussion with some of the key stakeholders

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about how we might set a few shared priorities,
and then work on a few things together, but

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do so in a more deliberate way than we have
been.

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So I was on the phone with Bob Porten who
is the director of library services at the

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time, sharing with him what our plans are,
asking him if he would like to be included,

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and he said wait a minute, we are interested
in exactly that same challenge, but we're

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interested in it across library types, but
we're not going to stop there. We're interested

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in museums and archives as well. So immediately,
this much smaller but still ambitious conversation

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expanded very, very broadly to the full spectrum
of audiences that IMLS is working with.

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So we decided to join forces, and we cohosted
a daylong meeting where we spent some time

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really getting to know each other across sectors,
identifying that there actually are shared

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needs, that there are a number of assets that
we all have to work with, that we had agreement

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on what some of the key gaps were and how
we might fill them. And then at the end of

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the project, we did this really or the day,
we did this really fun thing where we did

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mock project pitches to each other that had
been developed very rapidly in ten or 15 minutes

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in a crosssector way so people in different
sectors sitting at the table, and that gave

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us that initial insight that we had made a
step towards working together more effectively,

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and in a very concrete way on some of these
shared interests and needs. So one of the

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major outcomes from this meeting was that
several of us went back to our home institutions,

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back to our desks with a new commitment to
both develop and embed a crosssector approach

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to our work. The CE connector project actually
came out of that meeting day, and was with

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us in the room. Some of the work that we advanced
in the leadership area was based on her talking

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about ILEAD in that room and we identified
that there's a whole host of leadershiprelated

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activities that across sector, we could be
doing together. What OCLC did is we went back

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to our desk and we wrote a grant with input
from that original group that would more formally

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launch and then provide some starting structure
for additional joint work together. What we

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imagined, very simply, was that if we got
together, we could actually do CE and PD better

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together, that the time was right to scale
learning programs and infrastructure, not

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just up, but also across all of our sectors.
Not just for the benefit of the organizations

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that would participate, but ultimately for
the benefit of those that we serve.

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So with funding from IMLS, the group first
met in March of last year, so we've been working

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together for 14 months now to consider the
challenges and initiate efforts to develop

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approaches for future collaborations. Subsequent
supplementary funding from the Bill and Melinda

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Gates foundation and then IMLS again, enabled
us to go beyond that first meeting and meet

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in person in October and then again in March
of this last year. So what have we accomplished?

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Well, the first thing is we formed and we
stormed, and we're just now getting to the

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norming part.
People who have been in those rooms are laughing,

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because they were there. Diane said earlier
it's a little bit like dating. I think some

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people in that first meeting would say bad
date. Really bad date.

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[Laughter]
So, you know, we had to work through some

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things in order to come back for that second
date, and come back for the third date and

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realize, okay, this is actually going somewhere.
So we created a set of guiding principles.

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We strengthened our representation from the
archives and museum sectors. We created coalition

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communication channels, and this is actually
amazing that all three sectors have agreed

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on a single Web site, single messaging, twitter
stream, et cetera.

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We started showing up at our own and each
other's meetings to talk about the work and

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our intentions. And this is really important.
We firmly established that our work is not

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about us. But about the work we might do together.
So any of the talk about governance or, you

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know, who we are as a coalition has been really
lighthanded. It's been very intentional that

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we want to be informal in a broad coalition.
We need some structure, some support, some

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work on that, but it's really more about the
projects and the partnerships.

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A little bit about what we've done in the
projects and partnerships space. We identified

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very early on that we needed to learn more
about the landscape across all three sectors.

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So in partnership with several organizations,
from the coalition, one member, EduCopia,

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led by Katherine Skinner, led us in an effort
to design an assessment project that would

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help us gain a better understanding of the
full landscape, including a gathering and

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analyzing of all the data to assess the needs
across the field. Once we have that, we'll

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see how we might look at the other side, how
we're going to meet them.

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The other thing we did is we developed a joint
strategy. Again, no small feat. We collectively

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developed the key strategies in support of
the shared vision that I mentioned at the

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very top, and we'll be publishing that next
month. I won't tell you what's in it. This

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can just be a little trailer for that. But
the fact that these three sectors and all

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library types got together and said here are
the four main things that we need to do together

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in the continuing education and professional
development space is really, I think, quite

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remarkable.
The other thing that we did is we created

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a prototype for cross sector learning program.
You can see here we've got the research assessment

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people taking one thing forward. These were
the people in that initial group that said

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I just want to do something. Let's see if
we can get something done together, and so

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they sat at a table, or in a room, worked
together online over a number of weeks until

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they actually made something happen. They
identified the project management was a key

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need across all the sectors. Everyone agreed
it was high priority. So they worked together

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to develop a project management 101 webinar
series, and really test that hypothesis first

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that we were actually capable of working together
on a real concrete thing. But also, that audiences

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could learn together and find value from that
common curriculum.

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We had over 1400 registrations for that first
session, and the participants were just crazy

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in love with the idea that they could actually
be learning in the same room together and

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talked about what an enriched process that
was.

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So what's next? A lot of stuff. Most of it
is about projects, things that we want to

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do together next. I've been told that my time
is up, so you'll have to catch me at a break

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if you want to hear about what some of those
are. But I can guarantee you it's been very

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exciting to see just with the little bit of
support, a little bit of face time, a lot

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of commitment from the people in the room,
and we've actually turned thinking, planning,

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strategizing into real concrete projects that
we're committed to moving forward together.

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And if I may, I'll just very briefly say that
personally, this has been incredibly enriching

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experience for me. We talked about putting
bright people in a room and letting them bounce

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off of one another. That is exactly what has
happened in this space. We all talk about

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time, capacity, resources, how to operationalize
these things so that it becomes a part of

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our work and our approach and we're not necessarily
dependent on a funder to help support that

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activity. All of that has been discussed,
but ultimately, I think, the whole group is

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really proud of what we've been able to accomplish
in just this short time together.

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I'd like to ask those who are in the coalition
and represented by the coalition to please

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raise your hands so we can recognize those
that are in the room today. Thank you. If

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your hand is not raised and you're interested,
we invite you to join us. Thank you.

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[Applause]