June 28, 2016

 This morning I woke up early and got ready so I could get to the convention center by 7:45AM for the ALA Council meeting. I dragged my feet a little bit, and still managed to make it to the building by 7:45AM but it took me almost ten minutes to get through the building and to then find the room. Several people were getting there around the same time and we quickly discovered that all the doors to the room where the meeting was being held were locked. A few different people tried knocking on the door to get the attention of the people inside but no one responded until finally a lady pounded on the door.

It was an interesting meeting. On either side of the big room there was seating for the general public and the center was made up of tables and seats for all the council members. I came in at the tail end of the tributes and the majority of the meeting was boring. The outgoing treasurer gave his final report which was filled with numbers for the coming year. There was a report of the tellers and I'm not entirely sure what that was about, maybe people being elected to things. The committee on legislation was mildly interesting but most of it was over my head. During that one several things were voted on, council members raising their hand to vote for something and then the rest raising their hand to vote against it. Most were unanimous and one had a few against.

The most interesting part of the meeting came at the start of intellectual freedom committee, which began with a vote to defer until the mid-winter meeting a resolution on gun violence affecting libraries, library workers, and library patrons. This vote led to the most number of council members stepping up to the various microphones and voicing their thoughts, both for and against deferring the resolution. Some thought it needed to be done now when the issue was recently brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Others wanted to take more time and make sure the response was based on facts not emotion. Some didn't want their individual libraries dragged into a fight with the NRA because the ALA put out a statement speaking for all libraries. Others didn't think it was the libraries place to take such a stance because they are just stewards of the people, not the lords of the kingdom. It was interesting to see all the different perspectives on the matter, even when people were arguing on the same side of the vote. In the end the vote was close enough with the raised hands that they had to do an actual count. People voting to defer stood up and were counted, and then the people voting not to defer stood to be counted. Those wanting to defer ended up with the majority.

The meeting ended with more numbers. There were 11,602 attendees at the conference and 4,995 exhibitors. I'm not sure if the exhibitors total is just the people working at booths or if it included all the people who only got badges to attend the exhibits. Or if those people are counted in the attendees total. Either way, that's still a lot of people. Not nearly as many as I was expecting but still a lot.

After the meeting we headed to the auditorium for the closing general session, with guest speaker Jamie Lee Curtis. Much like the other sessions with speakers, the beginning part was a little dry but the speaker was good. I've only ever seen Jamie Lee Curtis as an actress but she makes a very good speaker. She was funny throughout the whole speech which is quite an accomplishment. Her newest book is about immigration and where people come from. It involves putting things in a suitcase and they have created a lesson plan around it for young kids. The teacher will send a small suitcase home with a kid and they will have to put everything in it that they would want to take with them if they had to move to a new place. It's a small suitcase so choices will have to be made, much like the choices immigrant families throughout history have had to make. It's a really interesting idea. She told many stories and anecdotes but I think the best was about her giving an oral presentation in eighth grade as a flea on the horse of Paul Revere. She got her first A+. I really enjoyed the speech.

That was the end of the conference for us and we were free until one o'clock. I went back to the hotel and tried to figure out my job situation. The HR lady from the school has called my house twice since I've been here and today I got a voicemail from the business manager at the library. Apparently whatever the HR lady was calling me about was holding up the business manager at the library from submitting payroll. I guess because I never submitted my resignation to the school I couldn't be switched over to the library's retirement plan, which caused all sorts of problems. I tried calling the HR lady but she was out of the office. I waited awhile and called again and got someone else in HR and she explained the issue to me and emailed me the resignation form and exit interview. After that I called the business manager at the library and told her what was up and apologized for all the trouble.

At one o'clock we all met down in the professor's room for our final debrief of the conference. We talked about a lot of different conference stuff but we also went around and each said the best part and the worst part of the conference in our opinion. It was interesting to get everyone's perspective on things. It sounded like for the most part everyone had a good time and learned some things, and no one had a completely awful time, at least no one said they did.

Following the debrief we had until seven o'clock. I spent my time working on my journal. And I took a brief nap. I was fairly productive. And then, ten minutes before seven o'clock I headed down to the Village Inn on the corner for our last group dinner. Or really the first group dinner that everyone showed up to, minus the second professor who actually left earlier in the day because he wasn't feeling well.

The only rule at the table was that you couldn't sit near your roommate in order to encourage talking to different people. I originally sat down at one end of the table but it was decided that we wouldn't need that spot so I moved down to the other end. This ended up working out in my favor. I had good conversations with my classmates around me. I also spoke a lot with one of the boyfriends of one of my classmates who arrived today because they plan on sticking around for a little vacation. He is the first person I have ever spoken with in real life who not only knew who the Yogscast are, but actually watches them, without me explaining it all first. It was kind of refreshing. We also talked about video games and I found out he was into pens and paper so we talked about that as well. It shouldn't be so rare to speak with someone who shares the same interests but in my life it is. I should probably work on making friends with people who share my interests.

After dinner I briefly spoke with my roommate out in the parking lot about our website, the degree program in general, and about what I was going to do tomorrow. Then I walked back to the hotel. I spent the rest of my night working on my journal. I'm only about halfway through Saturday. Good grief. It is one o'clock in the morning right now and I plan on waking up relatively early so I can continue working on the journal. I have to get it done tomorrow and it would be nice if I could get it done early enough so that I could go do something on my last day in Orlando. I don't really know what but even if it was going to see a movie that would be something. I looked into Cirque du Soleil because I've been a fan for awhile and it would be cool to see a performance in person. We'll see if I can finish my journal. I need to be less wordy and just cut to the chase.