Romany Manuell, ALIA member extraordinaire

Today, we are very proud to present to you a guest post by Romany Manuell, longtime ALIA member who has been part of ALIA SNGG and NGAC for the last seven years and inspired us all. We wish you all the best for your future endeavors and a big thank you for all your great work for ALIA SNGG !

Goodbye to SNGG and NGAC

by Romany Manuell

Recently I finished up seven years of volunteering for the Students and New Graduates Group and the New Generation Advisory Committee. I really want to keep volunteering for ALIA (ask not what your organisation can do for you, etc!) but I need to press pause for a while. I’m beginning my PhD through Charles Sturt University, and also working full time…

So, I just thought I’d write a few notes about what’s happened over the last SEVEN YEARS! I still can’t believe how quickly it’s flown by!

Andrew Finegan asked me to be the Secretary for SNGG (then known as “The New Grads Group”) in 2009 while I was volunteering in a School Library in Vanuatu (you can read all about that on a very old blog and if you’re thinking about volunteering, check out AVID). During my time as Secretary, I helped three awesome Convenors: Andrew Finegan, Melanie Chivers and Hiba Kanj. They are all legends, and have gone on to have great library careers. We did a lot of fun stuff together, including “Book Crawls” (think pub crawl, but with books), zine making, job skills events and lots of random networking in bars. I went to NLS4 in Melbourne, NLS5 in Perth and NLS6 in Brisbane. So many good times!

I finished up in 2013, and Hiba gently suggested (lol!) that I join the New Generation Advisory Committee. I had absolutely no idea what I was signing up for. What’s the difference?

What is SNGG?

SNGG is a grassroots group run by students and new graduates. The focus is on networking, job skills, and learning about the profession. There are Regional Coordinators in almost all States and Territories, looked after by the Executive team: Convenor(s), Secretary and Treasurer. The group is really amazing, because you can make it whatever you want it to be! If you have an event idea, tell your Regional Coordinator!

What is NGAC?

The New Generation Advisory Committee is more serious (but still fun!). We don’t plan or run events. Instead, we give advice to the board on the needs of students and new graduates. We’re appointed by the ALIA Board for a set period, converse with Board members on a monthly basis, and disseminate information via @aliangac

My term was from 2013 to 2016, and in that time we’ve done some really cool stuff. We ran a survey on the opinions of new grads, responded to some official board publications and got our social media channels under control. We now hold the monthly #auslibchat (don’t miss it!)

One of the things I’m most proud of is pulling the two groups closer together over the years. We now have a SNGG representative at every NGAC meeting. I really feel like we’re stronger together!

See you all at the next conference/networking event/training session!

Romany

You can follow Romany on Twitter @rombloggy and find her on LinkedIn.