In case you have not yet seen this announcement, ACRL-OR is co-sponsoring this is highly recommended preconference that should be well worth your time.

Are you looking to develop your leadership skills to benefit your library? Your community?  Your professional association? Your career?  The Oregon Library Association is offering a full day leadership training at the 2015 OLA Conference in Eugene — Leading From Any Position: Creating Learning Libraries in Five Easy Lessons — that you can register for now. This preconference is being planned by the OLA Leadership Task Force. OLA is committed to supporting the building of leadership skills in its members. The preconference is open to all library workers.

Becky Schreiber and John Shannon, facilitators of the well-regarded PNLA Leads! Leadership Institute, will guide participants in exploring leadership from all positions in libraries. Their results have been recognized by library staff who embrace the concepts and implement the disciplines of Peter Senge’s Learning Organizations. This preconference will examine innovative ideas and provide support for participants’ efforts to lead in our libraries and beyond.

What can a leadership training do for you? Read this testimony and more on OLA’s Leadership Taskforce webpages.

Although it has been close to 8 years since I participated in the PNLA Leadership Institute, I carry the talisman of the self-awareness and confidence I started to build there with me every day. Becky Schreiber and John Shannon were amazing guides on the road to successful leadership. They didn’t care about my official position or level of education- only that I had the potential to help shape the future of libraries and I was willing to participate in some deep and painful reflection to do so. They helped to direct my passion for our institution down a leadership path. I am the leader I am in part because they helped me see who and what I could be.
~ Angela Weyrens, Multnomah County Library

In OLA’s experiential preconference, we will:

• Explore the concepts of Leading from Any Position; to take initiative and garner influence regardless of organizational authority
• Practice practical applications of Peter Senge’s five learning disciplines
• Apply the disciplines to each participant’s unique situation
• Plan strategies for using the concepts to create a collaborative culture
• Experience the fun of creating together, treating ambiguity as an opportunity for group innovation

For more information about the preconference, including the agenda, visit OLA’s Leadership Taskforce webpage. Register for the preconference through the OLA Conference 2015 website.