The Terrace Bar

The Terrace Bar
Originally uploaded by carolinamoom.

The E-Rate Task Force met earlier this week. I put some photos on my Flickr account, but needless to say, I don't appear in many of the pictures I took. This is a nice one from Caroline LeBlanc, who made me a Flickr friend! More on the meeting in a separate post.

ALA's Annual CALL FOR COMMITTEE VOLUNTEERS

Editorial note first: For those who read this and are not familiar with the ALA process, here's the deal. The President Elect (Loriene Roy this year), posts a call for volunteers. The forms are collected by the ALA Office into the fall. There are two types of "big ALA" Committees. One has people appointed by the Committee on Committees (four Council members, elected by Council, Chaired by the ALA President Elect) and the other the Committe on Appoinitments (the President-Elect from each Division, again chaired by the ALA President-Elect).

Now, if you submit today, it will be about 7 or 8 months before you hear anything at all. Here's what is happening based on my experience of serving on the Committee on Committees when Mitch Freedman was President-Elect (2001-2002).

At Midwinter, the Committee met with a spreadsheet which included the composition, charges, and vacancies on each of "our" committees. There was a notebook with the volunteer form of each person who had sent one in. (Of course, in those days there was lots of paper, too.) The Committee met (once or twice, I don't remember which), and worked our way through the list. Some committees have lots of volunteers (Intellectual Freedom, International Relations) and there are tough choices. Others historically have few (Committee on Organization, Resolutions), and are fairly easy to get appointed to.

Many committees have interns, and that is a great way to start. When an intern's term ends (2 years) one of the things we asked the staff liaison and the outgoing chair was for a report on their work. We also asked if that person should be given a full term on the committee. Many were appointed that way. Also, there are electronic members, but much of that was worked out after my tenure on COC.

Here is the official announcement, with the links imbedded. Go for it folks!

CALL FOR COMMITTEE VOLUNTEERS

ALA President-elect Loriene Roy is seeking applications and nominations for appointments to 2007-2008 ALA and Council committees.

She will fill slots on the following committees: Accreditation; American Libraries Advisory; Awards; Budget Analysis and Review; Chapter Relations; Conference; Constitution and Bylaws; Council Orientation; Diversity; Education; Election; Human Resource Development and Recruitment Advisory; Information Technology Policy Advisory; Intellectual Freedom; International Relations; Legislation; Literacy; Literacy and Outreach Services Advisory; Membership; Membership Meetings; Nominating; Organization; Orientation, Training, and Leadership Development; Policy Monitoring (current Council members only); Professional Ethics; Public and Cultural Programs Advisory; Public Awareness; Publishing; Research and Statistics; Resolutions; Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds; Scholarships and Study
Grants; Status of Women in Librarianship; Website Advisory; ALA-Children's Book Council (Joint); ALA-Association of American Publishers {Joint) and ALA-Society of American Archivists-American Association of Museums(Joint). Committee charges can be found in the ALA Handbook of Organization.

All applicants must complete and submit the electronic 2007-2008 ALA Committee Volunteer Form.

The deadline for submission is December 4, 2006.

Geographical location, type of library, gender, ethnicity, previous committee work (not necessarily with ALA), ALA and related experience, and other factors are considered when the committee slates are compiled in order to ensure broad representation and diversity on all committees.

The ALA Committee on Committees and Committee on Appointments will assist Dr. Roy in making appointments. Committee appointees will receive appointment letters after the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. Appointees will begin their committee service after the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Questions concerning appointments can be directed to Dr. Roy at Loriene@ischool.utexas.edu or Lois Ann Gregory-Wood, Council Secretariat, at lgregory@ala.org.

The Michael Golrick Diet Plan

On Wednesday morning I walked into a meeting to be greeted by the Mayor. He complimented me on how well I looked and how much weight I lost. [I think he was also confused by my lack of beard.] He, and subsequently other City staff, have asked about my secret. And while I have posted previously, I have done some thinking, and here is my explanation.

To start, let me note that in February I weighed almost 270 pounds. Today (Saturday), I am down to 211 (before breakfast, always the lightest of the day). For the record, my height is 6 feet 2 inches (on a good day), and the official BMI charts say that the top of the Normal range for me is 194 pounds.

Part of this is specifically targeted for the Mayor, who was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and has said that he needs to loose some weight. I'll be emailing this to the Mayor's secretary as well as printing it out for him.

• First: Eat at home. I typically eat out only one meal a week, the Rotary meeting at lunch on Tuesday. Restaurant servings are over-large (and over priced). At home, you can control the portion size. I have a small pastry for breakfast, along with tomato juice and a glass of iced tea. [I also take the fist full of pills--prescription and vitamins.] By the time of the ALA Conference in New Orleans, I found that I could not eat all the food presented at the banquets which I attended.
• Second: Smaller portions. At dinner, if we are having chicken breasts, Jill and I split a one chicken breast. If I have cooked two, then the other one is sliced for sandwiches. I bring my own lunch (which, to give Jill credit, she makes). That is a sandwich, a piece of fruit and something salty (usually a small bag of chips of some sort).
• Third: No seconds. A great deal of this is about reducing calorie intake. You don't really need seconds. Eventually, you get used to it. Am I hungry? Most of the time.
• Fourth: No snacks. No visits across the hall to the vending machine. No eating at meetings. When I was at Wednesday morning's meeting, I did not visit the coffee table, I did not take any of the little breakfast snacks offered.
• Fifth: No fast food. I love French Fries. But there is no surer way to add calories, than to eat regularly at fast food restaurants. Last week, I needed to get breakfast away from home, and chose a simple croissant rather than a donut or other sugar filled food.
• Sixth: Drink water. I have a Nalgene bottle which I fill with ice and water each morning. This bottle is a souvenir which has been on adventures with me including traveling down the Allagash River in Maine during the summer of 2004, and the Boy Scouts National Jamboree last summer. It holds a liter of water. I try to finish it before lunch. Many days I drink a second one in the afternoon. Does that mean more visits to the rest room? You bet! But most Americans are at least slightly de-hydrated. Drinking water when I feel hunger fills the stomach, with zero calories. Way back in my youth, the librarians in my hometown library adopted the Stillman Water Diet which included drinking six to eight 8 oz. glasses of water during the day. Did it work? As long as you kept it up, it worked. Drinking water before a meal means that you are less tempted to over eat since your stomach is partly full already.
• Seventh: Restrict alcohol intake. I used to have one or two drinks every night, and more on weekends. Those are empty calories. I now have a drink or two on a weekend, and not during the week. I believe that was critical to the loss of the first 40-50 pounds.
• Eighth: Exercise. I only started this in early July. I dug out my bicycle. It is a trusty 30 year old street bike. A ten speed. In an hour I can now ride from my house (in Bridgeport) to Boothe Memorial Park in Stratford (almost on the river). The direct route there is about 6 miles, one way. I try to stay off the busy streets, so my route (which varies) is not direct. My trip is probably 15 - 18 miles round trip. I also have been swimming. In an hour (lunch) I can go to the YMCA, and get into my bathing suit, swim a half-mile (in about 20 minutes), get pulled back together, and return to the office. That means I take about 10 minutes to eat my lunch while reading the email which arrived while I was out. I feel better as a result. I also take the stairs instead of the elevator at work (other than when I am bringing my laptop in or out -- at the beginning or end of the day). There are six flights to my office from the ground floor. That helps. I also take the stairs when I go around the building to meetings and to see people. I take the steps up to the second floor of City Hall Annex. I walk to City Hall, not drive. (With the price of gasoline, there is an additional saving.) Walking is good!
  

Has it been easy? Yes and no. It was certainly easier in the beginning. Do the math. The first 25 pounds was 9.25% of my starting body weight. To go from my late July weight of 220 to my goal of 195 (also 25 pounds) is 11.1% of my new starting body weight (220). Over all, My goal is to lose 38.5% of what I weighed in February. Right now I have lost 21.85%. That is a lot, but I know that the last bit is going to be harder than what I have done so far.

I will be healthier. That I know. But to stay at that weight, I will have to change from what I had been doing before February. Before I started this, I would just eat and drink as much as I wanted. I am now paying attention to not what I eat, but how much I eat. Yes, I have cut down on bread, but I'm one of those people who could go all day, not eat bread, and not miss it. For me the downfall was sweets and especially desserts.

This is a lifestyle change. I have often said about technology and libraries: Change or die. Well, the same applies to diet, I have found.

Those are my secrets. They aren't really secret. If one other person gets healthier, that would be a bonus for me.

A Beautiful Wall Hanging

Office at BPL 009
Originally uploaded by Michael Golrick.

This is the wonderful gift from the ALA Executive Board which I received in New Orleans. It was created by Nann Blaine Hilyard and embellished by Janet Swan Hill. There are fabrics representing all of the places where conferences were held. There are books with titles like "ALA Handbook," "Sturges" (for the Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure), with money (representing my service on the Finance and Audit Committee of the Board), and others with personal meaning. The martini glass representing my often first drink when the Board had dinner events, the baseball for the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series (Go Bosox!), and even a bookmark made from one of the silk ties I gave to Nann. I just love this! If you follow the Flickr link, you will see it hanging along with the framed citation which is the "official" recognition for retiring board members.

Flickr Rules!

I am having way too much fun with Flickr. For those who read with an aggregator, I have added the Flickr "profile" to the top of the blog.