by Sara Witman, Director of Library Services, Gordon Feinblatt LLC

Honestly, I had a blast serving as President of LLAM this past year. The members of this organization are just plain fun to be around. It is rare to find such a perfect mix of energy, camaraderie, and dedication to public service.

Our Spring Fling in May is a great example of this. First of all, could we get a better location that Nick’s Fish House patio? The view of the harbor was lovely. And although the report called for rain, the weather held up all night with a gorgeous sunset. Moreover, what a great group of people to chat with. That night, we raised all kinds of donations, such as books and household items, for an organization that works to prevent child abuse, called The Family Tree. A successful evening, indeed.

I am thrilled to be able to serve for another year as Past President, since our newly-elected Board members are top notch. I look forward to getting to know better our new Board members Kate Martin and Mark Desierto, and our new Secretary Sara Thomas. We are lucky to have such bright people in our ranks. I am also happy to be able to continue to work with Treasurer Bijal Shah, who is always up for a challenge and is thankfully incredibly organized. This year’s Vice President Tonya Baroudi has already planned a number of events, and we haven’t even made it to August yet! Tonya is awesome! I can’t wait to see what she does with the programming.

And, of course, my year would not have been nearly as wonderful without the phenomenal Mary Jo Lazun, who served as Vice President, and will no doubt be an amazing President this year. She was the driving force behind the successful LRI conference in March, put together some of the best programming we’ve seen, and also has so many great ideas for LLAM in the future. I am grateful to be able to continue to work with her this year.

I will definitely miss working closely with Susan Herrick, who has been a true mentor to me in the last few years.

Obviously, being able to spend more time with LLAM members has been the best aspect of my time served this past year, and I’d like to thank all of the members for being so great.