Jeanette C. Mills
MLIS Portfolio
Leadership
Leadership has been an important part of my life for at least fifteen years. My involvement in library and information science leadership began in 1995 when I took the position of Director of Visual Services in the University of Washington School of Art. This was essentially simultaneous with my beginning the MLIS program.
My most significant leadership experience since that time was being elected as vice president of the Visual Resources Association (VRA) and serving from 1997 to 1999. The VRA is the primary professional organization for image media professionals, and the majority of the members manage 35mm slide (and now often digital image) collections in academic institutions. I first became aware of the organization when I was the assistant in the University of Washington School of Art Slide Library. My supervisor, the Director of Visual Services at that time, chaired the local arrangements committee for the 1993 VRA conference in Seattle. A co-worker and I assisted her in this effort. Through this experience and several other events, I became more and more familiar with the organization. When my supervisor retired and I was ultimately promoted into her position, I quickly joined VRA. In less than a year I was nominated for the position of vice president, partly because my work on the 1993 conference had caught the attention of a few of the more well-known VRA members.
When I was considering accepting the nomination for the position of VRA vice president, I spoke several times with Carol Doll, who was a professor in the MLIS program at that time (she is now a professor at Wayne State University). I had just completed the youth materials class with her and knew she was very active in professional organizations. She encouraged me to take on the challenge, and we talked about how important this experience would be for me in the future.
Being elected as VRA vice president was both thrilling and terrifying. The vice president is an active member of the VRA Executive Board and, therefore, participates in all meetings and discussions about the current and future state of the organization. This sometimes was daunting since I was such a new member myself. Beyond that, the vice president’s job is to be the primary coordinator of the annual conferences. During my tenure, I organized the 1998 conference in Philadelphia and the 1999 conference in Los Angeles. This included a variety of responsibilities, for example: negotiating hotel contracts; handling the call for proposals and acting as liaison with all session and roundtable moderators; writing copy for the preliminary and final programs; coordinating with the local arrangements committee about staffing of the registration desk, planning tours, and organizing workshops; and managing the conference budgets. It was a big job, and I had to start from scratch in learning some things, such as dealing with the hotels. The Executive Board I worked with was very supportive, and my second year went much more smoothly than the first. One of my final acts as vice president was to recommend that VRA create a second vice president position so that the rather burdensome conference planning duties could be split between two people. This year that recommendation has been put into effect.
Being active in a professional organization has been valuable for me. I feel more in touch with what is going on throughout the visual resources profession, and I have become acquainted with colleagues throughout the country; some have become good friends. One thing I have learned is that once one has played a leadership role in such an organization, acting as a leader becomes a more natural part of one’s life. It has helped me in my current work, in mentoring fellow MLIS students, and in my continued activities in VRA. Since stepping down as VRA vice president, I have taken on other leadership roles in the organization, including my current tenure as chair of the Pacific Rim Chapter and my recent acceptance of the co-chair position for the Education Committee. Regardless of where my library and information science career ultimately takes me, I know this experience will make it easier for me to be a leader in my work, and I always will want to be active in appropriate professional associations.
Please note that
some linked files are in PDF format and require Acrobat Reader.
