Dear colleagues, 

We hope 2023 is starting off well for you and that the holidays were enjoyable. On behalf of the Executive Board, we’re delighted to share that after a series of interviews and productive discussion about our present and future, ChLA has signed a management contract with Catherine (Cate) Langley and Association Leadership Partners, LLC (ALP). Cate has extensive experience in association management, as do her colleagues, and we are delighted to partner with them. Our contract is a three-year contract, at an affordable rate (with cost savings) and with an annual review process and flexibility built in for both parties. You can read more about our new Association Manager Cate and ALP here: 

https://association-leader.com/association-management/ 

Cate can be reached at [email protected], and our official ChLA address and phone number will be provided by ALP. And you can always reach out to both of us as well. 

Our discussions with Cate were energizing and we look forward to working with her on matters vital to ChLA, including our stated core values (https://www.childlitassn.org/chla-core-values) and the ongoing tasks of our committees. We will continue to think collaboratively about how we function as an organization even as we benefit from Cate’s guidance. Cate is now helping us transition from Meeting Expectations and we expect that process to be complete by the end of January. Cate and her team will also be continuing the work to support Michelle Martin and the Conference Planning Committee as they organize the upcoming 2023 annual conference. 

While we haven’t finalized plans, we also expect to return to Johns Hopkins University Press for membership management as well as ongoing journal publication. That shift will probably happen later this spring. JHUP managed our membership until 2015 and did a great job.  

We want to thank all of you for your patience as we navigate these exciting changes and carry on with our usual business. We want to thank our amazing Board members for their intensive time and labor; it’s been a profound pleasure working with you. We remain grateful for Michelle Martin and the work of her planning committee on the conference in Bellevue. We hope to see many of you there! Conference details should be available soon. Our VP and President-Elect Maude Hines and the Nominations and Elections Committee are meanwhile working on the elections ballot, and we thank everyone for their willingness to serve on our hard-working committees.  

Kenneth Kidd
[email protected]

Amy Pattee
[email protected]