Committee Final Report

NOTE: ** = Required Field

**Type of report being submitted: Committee Final Report

**Date: June 30, 2005

**Committee Name: Student Reception

**Supervising Board Member: Tanzi Merritt

**Chair, Co-Chairs, Assistant Chairs: Erin Ellis

**Committee members: Alana Boyajian, Terry Buckner, Heather Moulaison, Joleen Westerdale-Robertson

**Goals, Objectives, Projects completed (including, but not limited to, any procedures, tip sheets, checklists, etc. created during the reporting year):

Hosted the 2005 Student Reception at ALA Annual in Chicago. Over 100 students attended this year. The reception was not in conflict with any other major NMRT event this year.

Ten representatives from eleven ALA divisions and roundtables spoke at the reception; several groups that could not send representatives delivered flyers. Gerald Hodges from the ALA office also attended. The Student Chapter of the Year award winner and runner-up were announced and presented at the reception.

This year, the committee increased publicity. Flyers were distributed at Midwinter in Boston during the NMRT Orientation. We continued our efforts to publicize contacting SASCO and getting their mailing lists, subscribing to several listservs, and including flyers at the NMRT Orientation and NMRT Booth at Annual. Due to space limitations, we were not able to get an article or announcement into the Footnotes May issue.

Finally, we created a survey to be completed by students at the end of the reception. Only a handful were returned (because the reception wrapped up very quickly and people were out the door before the survey was brought to their attention), but I think it would be a useful evaluation tool for future reception committees, as well as new reception committees reviewing past successes/failures.

**Action Items/Issues To Be Resolved – What plans/projects remain which will be carried over or postponed until next year? Have there been any substantial changes in plans requiring a reconsideration or cancellation of projects? Information regarding such will be helpful for future chairs and planners.

Funding continues to be an issue for this event. Because it is difficult to project just how many students and guests will attend (and because it is difficult to project catering costs at venues), some years the reception will be under budget and some years the reception will go over. Final cost of this year's catering is unknown at this time, but I am sure that it went over budget.  Further, there was not enough food for attendees this year.

Again, with funding, I would recommend a small amount of money set aside for printing. Though we were able to pull it off this year, it is sometimes difficult or impossible for members to print ALA-related materials at their institutions.

There were several inquiries from students during our heavy publicity push. Mostly, they had questions like: Is an RSVP required? Is the reception formal? Do I have to belong to NMRT to attend? I would recommend that these issues be addressed in the publicity materials next year.

I also strongly suggest that this reception continue to be conflict-free and that publicity be a high priority.

Financial Report Section:

Your budget appropriation (see budget)	a. $1500
Amount which you have spent this year	b. $1500+
Difference between budgeted amount and amount spent (a-b)	c. ~ +$150-200

**Report submitted by: Erin Ellis

**Email address: erin.ellis@ttu.edu