Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Saturday 8 November
All too soon the last day dawned upon us. Rene Schoombee, Rachel More and Robert Moropa presented the last presentations on Library advocacy. I was particularly interested in these presentations as our group had decided on this theme for our Partnership Project. The following words of Rachel More (current president of LIASA) struck a cord with me: “We are all library advocates as we are sitting here and we need to advocate for free access to information. This is what librarianship is all about.”
Lucille Webster introduced our Partnership Project to the rest of the audience: The Library Advocates (our new name) will each identify a disadvantaged school in their area, target a specific class and introduce those children to the career of librarianship during South African Library Week. What an exciting project – my head is reeling with possibilities!
Like I said during the closing when prompted by Susan Schnuer: these few days at the Leadership Institute challenged me to think out of the box, provided an opportunity to peek into and gain insight in other people’s boxes and provided me with so many interesting and exciting ideas for our project that I have difficulty containing them in a box!
Thanks to the organizers and presenters for this wonderful learning experience – I can truly say that I have not only raised my self-awareness, but believe that I have built lifelong friendships during these few days. Above all I can truly say that I have applied all 6 of the principles of the Leadership Institute: broadening of my horizons, self-awareness, acknowledgement of diversity, networking, sharing of skills and last but not least, I had lots of fun!
Lucille Webster introduced our Partnership Project to the rest of the audience: The Library Advocates (our new name) will each identify a disadvantaged school in their area, target a specific class and introduce those children to the career of librarianship during South African Library Week. What an exciting project – my head is reeling with possibilities!
Like I said during the closing when prompted by Susan Schnuer: these few days at the Leadership Institute challenged me to think out of the box, provided an opportunity to peek into and gain insight in other people’s boxes and provided me with so many interesting and exciting ideas for our project that I have difficulty containing them in a box!
Thanks to the organizers and presenters for this wonderful learning experience – I can truly say that I have not only raised my self-awareness, but believe that I have built lifelong friendships during these few days. Above all I can truly say that I have applied all 6 of the principles of the Leadership Institute: broadening of my horizons, self-awareness, acknowledgement of diversity, networking, sharing of skills and last but not least, I had lots of fun!
Friday 7 November
This morning the group learnt how to create a blog and although I have attended numerous training sessions on blogs before, this was my first attempt at blogging. I loved it, but do realize that it was only because the Leadership Institute Programme provided so much to share.After tea Monica Hammes introduced us to Library Quality Assurance (“Doing the right things right at an affordable price”); Hilda Kriel taught us more about Client Services (which lies in the extent to which the total activities of a company are brought together as an inter-related and interdependent system) and Ina Smith showcase various Web 2.0 tools . I found the YouTube video The Machine is Us/ing Us particularly interesting as it captures the essence of Web 2.0.
Serials management was presented by Lita Ferguson (responsible for Serials Management at the University of Pretoria) and Philip de Kock from Swets.
The afternoon was concluded by a visit to the prisons at Constitution Hill where a tour guide gave us a vivid insight into the terrible daily living conditions of the prisoners. The beautiful Constitutional Court was deliberately built on this site and is noted for its transparency and theme of “justice under a tree”. I had the pleasure of spending supper in the company of Hilda Kriel, Christelle Steyn, Barbara Ford and Renu Rabilall and we discussed traditional recipes and promised Christelle that we would all contribute to her Recipe blog.
Back at the The Village, Ria Groenewald, Refilwe Matatiele and Farhana Yunnus too turns to visit my and Christelle’s room and we chatted and laughed together until 24:00!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Thursday 6 November
I must admit that I was a little bit tired the second morning, but it was all due to the fact that Christelle and I really got to know more of each other the previous evening. Sharing a room with someone other than my husband reminded me of my hostel days at Benjamijn at the former Rand Afrikaans University...It was fun lying on our beds and hearing more about her life!
Barbara Ford, Ms Kay Raseroka and Karin Kitching set the scene by introducing us to the State of Libraries and Librarianship in South Africa. Ina Smith and Thembi Hadebe followed by presenting our group projects. This confirmed that we still had a lot of work ahead of us. We briefly had an opportunity to meet our team members. I am looking forward to working with Refilwe Masondo, Shirley Kabwato, Lucille Webster and our only gentleman in the group, Keoagile Phoi (whose name means "I built it") My true wish for us is to bring the dreams of our new project to fulfillment.
The Pamoja simulation game (facilitated by Susan Schnuer), was so much fun (in Afrikaans we have the saying "vet pret")! Our group played the game strictly according to the rules, but boy, did I get to know some of the other group members...There were Mafia members who wealed and dealed their way to their riches, "High-flyers" and a very screwed banker...our own Ujala Satgoor! Who could have guessed that librarians were so good at acting? I really enjoyed this session tremendously!
Sean Moodley, Director of the Desmond Tutu Diversity Trust was next on the agenda. He learnt us to ask the question “Why?” before we ask “How?”. Transformation is a process of change and he gave us much food for food by explaining the differences between racism and internalized oppression.
The evening was rounded off by a cozy dinner at the Imagine restaurant in Eastwood Street. I had the pleasure of talking to Refilwe Masondo (who I dubbed “The Voice” because of the beautiful song she performed), Refilwe Matatiele, Lucille Webster and Barbara Ford, director of the Mortenson Center.
Barbara Ford, Ms Kay Raseroka and Karin Kitching set the scene by introducing us to the State of Libraries and Librarianship in South Africa. Ina Smith and Thembi Hadebe followed by presenting our group projects. This confirmed that we still had a lot of work ahead of us. We briefly had an opportunity to meet our team members. I am looking forward to working with Refilwe Masondo, Shirley Kabwato, Lucille Webster and our only gentleman in the group, Keoagile Phoi (whose name means "I built it") My true wish for us is to bring the dreams of our new project to fulfillment.
The Pamoja simulation game (facilitated by Susan Schnuer), was so much fun (in Afrikaans we have the saying "vet pret")! Our group played the game strictly according to the rules, but boy, did I get to know some of the other group members...There were Mafia members who wealed and dealed their way to their riches, "High-flyers" and a very screwed banker...our own Ujala Satgoor! Who could have guessed that librarians were so good at acting? I really enjoyed this session tremendously!
Sean Moodley, Director of the Desmond Tutu Diversity Trust was next on the agenda. He learnt us to ask the question “Why?” before we ask “How?”. Transformation is a process of change and he gave us much food for food by explaining the differences between racism and internalized oppression.
The evening was rounded off by a cozy dinner at the Imagine restaurant in Eastwood Street. I had the pleasure of talking to Refilwe Masondo (who I dubbed “The Voice” because of the beautiful song she performed), Refilwe Matatiele, Lucille Webster and Barbara Ford, director of the Mortenson Center.
Wednesday 5 November
At last the day arrived which hailed the start of the Thinking outside the borders Library Leadership Institute Programme! I arrived at the The Village - excited, but also with feelings of trepidation. To my surprise and delight I learnt that I shared a room with one of my colleagues from the University of Pretoria, Christelle Steyn. Although Christelle was not in the room, I quickly unpacked and decided to head for the Graduate Centre.
I made a new acquaintance immediately in the person of Martha de Waal from the National Library of South Africa, who offered me a lift to the University of Pretoria campus. We registered and received the long-awaited programme which was packed to the hilt with a varied but exciting schedule.
I found the individual presentations very interesting. It was fun to see the creative ways in which each representative presented themselves. There were much laughter for some of the introductions, e.g. "the tallest girl in the room" (Boniwe Molupi), the "most handsome man in the room" (Andries Kekana) and I even had the opportunity to see the MMM CEO of Me Inc. (Mapula Mokgele) in action!
After the group photograph we attended a drumming session as a tension reliever. I have heard about the beneficial advantages of drumming before, but this was my first experience at drumming. I loved the rhythmic drumming to the beat - even though I had to concentrate sometimes to be in time. I did notice though that our Library Director. Mr Robert Moropa had a very distinct rhythm and he looked like a professional drummer himself!
But we were here to learn, and after dinner we were introduced to the Leadership Assessment Tool by a very competent Hilda Kriel and Ujala Satgoor. Both these ladies, as true leaders, described in great detail the Descriptors and assisted us to score in the questionnaire. I thought this a very useful tool and it helped me to think about the many characteristics necessary for effective leadership.
What an interesting first day!
I made a new acquaintance immediately in the person of Martha de Waal from the National Library of South Africa, who offered me a lift to the University of Pretoria campus. We registered and received the long-awaited programme which was packed to the hilt with a varied but exciting schedule.
I found the individual presentations very interesting. It was fun to see the creative ways in which each representative presented themselves. There were much laughter for some of the introductions, e.g. "the tallest girl in the room" (Boniwe Molupi), the "most handsome man in the room" (Andries Kekana) and I even had the opportunity to see the MMM CEO of Me Inc. (Mapula Mokgele) in action!
After the group photograph we attended a drumming session as a tension reliever. I have heard about the beneficial advantages of drumming before, but this was my first experience at drumming. I loved the rhythmic drumming to the beat - even though I had to concentrate sometimes to be in time. I did notice though that our Library Director. Mr Robert Moropa had a very distinct rhythm and he looked like a professional drummer himself!
But we were here to learn, and after dinner we were introduced to the Leadership Assessment Tool by a very competent Hilda Kriel and Ujala Satgoor. Both these ladies, as true leaders, described in great detail the Descriptors and assisted us to score in the questionnaire. I thought this a very useful tool and it helped me to think about the many characteristics necessary for effective leadership.
What an interesting first day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
