Big Read Orientation begins

Today at 3 pm, the Big Read Orientation began, with over 650 Big Read grantees all arriving at the Minneapolis Hilton. The event kicked off with everyone picking up their orientation packets. When we went to get our packets, Christine Taylor, the Arts Midwest Program Director saw Karye and me and told us that we "threw them for a loop" when we applied for 2 Big Read grants. She said they went through all the grant fine print and couldn't find anything that said we couldn't do that, and they had to approve it. I told her that one Big Read grant just wasn't enough.....

During the orientation opening, there was a short welcome by David Kipen, NEA National Reading Initiatives Director. Next, Christine Taylor talked about Grant & Program Management and Materials Distribution.

The meeting adjourned at 5:15 pm and picked up again at 6 pm for the dinner and program. Tables were organized by book titles, so Margaret and I sat with other "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" people, while Karye and Linda were at a "Bless Me, Ultima" table. After we sat down, the waiter came over and opened up our cloth napkins and threw them in our laps (I think they were in a hurry to serve us), while a waitress spooned tiny amounts of salad dressing onto our salads for us. Next, they served us plates with chicken breast with melted cheese on top (I scraped off the cheese, yuck), angel hair pasta with chopped green and red pepper and green beans. For dessert, I had a piece of lemon chiffon cake and Margaret had a slice of chocolate mousse cake.

After dinner, David Kipen spoke again and gave a fun presentation showing how all the Big Read authors were somehow connected (think the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon). Next, keynote speaker Tim O'Brien (author of The Things They Carried, one of the newest Big Read titles) talked about how he gets his ideas and how he is so thankful for all the work librarians do for the Big Read. He shared some thought-provoking anecdotes and answered some questions from the audience, followed by a book signing. It was getting late, so we all trooped off to print out our boarding passes for our flights tomorrow.

The agenda for Wed is customized according to book title, so Margaret and I will start at 8:30 am with a break-out session on Successful Community Partnerships. We'll also attend presentations on Managing Public & Media Relations, Involving & Working with Schools, Permissions & Working with Publishers, and a discussion of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer programming ideas. At 2 pm, we'll reconvene with a presentation on The Big Read: Research & Evalution, the Big Read film called A Conversation with Rudolfo Anaya and a wrap-up with David Kipen and Christine Taylor. Whew! Then we'll leave for the airport and our 5:55 pm flight to Phoenix and then Ontario!