WCCPBA Spring Selection Meeting

The committee met at Wellington Elementary in Woodinville. Diane was our host. The committee discuss business items first. Two new members replaced retiring members this year. We now have someone from Spokane and Tacoma on the committee. As I'm moving into the WLMA President role next year, we selected a new co-chair! We decided to delay the 25 year poster to a 30 year poster, giving us a bit more time to collect permissions and possibly a new WCCPBA logo.
Here's how the book selection works. There are 3 rounds at the beginning. During a round each member book talks a book from the suggested title list (a list of about 100 books suggested by members from throughout the state). As a book is talked about, it is added to a table. After the 3rd round there are about 30 books on the table. Members then get up and discuss, debate, and consider. The titles everyone agrees on are placed on another table. Books that most members aren't excited about are moved off of the table. More discussion ensues until there are 20 books left.
During this discussion members are talking about how kids responded to the titles, diversity, type of story, and many other factors. It's very hard to get the list down to 20 and there are always some titles that you liked, but weren't in the group of 30. It's also about compromise, sometime you might not like every title on the final list. I've never seen a final list where everyone loved every book. All in all, the lists are pretty strong year after year.
The next job for the committee members is to develop lessons for each book. Members also have other tasks like: poster/sticker sales, creating a video, compiling the lessons, purchasing award plates and having them engraved, contact publishers for copyright permissions, contacting the winners, tabulating votes. The committee members are truly dedicated to this program and with over 100,000 votes each year, they have an impact on many students across Washington.