KohaCon 2019: For a great time, head to KohaCon

by Todd Goatley-Seals on Jul 1, 2019

Friendship and community are what you get when you belong to a community like Koha. And just as you imagined, good times are what you’ll find at KohaCon and 2019 was exceptional! Every year culminates into the highly anticipated conference that brings Koha users and lovers from around the world to share ideas, methods, how-tos, stories, friendship, and to reinvigorate the passion we all share for our love of Koha and our incredible community.

At KohaCon conferences, attendees have a lot of fun and I highly recommend attending a conference to anyone who is using and has an appreciation for Koha. Attendees enjoy visiting incredible locations, listening to informative presentations (see schedule) and breakout sessions, while mixing during and after with folks of our own ilk in great conversation, food, and drinks. You get all of this and so much more while you’re sharpening your Koha skills and building up your knowledge base. The time goes fast and you’ll find yourself wondering where the week went?

For anyone who has not gone to Dublin, it’s a blast and you should add it to your bucket list. I admit to feeling a little like I was in the FT. Lauderdale of Ireland sans a beach. Dublin is loaded with pubs and must-see sites for blocks/miles and the history is as rich as you’ve come to know and imagine with so much on display at just about every corner. One night I hung out at “The Brazen Head” (est. 1198!!) the oldest bar in Ireland. To think that it has been in that same spot for over 1,000 years was mind-blowing. The local pubs, eateries, and history made the conference even more interesting and so during and after the conference, I explored, whenever time allowed.

At the conference, I presented on Koha Fundraising and felt fortunate that the presentation stirred conversation and interest. Talking about fundraising can get some raised eyebrows but there was good input from a number of folks including Marshal Breeding who had some good questions and equally good input.

I’m constantly impressed by the level of support of Koha developments which generally come from Koha libraries and Koha support vendors. But the sort of fundraising I’m talking about is outside of the day to day needs and more in the realm of having a “Development War Chest”. We all know that having funds readily available gives us flexibility and the ability to address developments that are needed quickly. This is especially and equally important for Koha release managers who have an ambitious agenda and plans to accomplish more costly developments thus needing access to funds in order to have the project completed swiftly. Many libraries are currently at the end of their fiscal year with funds remaining in your year-end balance. If you find yourself in this fortunate/unfortunate position be sure to make a strong consideration of Koha. Feel free to contact me, Todd Goatley-Seals at 775-335-7940

There are a number of ways to conduct fundraising and for our US Koha Library’s I highly suggest checking out koha-US. koha-US (koha-US.org) is our domestic, non-profit, user group. We offer memberships with access to available support, voting decisions of the organization, and as a member you have the opportunity to be part of one or all committees (5 total) and, if you choose, even be elected as part of the BoD to help with guiding the organization. Koha-US has monthly BoD, General, and committee meetings. koha-US also has an annual conference that is chosen by members through a voting process. In koha-US your participation is greatly appreciated and your input to the organization is highly sought after. koha-Us seeks your creativity and will be happy to have you join us to be part of making koha-US the go-to user group.