Photos from 2024 Ecla conference at Wheaton Christian Grammar School
This year’s Conference will be back in Illinois! We have a great line-up of presentations for librarians and book lovers alike. Check it out and register now, the date is October 5th, 2024.
Event Information
Date: October 5th, 2024, 8am-4pm
Location: Wheaton Christian Grammar School, 1N350 Taylor Dr, Winfield, IL
Registration Fees: $60 registration which includes Continental breakfast, lunch, and ECLA annual membership
© Wheaton Grammar School
What’s on the conference schedule?
7:45 – 8:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:00 – 9:00 Welcome & Cynthia Ruchti
Cynthia Ruchti tells stories hemmed-in-Hope through her award-winning novels, novellas, nonfiction, devotionals, and through speaking events. She served 12 years as the professional relations liaison for American Christian Fiction Writers and is now a senior literary agent with Books & Such Literary Agency and continues to write both fiction and nonfiction for the Christian market. She and her husband live in the heart of Wisconsin, not far from their three children and seven grandchildren.
9:00 – 9:15 Break
9:15 – 10:00 Aubrey Sampson
Aubrey Sampson is the author of 5 books, including award-winning The Louder Song: Listening for Hope in the Midst of Lament and Known: How Believing Who God Says You Are Changes Everything, and her latest best-selling kid’s book, Big Feelings Days: A Book About Hard Things, Heavy Emotions, and Jesus’s Love. She is a church planter and teaching pastor, a coach with Propel Women, and the co-host of the Nothing is Wasted Podcast.
10:00 – 10:30
Jessica Lutz– Book talking new Children’s Books
Jessica Lutz hated reading until her mother got her hooked by refusing to continue reading to her. She lives and breathes books now by reading whenever she can find the time, working as a children’s book buyer at Baker Book House, and writing her own book.
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:30
Chris Jager – Book talking new Christian Fiction
Chris Jager of Baker Books has over eighteen years of experience in the fiction world, backed by years of reading. She loves sharing her love of fiction with ECLA conference attendees. Chris will be presenting the hottest new fiction.
OR School Librarians meet
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 2:30
Book Doctor: Book repair with Demco* OR
Emily Assell: Tyndale House Author
Emily Assell is a bestselling children’s book author and speaker. She believes dry shampoo, snacks, and the Word of God can solve almost any parenting problem. Tyndale House Publishers released her first book, You Are, which has gone on to sell over twenty-five thousand copies. When not writing, Emily homeschools her three children, has spoken at many parenting conferences, schools, mothers’ groups, and she has been a featured guest on multiple podcasts, teaching and encouraging all ages about the power of God’s Word.
2:30 – 3:30 Round Table Discussions for:
School Librarians
Led by: Jen Brown
Jen Brown is the Library Media Center Director at the Wheaton Christian Grammar School in Winfield, IL. She also serves on the ECLA board where her expertise in school librarians is highly appreciated.
Church Librarians
Led by: Denise Roberts and Debbie Dehart
Denise Roberts is a pioneer in the homeschool movement who taught her own six children, Denise also wrote and directed a girls’ mentoring program. Initially created with her daughter in mind, it continued on for seventeen years after she graduated. In addition to being a librarian, Denise’s hobbies include speaking, writing, reading, sewing, enjoying retirement with her husband, and, whenever possible, spending time with their thirteen grandchildren.
Debbie Dehart has been an avid reader (in two languages) all her life, even when she lived overseas and English books were hard to come by. She has been a librarian at Berean Baptist Church in Portage, MI since 2013, and because organization and the Dewey Decimal System are among her favorite things, she especially loves cataloging and making sure everything in the library is in order. She lives in Schoolcraft, MI with Terry, her husband of 40 years. Their four children, three children-in-law and eight granddaughters all live within a twenty-minute drive.
Book Lovers
Led by: Cathy Askeland and Shari Potter
Cathy Askeland is a retired middle school media director. She is also a member of the ECLA board. One of her specialties is hosting the monthly Zoom Librarian Roundtable.
Shari Potter is a retired middle school media director, an avid reader and a church librarian! (Would you believe she is Harry Potter’s mother?🤣)
© New York Public Library
3:30 – 4:00 Book Giveaway!
Besides all these wonderful presentations, all attendees will receive many new books to take home in the book giveaway and everyone is invited to the book swap whether you bring books or not. Lunch will be provided. The fellowship and networking with other librarians and book lovers is an invaluable part of this conference. Don’t miss it!
Pop-up Bookstore
Register for the Fall 2024 Conference below by filling out the form and pressing the Paypal Checkout button, this will take you to Paypal for payment.
*Please label your payment Fall Conference 2024 when you make it through Paypal*
*The conference fee is 60usd which includes continental breakfast, lunch, and ECLA annual membership*
If you would rather print out a registration form and pay by check, here to to download to form for printing.
