It is day 366 of Cindy Romaine’s “Future Ready 365” Project. I imagine that last night may have been the last time she went to bed and slept without waking up in the middle of the night to make sure that she scheduled the next blog post properly and that it would go out on time. Either that, or she just collapsed from exhaustion from a massive project that gathered 365 guest blog posts on the topic of Librarians preparing for what the future has to bring to our profession. My hat is off to her for thinking big, taking chances, reaching out to the members of SLA and twisting their arms to contribute, and for achieving her goals. Well done, Cindy. Well done!

As someone that encourages people to guest post here on 3 Geeks, I know a bit of what she’s talking about, but not nearly on the scale that she took on in 2011. Just think of how difficult it is to work with one person at your office on a project. Now, think of expanding that to working with hundreds of people across the globe. Each having to complete their piece of the project… on time! I saw the fire in Cindy’s eyes in 2010 when she talked with me on the project, and I made sure that I got my part in early. I knew I couldn’t escape, and I could tell that she would hound me until I got my post in and published. 
In the final post, Cindy Romaine points out eleven lessons she’s learned from this project. If you ever thought of starting a blog, or contributing to a group blog, then take these lessons to heart: 
  1. What’s Hot. 
  2. Already There. 
  3. Business Savvy Required. 
  4. It’s Quotable. 
  5. SLA is made up of tribes. 
  6. Go Team! 
  7. The power of social media is in the connections. 
  8. Social media is free, but it is not cheap. 
  9. I can rise to the occasion. 
  10. Go big or go home. 
  11. SLA Rocks. 
Although Cindy may not want to put down the twelfth lesson, I can assure you that somewhere on this list needs to be:
   12. It is freakin’ hard work! 
Ask anyone that has attempted to start a project that requires contributions from 365+ people how they would plan to do such a thing. Many would say it is impossible. Future Ready 365, however, shows that it is very hard… but it is worth it in the end.