ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING

EL CORAZON DE TEJAS, CENTRAL TEXAS CHAPTER OF REFORMA MEETING MINUTES
Friday, January 25, 2002, 3:30 p.m.
Benson Latin American Collection, Sid Richardson Hall Seminar Room

Present: Jennifer Thomas (presiding), Margo Gutiérrez, Steve Reich, Gustavo Soto, Irma Flores-Manges, Sarah Bradley, Myra Arredondo, Tom Moran, Loriene Roy The group welcomed Myra Arredondo, Special Services Consultant at the Texas State Library.

After other introductions and approval of the minutes of the last meeting, Gustavo Soto gave a brief report on the state of the chapter's budget. After the slightly over $850 raised at the fall event, and the $600 collected from 2001 dues, the budget stands at about $1,500. Proposed budgets for the Immigration Forum and Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros were presented in order to determine how much to allocate from our budget to each. The group agreed to allocate $1,000 to the Immigration Forum scheduled for May 11, and $500 for Día de los Niños, Día del Libro activities.

There was discussion whether the chapter would be obligated to send money to National REFORMA for accounting purposes, and then have it returned to us. Because the chapter had no representation at the National REFORMA board meetings at Mid-winter, Jennifer and Gustavo said they would ask for clarification on this point. [Note: Subsequent to the meeting, Jennifer has been advised by Ramona Grijalva, national Treasurer, that the issue of chapter monies has been referred to a committee, but she added that we should proceed with using the money we have earned towards our events.]

Irma has not completed her draft letter to the TLA Bluebonnet Committee, but will have it ready for discussion at our next meeting.

As noted above, the chapter had no representative at Mid-winter, we are unaware of major decisions that took place and how they will affect our chapter; Jennifer will forward news and information from the National as it becomes available. She also drafted a brief article describing our activities to be submitted for publication in the next issue of the REFORMA Newletter. The group launched into a discussion about how we can expand our membership. We need to find ways to increase attendance at meetings, and to reach out to our colleagues in other parts of Central Texas. We discussed possibly holding a late May meeting in Salado so that members in counties north will find it more convenient to attend. A Saturday meeting with a picnic was suggested.

The Immigration Forum planning committee gave a report on it's activities. Sarah Bradley, our GSLIS intern who is helping to organize the forum, is making great headway. She has applied to AISD and other educational institutions for continuing education (CE) credit for participants, and is working on grant proposals to two foundations for small grants to help defray costs of the Forum. Sarah has also asked HEB for support (refreshments, pastries, etc.). Coordinators for all five breakout groups (education, immigration law, health & social services, housing & employment, and police & safety) have been assigned. Nevertheless, we need more members to get involved, particularly to get the word out. If you know of individuals or organizations that should be invited to participate, or of foundations or businesses who might be contacted for support, please contact Sarah Bradley (sabradley18@hotmail.com). Everyone's help is crucial.

To recap, the target audience will be the government and nonprofit sectors, library staff, social service workers, and educators. Four Central Texas counties will be targeted. The forum will be held Saturday May 11th from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the ACC Rio Grande campus. It will include a keynote speaker, Q & A sessions, and an organization fair. A referral guide to immigrant advocacy agencies will be prepared to give to all participants. Because Dr. Manuel García y Griego could not confirm his participation in a timely manner, it was decided that he would be gently "disinvited" and that an invitation would be extended to Professor Luis Plascencia who teaches an immigration reform class at UT, and who sits on the city's Commission on Immigrant Affairs. [Note: Professor Plascencia has agreed to participate as our keynoter at no cost.]

The next planning meeting for the Immigration form is scheduled for Friday, February 22, 11:30-12:30pm, at Cepeda Branch 651 N. Pleasant Valley Rd.

Another project to commence this spring is to compile a core list of recommended children's books (K-8) with Latino themes/content. We hope to distribute this list to area school librarians, along with a REFORMA recruitment/informational packet. Margo will begin work on this by sending out a request on the REFORMA listserv asking for colleague's top 3 or 4 favorities in various age categories. A list will be compiled from responses.

Gustavo reminded everyone that now is the time to renew membership. The dues are based on the calendar year. Without members' dues, we cannot hope to continue sponsoring activities such as the Immigration Forum and Día de los Niños events. There are also overhead costs to consider such as postage, stationery, post office box, etc., so please renew now. The membership renewal form is available at: http://www.main.org/reforma/join.html

Publicity Comittee: Leslie Navarro was not present at the meeting to provide a report on costs of printing stationery with El Corazón de Tejas logo. [Note: she subsequently sent a message to the listserv with this information.]

Other business: A discussion ensued on how to establish better dialogue among our organization, APL and the GSLIS. We need to find new ways to collaborate in an effort to recruit more students interested in the mission of REFORMA into the profession. Clearly, this is a topic that warrants more discussion.

The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 7, at 9:00 a.m. at the new St. John's Branch of APL. Directions and a reminder will be sent out to the membership. The meeting adjourned at approximately 4:45 p.m.

Submitted by Margo Gutiérrez