El CorazÛn de Tejas logo El Corazón de Tejas-Central Texas Chapter of REFORMA

Meeting Minutes for September 24, 2002

 

Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, Austin, TX
4:10 p.m.  - 5:05 p.m. 

 

In attendance: (15)

Adán Benavides (UT Benson)

Sarah Bradley-Leighton (GSLIS, UT Benson, LBJ)

Patricia Clarke (McLennan County/Waco Public Library)

Irma Flores-Manges (Austin Public Library)

Anita Fudell (APL), Elva Garza (APL)

Jill Goldman (UT GSLIS, UT Benson)

Julissa Gomez (GSLIS, UT Benson)

Margo Gutierrez (UT Benson)

Tom Moran (APL)

Steven Reich (APL)

Monica Rivera (UT Benson)

Irma Villarreal Shook (St. Stephen’s School)

Paola Ferate-Soto (APL)

Gustavo Soto (APL)

Sean Sutcliffe (MC/WPL)

 

Agenda

1. Bienvenidos/Introductions – Elva Garza

            · Sign-in sheet will be passed around

2. Approval of Meeting Minutes from July 23, 2002 – Elva Garza

3. Chapter Financial Report – Gustavo Soto

            · Discussion of future chapter fundraisers

4. Report on the Spanish Discussion of “Bless Me Ultima” – Gustavo Soto

            · Discussion tonight at 7:00 p.m. Oak Hill Branch Library

            · Discussion of the chapter hosting more book discussions at Terrazas en español

5. Report of the 16 de septiembre events – Paola Ferate-Soto

6. Central Texas Library Services Regional Meeting – Elva Garza

· Friday, September 27, 2002 in Giddings

7. Chapter participation in the Rudolfo Anaya’s discussion – Elva Garza

            · Fiesta Gardens, Wednesday, October 23 at 7:00 p.m.

8. Planning another event like the Immigration Forum for the spring – Elva Garza

9. Committee Reports

            · Membership/Publicity

· Professional Development

· Fundraising

· Mentoring

10. Additional Announcements

 

Minutes

1. Elva welcomed everyone. Invited everyone to enjoy the drinks and the cake brought to celebrate Margo’s promotion to Assistant Head of the Benson Collection. Everyone present introduced himself or herself. We had three new faces: Jill Goldman is a GSLIS student and works in circulation at the Benson Latin American Collection. Irma Villarreal Shook worked as a Wired for Youth Lifeguard this summer and is a student in the North Texas library program. She currently works at St. Stephen’s School. Monica Rivera works in the Rare Books Room at the Benson. We welcome our new members.

 

2. The group approved the minutes from the July 23 meeting except for a spelling change to Patricia Clark’s last name. There is no “e” at the end of Clark. Sarah Bradley-Leighton stated that the meeting minutes are posted on the chapter website. Feel free to contact her about any corrections to the minutes.

 

3. Gustavo reported on chapter funds and distributed a balance sheet. There is currently $566.65 in the chapter account. The chapter made $157.53 at the 16 de septiembre celebration at Plaza Saltillo on Sunday, September 15. REFORMA did face painting – thank you to Paola and Julissa. Banderitas made with red, green, and white beads on safety pins were sold, and spin art allowed the kids to make art. Thank you to everyone involved in that activity. Elva said it was a good experience even though it was not a huge fundraiser. Paola noted that she saw a button maker at an event this weekend and we may want to think about getting one to do at our next event like 16 de septiembre.

 

Elva then raised the subject of the next fund-raising event for the chapter. The poetry and music evening held last year was mentioned and the group decided it would be a good idea if we could find a good venue. Irma Villarreal Shook said she would look into the St. Stephen’s Fine Arts Center as a venue. The school might let us use the space for the evening. She will ask her supervisor and let us know. It was decided we would have the event the first week of December, probably on December 7, 2002, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Members present at the meeting volunteered to take charge of the following areas:

Food – Margo (We will have a “potluck” theme like last year.)

Venue – Irma (She is checking on St. Stephen’s.)

Publicity – Sarah (We will contact the Hispanic Network and use the guest book from last year to start the invitation list. Everyone is encouraged to send suggestions.)

Talent Recruitment – Gustavo (Will notify last year’s participants and recruit new talent.)

Julissa and Anita also volunteered to help where needed. Anyone interested in this planning committee will meet on their own to execute the event. If any members not present are interested in helping, they can contact any chapter officer and they will put you in touch with the appropriate member.

 

4. The Spanish discussion of “Bless me Ultima” at the Terrazas Branch went well. Steve and Gustavo hosted the group and members of the community were there. The branch would like to host more discussions in Spanish. The next proposed title to discuss is “Llano en Llamas” by Juan Rulfo. Steve’s concern is having enough copies for the community to read. If anyone has any suggestions about getting multiple copies please contact him. Sarah suggested checking with the UT CO-Op since they purchase classic Spanish books for university classes. Paola mentioned she has a list of books in Spanish for reading groups and will pass that on to Steve. The discussion will be advertised in Spanish language media and in the branch.

 

5. Item 5 was covered during Agenda Item 3.

 

6. Elva will have a table at the CTLS meeting in Giddings with brochures and our banner. Irma will also be attending and volunteered to help distribute flyers in the afternoon.

 

7. The group agreed that El Corazón should have a presence at the Anaya event on October 23 at Fiesta Gardens. Jill, Steve, Margo, Anita, Sarah, and Elva volunteered to help host a table at the event. Margo suggested we have a raffle for a signed set of Anaya books. Irma will check to see if we can have a fund-raising activity at the event and she will get the books signed by Rudolfo Anaya. If we are unable to do the raffle, we will host a table and distribute reading lists. Margo also suggested that the raffle could be opened to REFORMA National and we might do the raffle even if it is not for the event at Fiesta Gardens. Elva knows someone who can print raffle tickets for us and will ask him to do so if we go forward. It was also suggested that BookPeople might be willing to donate books for the raffle.

 

8. The group discussed having another Immigration Forum. Elva mentioned that it is a big undertaking around the same time as Día de los Niños. It is a huge time commitment and without the help of a student or the membership at large, it would be a hard task to accomplish. The group agreed but expressed its desire to continue upon the theme in some way. It was suggested that our event be folded into the Día activities by organizing organizations to appear and distribute literature on immigration and related social service issues. There are many undocumented families that attend Día and it would be an excellent venue to share the information we shared at the forum. The discussion of book donations came up. Adán suggested that a publishing contact he has might be willing to donate their surplus Spanish textbooks and materials. He will contact them and let us know. Furthermore, El Corazón would like to host a smaller workshop more focused on library staff and community immigrant issues.

 

9. Elva mentioned that at the last meeting members were encouraged to sign up for committees and asked if the committees have reports to make. Elva will send out an e-mail to remind people what they volunteered to do. Committees are encouraged to meet and discuss activities outside of chapter meetings. Those who did not attend the meeting are encouraged to choose a committee or committees in which they would like to be involved, and to e-mail the chapter discussion list at el-corazon-de-tejas@lists.cc.utexas.edu.  

 

Membership/Publicity: Julissa mentioned that she would like to stuff the mailboxes at GSLIS with Corazón brochures. Sarah will help. Elva will get the needed copies of brochures.

 

Professional Development: Sarah mentioned the Carnegie-Whitney Award through ALA that provides grants for the preparation and publication of popular or scholarly reading lists as an opportunity for the chapter to fund its efforts to generate the reading lists we have discussed producing. The group encouraged applying. Sarah will research the grant further and draft a proposal if the chapter is eligible. Patricia mentioned that her library has a grant writer on staff and offered her help in looking the proposal over. Adán also volunteered his editing service. The deadline for application is November 11, 2002.

 

Fundraising: No report. See earlier minutes regarding poetry evening and book raffle.

 

Mentoring: Margo reported that she contacted Ron Pollock at GSLIS about Corazón’s interest in mentoring students. Ron returned her e-mail right away and she will be having lunch to discuss this next week. She invited us to let her know what we would like her to discuss with him. Elva suggested we find out what GSLIS expects from mentors. The group present mentioned that mentoring could be as much or as little as an e-mail, a tour of their workplace, and a coffee chat. Mentoring does not mean offering the person a specific project or a job. Those present at the meeting who are interested in being mentors are: Elva, Irma, Steve, Anita, Patricia, Paola, and Margo. Patricia will gather the ALA material on mentoring and share it with Margo for the meeting with Ron.

 

10. Adán requested that the chapter send him our mailing list as the Benson would like to invite our contacts to the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Benson Collection. Numerous announcements were made about upcoming community events. Notices for these events often circulate on the chapter listserv.  

 

Margo invited us all to her house for wine and cheese on Friday, October 11 at 7:00 p.m. Her address is 4612 Arapahoe Trail 78745 441-3809. We will discuss the October 23 event at Fiesta Gardens, the poetry evening in December, and enjoy good company! Margo will provide the wine, some bread and cheese, you bring the rest. Bring someone with you if you like. RSVP to Margo, NOT TO LISTSERV at mgutierrez@mail.utexas.edu

 

Next meeting: Benson Latin American Collection on November 19, 2002, from 4:00-5:00 p.m.

 

Minutes were respectfully submitted by Sarah Bradley-Leighton on September 24, 2002.

 

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