El Corazón de Tejas: Minutes

Agenda:

1. Bienvenida/Introductions

2. Adopt June meeting minutes

3. TLA Annual Assembly - Library Services to the Spanish Speaking Round Table Mtg.

4. Participating in Mayors Book Club "Bless Me Ultima"

5. Committee Opportunities: a. Membership/Publicity b. Professional Development c. Fundraising d. Mentoring

6. Possible Fundraising Opportunity for Diez y Seis

7. Announcements Bienvenida/Introductions & Adopt June meeting minutes

Elva welcomed everyone and the group agreed to adopt the meeting minutes. Margo announced that we will have to see whether a seminar class is scheduled for the Benson's seminar room in the fall, to see if we can maintain our meeting schedule as is.

TLA Annual Assembly Elva announced that the Library Services to the Spanish Speaking Round Table met in Austin earlier in the week during the TLA Annual Assembly. The Round Table formulated two plans of action regarding the Bluebonnet Award. These actions are meant to address the lack of Latino materials being included the Bluebonnet lists of nominated and awarded books:

1. A group of members from the Round Table will look at the process of getting a title on the consideration list, and at the process of how individuals are appointed to the committee that reviews the books, to try to get titles and people on each.

2. Another group will working on creating a title list of Latino themes/authors as an alternative to the Bluebonnet. Related to this, Cinco Punto Press in interested in setting up a book award, similar to the Pura Belpre award, as a fundraiser for the Round Table. Irma is co-chairing this committee with Dr. Felipe de Ortega y Gasca; she will keep ECDT posted. ECDT can support these efforts by considering people to serve on the Bluebonnet committee.

Elva announced that also at TLA Annual Assembly, REFORMA chapters in Texas are trying to be more active and work together more closely. Their representatives at Assembly expressed an interest in organizing a joint social event for Texas REFORMA chapters, probably on a Saturday afternoon. The chapters interested besides ECDT were the Houston (Arriba) Chapter, El Paso Chapter and San Antonio Chapter. Everyone expressed surprise that there is no REFORMA chapter in South Texas or the Valley, and that we should encourage the development of one. ECDT members present were favorable to a joint event. Elva will give more info once something has been scheduled.

Participating in Mayors Book Club "Bless Me Ultima" Gustavo would like to see ECDT sponsor a Spanish language book discussion of "Bless Me Ultima." After discussion, the group agreed that the chapter could organize at least one discussion at the Terrazas Branch of the Austin Public Library, led by Gustavo. This will take place during the middle/latter part of September, around Diez y Seis. The APL/UT sponsor discussions and forums will be starting in late August, through September, so this complements the timing of these events, as well. Gustavo will be in charge of organizing the discussion, including the publicity for it. This will include announcements on local Spanish language radio and in local Spanish language publications including El Norte, El Mundo, and Arriba (bilingual).

Irma announced that at her branch, Hampton Branch at Oak Hill, will be hosting a talk related to the Mayor's Book Club. The theme is "Curanderismo" and the speaker is Carlos Hernandez Calderoni. The presentation and discussion takes place on Wednesday, August 7 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Hampton Branch, 5125 Convict Hill Road.

Group also asked Tom if ECDT could have a table at the culminating October 23 Fiesta Gardens event where Rudolfo Anaya will speak. He confirmed that we could. We will need to prepare materials for the table. Group discussed having a book raffle with other books by Rudolfo Anaya (signed) or other Latino authors (examples: Ana Castillo, Cristina Garcia, etc.) Group decided to have a table signup list at the September ECDT meeting.

Committee Opportunities: Elva called on all ECDT members to sign up for ECDT committees. She described some of the activities and goals she envisions for each committee. Naturally there will be overlap in many of the activities in these groups, but the hope is that these groups will undertake the main work of the chapter. The hope is that committees will meet in off months in order to work and organize, and then be able to report accomplishments at chapter meetings.

Membership/Publicity has the goal of doubling our membership by the end of next REFORMA year (June). We are at about 35 members, so we hope to have at least 70 by this time next year. In addition, this committee will undertake creating a recruitment packet, a new member packet, a chapter newsletter, and maintain the chapter Web site.

Professional Development will undertake creating core reading lists, and invite speakers to talk at our chapter meetings who can provide programming training, for example.

Fundraising is self-explanatory. Currently the chapter has $400 in the bank.

Mentoring will undertake establishing mentoring between ECDT members and university students, new librarians, and library staff. Sign up sheets were passed around.

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.

Possible Fundraising Opportunity for Diez y Seis Elva announced an opportunity that Paola learned about. ECDT could have a table at the Diez y Seis El Grito event at Plaza Saltillo where we could sell things. Group brainstormed different food items we could sell, and agreed to selling Mexican candies if someone could get them cheap wholesale here, or go to the Valley and buy them on the border. We might also sell little Mexican flags that children could color and attach to a stick. Flags have been very popular in the past. Candies include boxes of lucas, dulces de leche (wrapped), tamarindo. Elva will see if someone she knows in Austin could help us. Otherwise, Irma might be going to the border to buy some. Elva will get Paola to confirm ECDT's participation with Cindy Garza at the Small Minority Business Office of the City.

Announcements: Patricia Clark's Report on National REFORMA Meetings at ALA National REFORMA wanted two things communicated to all chapters: 1.All members are encouraged to recruit one new member. 2.Encourage people to mentor because mentoring program has been in place for four years, but it is not going anywhere. National REFORMA can help support local mentoring efforts. Also, in 2003 at Lake Tahoe, there will be a joint conference of the Mountain Plains and Nevada Library Associations that will amount to a "REFORMA 3" conference, of sorts. In 2005, there will be a Joint Conference of Librarians of Color, location to be announced.

Another message from National REFORMA is for chapters to participate in the Librarian of the Year process, and to consider nominating colleagues for this recognition. TLA Diversity Fair Elva announced this will take place at next TLA and REFORMA should have a table. Tom expressed an interest in meeting, in conjunction with Elva, the new UT-GSLIS Dean, Dr. Dillon. Adjourned!

Next meeting in Austin at Benson Latin American Collection on September 24, 2002, 4:00-5:00pm.

Minutes were respectfully submitted by Jennifer Thomas.

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