TABLE OF CONTENTS

Meetings & Minutes

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Attending: Mario Ascensio (George Mason University), Rogelio Candelaria, Zaida Diaz (University of Maryland), Katherine Faulkner (University of Maryland), Laura Maldonado (George Washington University), Ana Rita Puertas-Meyers (Montgomery County Public Library), Elena Tscherny (D.C. Public Library), Betty Valdés (Montgomery County Public Library)

I. Welcome and Introductions

II. Discussion of upcoming events

1. Maratón de la Poesía, Teatro de la Luna. Wednesday, April 5, 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library. Elena asked for volunteers to hand out fliers, take photos, be ushers, etc. To volunteer, please call 202-727-1183. This is a National Library Week event.
2. Laura Maldonado will be participating in a session at the Computers In Libraries conference. The session is called, "Virtual Reference, IM Chat, & Beyond: Taking Reference Services Out of the Library," and will be from 4:15 p.m. - 5 p.m.
3. National Library Legislative Day. Training will be during the day Monday, May 1. The day of Tuesday, May 2, will be spent visiting congressmen and women. Mario asked for volunteers to call each chapter president, urging them to call their congressional representatives. Laura suggested the schedule of sending e-mail messages to everyone 1 1/2 months before the event, then a second at 1 month before, then make the first round of phone calls three weeks before, then a second phone call 1 week before. Mario also pointed out that we could telephone the regional representatives and encourage them to talk to the chapter presidents, as well.

   1. Someone asked Mario for an example of what the talking points might be. We discussed the confusion faced by some (usually rural) communities regarding what is an acceptable form of identification to apply for a library card, such as a carnet. Mario explained that ALA recently passed a resolution to create a toolkit to help librarians understand the different acceptable forms of identification.

4. Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. October 11 - 15, 2006, Dallas, TX. Mario will be making a presentation, along with Camilla Alire and Jacqueline Ayala regarding talking to your congressman/woman.

III. Leadership Program, Monday, May 1, 6-7:30 p.m.

1. The confirmed speakers are Camilla Alire (President ACRL and Dean of Libraries, University of New Mexico), Luis Herrar (City Librarian for the City and County of San Francisco), and Ana-Elba Pavón (Director of San Mateo Public Libraries).

2. The themes that were discussed at the meeting were "how they did it" (i.e., career advancement) and "how do they do it" (i.e., be a positive and successful administrator).  Katherine Faulkner and Zaida Diaz will work together to come up with a set of suggested "talking points."
3. Katherine will call the Maryland department of education to try to get the program approved for continuing education credits.
4. Laura will follow-up with Catholic University to confirm the time of the event. She will also get in touch with the speakers to confirm that we are definitely going to go forward with the event.

IV. Treasurer's Report

Mario reported the balance in our account. He also encouraged everyone to send their membership renewals to him, instead of directly to the national office. Betty Valdes asked that the list of paid members on the web site be updated. Katherine asked Mario to send her a list of the paying members, then she will make the updates.

V. New business

1. Mario explained that it is time to have elections again. Ideally, they should be completed in April. There needs to be an e-mail sent as a call for nominations, then an e-mailed ballot that is accompanied by information about the nominees. Katherine agreed to get in touch with Elena to find out if she has some documentation/e-mails that were used in the past. Ana Rita Puertas-Meyers agreed to collect the nominations and votes.
2. There was some discussion regarding making the Reforma national membership form a writable (fill-in-able?) form. Also, we discussed the viability of having Reforma accept PayPal for the membership dues. It was noted that it might be difficult for the chapter presidents to definitely get the adequate paperwork that would be necessary in the case of an audit.

VI. Next meeting

The May 1st leadership skills seminar. Most of the preparation for the meeting will likely take place via e-mail and telephone calls.