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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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REFORMA DC METRO AREA CHAPTER Attending: Mario Ascencio (George Mason University), Toni Bissessar (Arlington County Public Library), María Díaz (Commission for Labor Cooperation), Katherine Faulkner (University of Maryland), Maria Elisa Martínez (Prince George’s County Public Library), Juan Carlos Ortega (Arlington County Public Library), Ana Rita Puertas-Meyers (Montgomery County Public Library), Betty Valdés (Montgomery County Public Library) I. Introduction of New Members or Visitors Ana Rita Puertas-Meyers attended the meeting as a colleague of Betty Valdés. Ana Rita is a technology manager for the Montgomery County Library system. II. Membership and Recruitment A. Juan Carlos said we need to determine how many people are on the mailing list, but not paying members. Mario said he sent an e-mail to Sandra Rios Balderrama today, requesting a copy of the member list according to the database at the national office. We will wait for the official membership list from Sandra, then we will contact the people on the D.C. metro. area mailing list who are not official members. B. Ana Rita asked if it is possible to pay for the membership with a credit card and most people at the meeting agreed that it probably is not possible. She asked if ALA could handle credit card payments for membership to affiliate organizations and Toni said no. Maria Elisa recommended that we forward the recommendation to allow credit card payments to the national office. C. Ana Rita asked, “If I become a member, what will I get out of Reforma?” Toni responded that you automatically have access to a large network of librarians that have been working with the Spanish speaking community of the U.S. for a long time. The caliber of scholarship within the organization is amazing, yet everyone is friendly and willing to help you with projects. Reforma is very proactive with raising awareness of library services that can help Spanish speaking people. Reforma is well respected in ALA. ALA has helped fund Reforma national conferences in the past. At the moment, the D.C. metropolitan chapter is trying to decide what our next outreach project should be and how to recruit new members. Maria Elisa said there are over 1,000 members of Reforma. The newest chapter is in Washington State. Toni mentioned that Oregon also has an active chapter…. These are places that one does not usually think of as having a large Spanish speaking community. For Maryland, if you are a paid member of Reforma, you can go to the Maryland Library Association conference for the “member” fee. III. Upcoming Events A. Juan Carlos said we need to be more aware of local events that could be public relations opportunities for Reforma. For example, he and Mario are going to the Catholic University open house this coming Saturday. Catholic University offered them a few minutes to talk to prospective MLS students. Toni mentioned that Dr. Bill Wilson (University of Maryland) has, in the past, invited her to speak to students in the College of Information Services at the University of Maryland. B. Someone asked if the Reforma national office has promotional material that we could distribute at local events. Toni said we should contact Adalin Torres-Zayas, from the national office, to ask for some brochures. C. María Elizabeth suggested that we add Reforma D.C. Metro. to the list of organizations on the web site for the Latin VIP mailing list. Juan Carlos suggested that we also think about posting messages on as many other local e-mail lists as possible. IV. Improving Translations of Outreach Material A. Ana Rita said that she has helped Montgomery County to have a standardized glossary of commonly used words. For example, she noted the difference between “tarjeta y credita.” So, if Reforma does begin helping several different libraries with translations, sticking to the same accepted glossary would be wise. B. Juan Carlos said he will send out an e-mail asking who is interested in taking part in this project. Discussion followed regarding how to begin. It was decided that, first, we will reach out to the library systems for whom our members work. A letter will be drafted complimenting the recent outreach effort of that library system, introducing Reforma D.C. Metro., and noting that some members of the Reforma D.C. Metro chapter are available to review/proofread outreach material. Mario mentioned that he sent a complimentary letter to Montgomery County two years ago. He said he will forward Juan Carlos and Katherine a copy of that letter, to help with thinking about how a letter related to this project might be worded. V. Status of the search for a director of the DC Public Library System Mario volunteered to ask some acquaintances for an update and he will write us an e-mail. If someone has been chosen, we will write a letter addressed to the new director introducing Reforma. If no, we will: - find out who to write, then write a letter to the selection committee - urge individual members to write the selection committee, as well VI. Sponsorship Juan Carlos asked about possible funding options. Maria Elisa said that Elena Tscherny would have good ideas. Some general suggestions were: Telemundo; Sears; Washington Post has a Latino internship; Verizon. Toni mentioned that Arlington County received funding from Starbucks for the SOAR program, which reaches out primarily to non-English speakers. Toni said she would love to see D.C. Reforma Metro. have a book fair sometime. Mario noted that book publishers have often contributed money for food to Elena Tscherny’s book fairs. María Elizabeth remembers that Baja Fresh offers funding for education projects. She also remembers Border’s books offering project funding. She said she will ask people in her office if they know more about what Borders offers and let us know more later. Upcoming Event: Jorge Ramos will be at a local B. Dalton. Maria E. will send a notice about this out to the e-mail list. VII. Disk space for our web site on the server of the national office José Ruiz-Alvarez, from the national office, was going to research having a national server. Mario has not heard anything new about that. For now, Juan Carlos and Katherine have been given access to the current web site (free through AngelFire/Lycos). VIII. Round Table A. Toni Bissessar will check with Elissa Miller regarding plans for the May 2004 Maryland Library Association meeting. Dr. Bill Wilson also knows the program coordinator for that meeting; we believe he told MLA that The Chapter agreed to send someone to speak at the conference. This should be re-confirmed with Bill and/or MLA if Elissa is not sure of the status of this project. Elissa and (maybe) Toni will be providing advice regarding the acquisition of Spanish language material. B. María Elizabeth asked about the feasibility of consulates maintaining information about local libraries. Could we have some PR information at the local consulates? It does not necessarily have to be about Reforma…. but at least about local library services, in general. Many consulate offices have literacy-related events (visits by distinguished authors, etc.). She suggested that The Chapter should try to have a presence at those events. C. María Elizabeth wanted to know if Reforma could have a table at the 13th Annual Western Migrant Stream Forum (Jan. 30 - Feb. 1, Seattle, WA). She will send the national office a letter about that meeting and/or follow up with the closest regional chapter to see if a representative can be at the meeting. D. Regarding outreach efforts of the D.C. public library system, a couple of members mentioned that it is relatively easy to request a time slot to make comments at DC Council meetings, which are monthly. Maria Elisa and Mario are going to look in to getting a time slot and attending one meeting. If they do schedule a time to meet, they will post the meeting time to the list, so several members can be in the audience to support them. IX. Future Meetings A. The January meeting time has been changed, due to a conflict with an ALA meeting. The new meeting time is 7:00 p.m., Friday, January 23, at the home of Maria Elisa Martínez. Cheverly, MD B. 7:00 p.m., Friday, March 12th at Katherine Faulkner’s house. Beltsville, MD |
