On Thursday morning the Leadership Development Institute began with roundtable discussions on managing our chapters and divisions. Stephanie Tolson lead the session I attended, where our table shared new ideas and approaches to chapter management. Later that morning I took advantage of attending the Board-watching session where Task Force reports were being heard. At a "Meet the Candidates" luncheon I was fortunate enough to hear candidate speeches for President-Elect, Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect, Division Cabinet Chair-Elect and Directors. As you know, two candidates for Director this year are from the Rio Grande Chapter. Both Heather Gallegos-Rex and Margie Hlava gave outstanding speeches. All of us in attendance from the mighty Rio Grande Chapter were very proud.

The Town Meeting Thursday afternoon served as an open forum for concerns from leadership. You can find topics addressed listed at the SLA website. Roundtables that afternoon were organized around topics such as membership recruitment and retention, fundraising, programming, leadership recruitment and geographically dispersed chapters. These discussions offered leaders facing similar issues a chance to discuss ideas and strategies. I enjoyed a reception on Thursday evening at the Green-Meldrin House, General Sherman's Headquarters when he took Savannah. Dinner with colleagues following the reception at A Lady and Two Sons was delicious.

Friday began with a video, "Meetings, Bloody Meetings", which illustrated how not to run meetings. Following the video, candidates for office gave presentations on strategic planning, the web and your chapter or division, and mentoring. During Friday’s lunch, President Donna Scheeder, gave a talk and answered questions. The afternoon held more presentations by candidates on how to get the most out of SLA, the SLA process, and volunteerism. Heather Gallegos-Rex and Margie Hlava conducted a session, "Lessons Learned and Best Practices", which was very well received.

I explored River Street which was lined with tourist shops and many restaurants which I generously sampled. I also enjoyed strolling to City Market, through the historic district from Bay Street to Forsythe Square on a warm spring-like Saturday afternoon, ducking into art galleries along the way.

On February 23, we had a delightful presentation by Roy Morgan on the Book Arts. Several of us made a small blank book to take with us after the presentation, and Roy brought an amazing array of paper samples and handmade books for us to look at.

March 22 is our next scheduled program. This is a 3 hour workshop on Dialogue, a dynamic form of communication that allows participants to co-create ideas, realizations, and truths not normally available to the individual participant on his or her own. The session will be held at the Albuquerque Petroleum Club. The fee ($30 for members, $45 for non-members) includes a continental breakfast before the workshop starts and lunch after it ends. Please join us for this program – it promises to be interesting and useful.

In honor of International Special Librarians Day on April 5, 2001, we have scheduled a potluck dinner. This will be at my house (Heather Hlava), and we will get started at 6:00 PM. Please email me at heather@accessinn.com or call (505)998-0800 during business hours to let me know you are coming, what you are bringing, and to get directions. (For those of you in the northern part of the state, I live on the north side of Albuquerque, so it’s not really that far!)

May, of course, is our Gala 45^th Anniversary Celebration and Annual Business Meeting. Thanks to Marie Harper, this is shaping up to be a spectacular final program for the year. Donna Scheeder, SLA President, will be our speaker, and the event will be at Bishop’s Lodge. Linda Morgan Davis has done a great job coordinating a silent auction and acquiring wonderful items to be auctioned off, so make sure you bring your wallet (cash and checks only, please)! May 19^th is a Saturday, so please mark your calendar now, and plan to join us for this luncheon.

Remember – friends and guests are always welcome at any of our programs or meetings!

I figure another day like this one will do the trick. Judith and I will be sure to let you know when the next date will be!

Thanks to Tisa Neff, Sandy Spurlock, Mary Ellen McMurtrie, Betsy Krause, Betty and Harold Burnett, Heather Gallegos-Rex, Virginia Seiser, and of course, Judith Bernstein and me, Donna Cromer.

If you could not attend the SLA winter meeting last month in Savannah, you missed the treat of hearing the candidates' speeches. Most people affiliated with SLA are well prepared for their endeavors and do reasonably coherent presentations, naturally some more enjoyable than others.

However, the two candidates for Board of Directors from our small Chapter were magnificent! I was so proud to be from the Rio Grande Chapter! Heather Gallegos-Rex and Margie Hlava gave sensitive and thought-provoking speeches. Both received extra loud applause from the audience. Maybe that was just all the New Mexico attendees I heard, but our members definitely were appreciated for their insights and visions regarding our professional organization..

Local members donated $500 to a memorial for Elizabeth Beyer, daughter of Ann Beyer, one of the pillars of the Rio Grande Chapter. Art was an integral part of Elizabeth Beyer's life and Georgia O'Keeffe's independence and creativity were inspirations.

The memorial was for the O'Keeffe Art and Leadership Program for Girls. This program for adolescent girls incorporates skill-building and problem-solving in the areas of identity, creativity, and self-esteem, with an emphasis on art-making and artist role models. The program has received national attention and is now being used as a model throughout the U.S.

Members of SLA and the Beyer family visited with Jacky M, Education Program Director, to learn first-hand about the activities of the Leadership Program and then toured the Museum.

45^th Anniversary Celebration

We hope that Saturday May 19, 2001 is already on your calendars. The Chapter will be celebrating its 45^th Anniversary with a gala luncheon at Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe. Just some of the wonderful events being planned by Marie Harper, Heather Hlava and Linda Morgan Davis are:

• Donna Scheeder, SLA President is our invited guest speaker.

• Silent Auction - The Chapter has not had a fundraiser in 5 years so bring cash and checkbooks for some wonderful shopping. Some vendor donations have already started to rolled in:
  • Major’s Scientific Book – 3 books:
  • Americans with Disabilities : Exploring Implications of the Law for Individuals and Institutions. (2000)
  • Women, Science and Technology (a reader in Feminist Science Studies). (2001)
  • The Cybercultures Reader. (2000)
  • L&D Associates – Wine Basket
  • Basch Subscriptions, Inc. – set of 8 language tapes - Italian
  • Access Innovations – 2 books
  • World Boom Ahead : Why Business and Consumers will Prosper. (1999) - Autographed Copy
  • The Information Age : Economy, Society, and Culture. A boxed 3 book set (1996)
  • A Southwest Gourmet Gift Basket
  • Margie promises to make some of her famous skin lotions too!
  • Ebsco – 2 one year subscriptions to each of the following journals : PC World, Mac World and Inc.

  • C Berger and Associates – pop-up calendars for all attendees.
  • Zoo Passes – 2 Adult Admission passes to the Albuquerque Zoo

As always, many thanks to our generous vendor sponsors.

If you would like to provide a donation for the Silent Auction please contact Linda Morgan Davis at 505/262-7158. Remember your Trash is another’s Treasure. We also need volunteers to help with the Auction, you may contact Linda for this item as well.

Member Updates

A New Library and Librarian in Santa Fe! - Donna Berg

Eumie looks forward to Rio Grande SLA activities, I wouldn't be surprised if we soon have an active group museum colleagues.

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Marian Frear has been hired by St. Joseph Healthcare System in Albuquerque to be the librarian at the medical library. She was head of the library at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and worked in the Rio Grande Valley Library System in Albuquerque.

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Cindy Suniga, formerly a Librarian with the Albuquerque Public Library is the new Medical Librarian at the VA Medical Library, Albuquerque. She is a welcome addition to Phyllis Kregstein's staff.

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Linda Morgan Davis, Lovelace Health Systems, has had an abstract accepted for the Contributed Papers Session in San Antonio at the 92nd Annual Meeting.

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Charity Karcher is the new Pharmacy Librarian in the Acadmic and Clinical Services Department at the UNM Health Sciences Library.

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Sarah Morley and Holly Shipp Buchanan of the UNM Health Sciences Library have had an article published in the first issue of a new journal, The Journal of Hospital Librarianship.

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CONGRATULATIONS to Judith Bernstein who will receive a Hall of Fame Award at SLA Conference in June in San Antonio! This award is granted to a member(s) of the Association at or near the end of an active professional career for an extended and sustained period of distinguished service to the Association in all spheres, including prolonged distinguished service to a chapter or division which has contributed to the Association as a whole. We are very proud to have another Hall of Fame Award recipient among us!

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Donna Cromer delivered a paper at the SW/Texas Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, held in Albuquerque NM, March 8-11, 2001. The paper is titled: Language and Gender in Online SciFi TV Fandom: An Exploration of Three Newsgroups.

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Mary Ellen McMurtrie received a phone call the morning of, Jan 8th, 2001, saying she is the recipient of the "George Mandel Award" The award is given by the Special Libraries Association Aerospace Section in recognition of service to SLA and the Aerospace section. It was established in 1989 in memory of George Mandel, a member of the aerospace industry library community for 30 years. The award was established to preserve the goals of the Aerospace Section and keep alive George's belief that participating in professional organizations is important for an individual's growth and development. The award comes with a $1,000.00 check to provide financial support to the recipient who will attend and/or participate in an SLA annual conference or winter meeting.

The award is presented at the annual luncheon of the Aerospace section held during the SLA annual conference, this year in San Antonio.

Mary Ellen is thinking about driving a van that will hold 7? Interested? Please contact her.

Personal Updates

• Judith Bernstein is planning a trip shortly to Istanbul. We wish her safe travels and hope that she will write one of her wonderful experience pieces for the BULLETIN.

Two years ago it was my privilege to be serving on the SLA Board of Directors when the Board got serious about taking a hard look at whether SLA as an organization still met the interests of its members and potential members.

Does SLA offer products and services we need as information professionals? Is it still relevant to our professional lives? Are changes needed in structure or offerings or membership benefits?

The Board engaged the consulting services of an outside group to help with this assessment and to identify how to tap the membership for input.

The result was the formation of five Strategic Task Forces.

Now, forming a committee sometimes is a good way to table a good idea and to dilute whatever impetus may be in place for change. But in this case, each group is expected to actually launch change by polling key member groups and the membership at large, and to produce a resulting blueprint for reinventing our association.

I have been a member of one of these Task Forces (the Partnership Task Force) and Theresa Connaughton serves on the Membership Task Force. I can attest to the seriousness with which these issues are being addressed, and I'm sure that Theresa has had the same experience.

Why should we care?

Believe it or not, we are at a juncture with SLA where sweeping change is not only possible, it in fact will happen. If we want that change to be meaningful and effective, we must be sure that the interests of all members have been successfully explored. We can't do that with 5 task forces of 8-10 members each, who may each speak with perhaps a dozen people.

Suzi Hayes, Susan DiMattia and Donna Scheeder have each also made a real effort to communicate the work of the task forces to Chapter and Division leaders at Winter and Annual meetings. But we are still just too small a sample to feel sure that we can speak for many of you who may not have been vocal about what you like or don't like about SLA.

So if you've ever come to conference and been disappointed (or delighted) with what you found; or looked at conference offerings and decided not to come because the value just wasn't there in view of your limited travel budget; or if you are finding different associations more relevant to your jobs; or if it makes you mad every time you try to contact SLA leaders or staff; or if you can't understand why there are all those committees and what the heck is the value of Chapter Cabinet anyway - this is your chance to voice your concerns or share your praise and know that someone is listening.

Task Force on Branding - Group established to consider official adoption of a new name for the association.

Task Force on Conference Planning Structure - Group to evaluate and consider conference planning and SLA staff role.

Task Force on Membership - Group to develop membership, especially student membership

Task Force on Partnership - Group to develop a rationale and action items for creating strategic partnerships

Task Force to Simplify Association and Unit Structure - Group to simplify SLA structure and to eliminate unnecessary administrative tasks

SLA Honors Retiring CEO

The Bender Fund was created in recognition of the SLA leader's exceptional leadership abilities and longstanding commitment to expanding the influence of the Association on a global scale by promoting SLA to the international community of librarians on a personal level during his twenty-two year tenure.

Factiva, made a $25,000 gift to establish the Bender Fund. Once the fund was formally approved, SLA received significant contributions from two past presidents: Vivian Hewitt of Atlanta, Georgia, USA; and L. Susan Hayes of Boyton Beach, Florida, USA.

"I don't know of a more fitting way to honor David's legacy to SLA than to establish a fund named in his honor that will carry on his work," said SLA President Donna W. Scheeder. "Thanks to his guidance, SLA is a leader in the global information community and the Bender Fund will guarantee our future place of influence."

The theme for this year's ISLD -- "A World of Information Within Your Reach" -- conveys a message that information professionals are the best-trained people to untap and manage today's complex and overwhelming world of global information. . ISLD was created in 1991 by the Special Libraries Association.