1996/1997

• A small group from the Tampa Bay area, including Kathleen de la Peña McCook and Derrie Perez, established the Florida Library Association Special Interest Group for Library Services to the Spanish-speaking to begin to build a base for the creation of a REFORMA chapter.

• Unaware of efforts in previous years to generate support to start a chapter of REFORMA in Florida, the Diversity Committee of the University of South Florida (USF) Tampa Campus Library discussed the idea of starting a chapter. Carol Ann Borchert agreed to investigate the possibility.

September 1999

• Borchert contacted Paola Ferate of the Organization Development Committee about setting up a chapter. REFORMA's guidelines are available in the REFORMA Policy and Procedures manual at http://www.reforma.org/about/ppmanual/. Two national REFORMA members, Derrie Perez (interim director of the USF Tampa Campus Library) and Kathleen de la Peña McCook (faculty member of the USF School of Library and Information Science) offered support and ideas.

October 1999

• At the suggestion of several people, Borchert also contacted the co-chairs of the Florida Library Association's (FLA) Special Interest Group for Library Services to the Spanish-Speaking. Madison Mosley, president of the Florida Library Association for 1999/2000, expressed the full support of the Florida Library Association.

• The group decided to have an meeting at the Tampa Bay Library Consortium's (TBLC) Annual Meeting on November 5, and began discussing the possibility of meeting at the FLA Annual Conference. Borchert posted an announcement of the November meeting to several national, state, and regional listservs. Susana Hinojosa from REFORMA spotted the message and offered materials about REFORMA for the meeting.

November 1999

• As emails started arriving indicating interest in participating in this effort, Borchert compiled a list of people to include on future emails about REFORMA de Florida.

• Approximately seven people met at the TBLC Annual Meeting in St. Petersburg, FL on November 5 to discuss chapter formation. Madison Mosley suggested the group could affiliate with FLA, similar to how the Florida chapter of ACRL has done. Ben Ostrowsky from TBLC offered to start a REFORMA-FL listserv to facilitate communication, which would be managed by TBLC.

• Diane Solomon from TBLC suggested TBLC could serve as REFORMA de Florida's "bank". The group also began discussing a draft of their constitution and bylaws.

• Borchert submitted a news update to the REFORMA newsletter for publication in the Winter 1999 issue (on page 4).

• Shannon Bennett-Manross and Carol Ann Borchert began planning an agenda for the FLA conference meeting in April and created a promotional flyer to distribute with the announcement for the FLA Special Interest Group for Library Services to the Spanish-Speaking meeting.

• Perez referred Borchert to Bernadette Storck of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative to review the bylaws for the group. Perez refers to Storck as the "Bylaws Guru".

• Al Milo from REFORMA requested the group's mailing list and Alex Villagran, REFORMA treasurer, offered assistance and advice on handling dues for the new soon-to-be chapter.

• The group held its organizational meeting on April 27 at the FLA Annual Conference! There were approximately 30 people in attendance. Ninfa Trejo and Elaina Norlin from the University of Arizona attended the meeting, as did Pat Mora from Kentucky. (Pat Mora is founder of Día de los Niños. She was also the closing speaker for the Trejo Foster Institute at USF in 1999 and is author of Tomás and the Library Lady.) Ed Erazo, former president of national REFORMA, was at the meeting as well. The group discussed the constitution and bylaws and elected officers. The group discussed several ideas for projects.

• Ostrowsky established a listserv available through the Tampa Bay Library Consortium.

• Borchert submitted another update on the group's activities for publication in the Summer 2000 REFORMA Newsletter.

• Maryellen Allen, Membership Secretary for 2000/2001, started designing a membership brochure for REFORMA de Florida. Allen and Ostrowsky designed several logos for the group to discuss.

• Borchert submitted a mailing list of 34 tentative members to REFORMA, and Nelida Miranda, Treasurer for 2000/2001, submitted our first memberships.

• Borchert contacted the state's two library programs to gather materials to nominate the schools for the REFORMA National Conference Library School Excellence Award.

• Borchert submitted information to petition for chapter status to Paola Ferate and requested that Perez (also secretary of REFORMA) add REFORMA de Florida's request for chapter status to the agenda for the Executive Board meeting at the American Library Association Annual Conference in July.

• Borchert wrote a letter to the President of the Puerto Rico chapter, requesting that the two groups work cooperatively on some projects.

• REFORMA de Florida's Web page was born.

• REFORMA de Florida nominated both the University of South Florida School of Library and Information Science and the Florida State University School of Information Science RNC2 Library School Award.

• REFORMA de Florida became an official chapter of the national REFORMA.

• Four members of REFORMA presented two posters at the second REFORMA National Conference. For photos from the conference, click here.  go to http://reforma-fl.tripod.com/rnc2.html .

• The University of South Florida School of Library and Information Science was awarded the first RNC2 Library School Award.

• REFORMA de Florida held its semiannual meeting at the Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines, Florida, on December 15th, 2000, with approximately eight people in attendance. We discussed ideas for future projects, how to increase membership in the chapter, and whether the next fall meeting should be conducted virtually instead of face-to-face to increase participation.

• The first semiannual meeting for 2001 was held at the Florida Library Association Annual Conference in Kissimmee, FL on April 12th, 2001, with seven members and three non-members in attendance. The membership voted to alter the terms of officers for this year, and the bylaws will need to be revised to reflect this for the future. The group elected officers for 2001/2002 for REFORMA de Florida.

• At the ENLACE Forum on Hispanics and Higher Education in Tampa, members of REFORMA de Florida met for two hours to discuss the revitalization of the chapter. The president, Maria Chavez-Hernandez, appointed officers to positions so that we now have a governing board again. The group discussed possible future projects, including how the chapter can and should be involved in the Annual Conference for the American Library Association in Orlando in 2004.

• Members of REFORMA de Florida met at the 80th Annual Florida Library Association to discuss the future of the organization.  Officers were elected for the 2003/2004 and, after a vote, members decided to merge the SIG for Spanish-Speaking Populations with the local REFORMA chapter.  President-elect Howard Rodriguez also introduced the organization's "Plan of Action and Short Term Goals", which will culminate in a strategic plan that is to be available by 1 July 2003.