MALCS Archive

(MALCS) Women Active in Letters and Social Change

Understanding the Past and Shaping the Future of MALCS: the complete bylaws proposal

New from the Executive Committee

2011-12 MALCS Chair Monica Torres, writing on behalf of the Executive Committee

Mónica F. Torres
2011-2012 MALCS Chair
Posted July 2012

In 2010, the MALCS Executive Committee suspended the MALCS bylaws in order to engage in a major revision of the document. It became clear that the bylaws, last revised in 1991, were in need of updating. We spent approximately one year discussing and producing a draft. We presented that draft at the 2011 Institute where we facilitated discussions during two workshops and the business meeting. We have spent the time since engaging in more discussions and revisions based on the feedback we received at the Institute. [Read more…] about Understanding the Past and Shaping the Future of MALCS: the complete bylaws proposal

News From the Exec – Bylaws & Elections, Candidates’ Statements due July 13

From MALCS Chair Monica F. Torres:

Bylaws
In 2010, the MALCS Executive Committee suspended the MALCS bylaws in order to engage in a major revision of the document. It became clear that the bylaws, last revised in 1991, were in need of updating. We spent approximately one year discussing, producing, and revising a draft. We presented that draft at the 2011 Institute where we facilitated discussions during two workshops and the business meeting. We have spent the time since engaging in more discussions and revisions based on the feedback we received at the Institute.

The Executive Committee is currently completing another draft of the bylaws, which we will put forward at the Institute for a vote. We hope to post this draft on the website shortly before the Institute. We will also have print copies available in Santa Barbara.

The Executive Committee is currently completing another draft of the bylaws, which we will put forward at the Institute for a vote.

Elections
Last year we proposed that we move to two-year election cycles. While the chair-elect/chair/ex-oficio would remain a three-year commitment, all other officers would be elected for two-year terms. Our primary reason for this was to allow officers more time to learn and be productive in their positions. Given that there were no objections in any discussion about this, the Executive Committee asked the women elected to office at the 2011 Institute to serve two-year terms.

This effectively means that we will be electing only one officer at the 2012 Summer Institute: Chair-elect.

Election to this position means a three-year commitment on the MALCS Executive Committee–as chair-elect, chair, and ex-oficio. The chair-elect has a number of responsibilities that are typical for positions of this sort: she supports the chair in the implementation of MALCS policies and procedures; she assumes the duties of the chair in the absence of the chair; she assumes the position of chair when the chair’s term expires.

In addition, the Executive Committee is proposing new bylaws which add other critical responsibilities to this position: be responsible for promoting MALCS’ digital publications and recruiting writers for those publications, and in consultation with the webjefa and the Communications Team, be responsible for making recommendations to the Executive Committee on editorial policy, publishing and functionality of the MALCS’ digital presence and for assuring implementation of approved recommendations. The MALCS bylaws include more concrete delineations of the duties and responsibilities of this and all other MALCS offices.

We want to note that this last change described above reflects several changes in the larger society (a shifting communications environment–from print documents to electronic sites and other social media) as well as proposed changes in the organization (the inclusion of the webjefa position in our bylaws as well as the addition of standing committees).

If you are interested in running for chair-elect, please submit a statement of interest to Monica F. Torres, MALCS Chair, at gro.sclamobfsctd-fd86b@acinom/archive-2017. The statement, no longer than 250 words, should articulate your interest in and qualifications for serving MALCS in this position. Please submit your statement of interest to Monica by Friday, July 13. Statements will be available on our website and at the Institute.

 

For previous discussions and statement of bylaws changes, see “From the Exec” on our Leadership page here.

Analyses of Decision on SB1070

Some good sources analyzing the Supreme court Decision on S.B. 1070

 

Oakland: Cherrie Moraga offers “Stay Home” Writing Workshop 8/3 – 8/5

Chicana chingona playwright, poet, and essayist Cherríe Moraga has announced a summer writing workshop as she “stays home” for the summer.  See complete info at https://www.cherriemoraga.com.

Workshop Description:
I am ‘staying home’ this summer and in that staying, invite writers (over twenty-five-years old) – all genres & all levels – to engage in what I have come to know as the fundamentals to a productive writing practice. They are: a “beginner’s mind” (as founded in Zen Buddhism) and an indigenous approach to “authenticity” in our work and in our words; through w(riting), we return to our home-knowledges, languages, and geographies to uncover what is profoundly original in us as artists, writers and thinkers. -Cherríe Moraga

Schedule:
Friday (8/3) – 7pm to 10 pm.
Saturday (8/4) – 10am to 4pm + “Palabra de Fuego” @ 7pm.
Sunday (8/5)- 10am to 5pm

Application Process: DUE JULY 15th
Please provide a personal statement (250-500 words) that responds to the questions below. Write using your natural (writing/speaking) voice. This is not a “work sample,” but a way to express a small moment of the “writing-you” in advance of the workshop. (Questions with a * are required.)

• What/where do you consider ‘home?’ And, what do you consider your ‘home culture?’ *
• How would you describe your original tongue?
• How would you describe the state of the actual body through which you write (this might relate to gender, sexuality, physical condition or history, race, etc.)
• What is your actual age and how is this related to the way you presently write or what you want from your writing today? *
• What is the greatest obstacle to your writing process?
• What motivates you to show up for this workshop at this summer’s moment in your life? *

Cost:
A fee of $300 includes the following:
• 3-days of writing workshops
• Sat & Sun pan, café, te, juices and box lunch
• an evening “Palabra de Fuego”
• one-on-one short private writing interview with Maestra Moraga to discuss your writing practice.

$75.00 Non-Refundable Deposit Required upon acceptance into the workshop
(deposits only returned if workshop over-fills)

Deposit due by: July 20th
Full payment due by August 3rd

cash, checks, money orders & paypal accepted

For more information & to register, contact: moc.liamgobfsctd-97c7fe@tnatsissa.agaromc

Apologies from Webjefa

Members of the MALCS email lists received an overload of email messages Sunday afternoon, July 1, in an email snafu for which I am very sorry!  I was updating the archives, and the old blogposts were accidentally sent off as new.  Fortunately, our server stopped most of them, but you still may have received 20-30 messages.   No worries, and you have my deepest apologies…..

Susana
MALCS webjefa

Mujerista theologian Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz dies at age 69

Not sure how I missed this, but radical Latina feminist theologian Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz passed early last month from cancer at the age of 69. Ada Maria developed a cogent critique of the Catholic Church in the mid-80s, identifying the concept of “structural sin” for those enjoying the privileges of inequality, and developing a “mujerista” theology as an alternative frame of reference.

By Paul Vitello, NY Times

Ada María Isasi-Díaz would have become a Roman Catholic priest, she told friends, if not for the church’s ban on ordaining women. Instead, she became a dissident theologian who spoke for those she considered the neglected spiritual core of the church’s membership: Hispanic women like herself.

Dr. Isasi-Díaz, who died of cancer in New York on May 13, was widely known in North and South America as the chief theorist behind Mujerista theology — she published a book of the same name in 1996 — which extols the role of Hispanic women, especially the poor, in personifying Christian faith in the everyday struggles of life. She was 69. [Read more…] about Mujerista theologian Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz dies at age 69

Feature: Olga Talamante named Grand Marshal of SF LGBT Pride

“Community organizer’s childhood led to her activism”
from the Bay Area Reporter

Olga Talamante was 11 years old when her parents plucked her from Mexico to drive their family across the U.S. border, settling in Gilroy, California. Five decades later, Talamante will be riding in a red low-rider convertible during Sunday’s LGBT Pride Parade as one of six community grand marshals selected by the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee for their outstanding contributions to the LGBT community.

“It’s an amazing honor,” Talamante said. “I’ve had a lot of public life, but to be acknowledged is very humbling. I feel fortunate to be one among many deserving people.” [Read more…] about Feature: Olga Talamante named Grand Marshal of SF LGBT Pride