We’ve just posted to the main website the second installment of “News From the Exec” (under Leadership).   The first few paragraphs are below, or click on the title to read the full report:

A MALCS Special Gathering: A Report from the Executive Committee”

Introduction and Overview

In the April of 2010, Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed SB1070, one of the strictest anti-immigration measures in recent history, into law. Shortly after that, political leaders called for a boycott of the state. MALCS, like many other academic organizations, decided to boycott and not hold our summer institute originally scheduled for Arizona State University in July of 2010. The circumstances surrounding our decision to boycott raised questions about MALCS’s organizational structures and processes. It became clear that as an organization it was time for us to revisit our mission as well as our communication and decision-making processes. The Executive Committee called for a national meeting, a “Special Gathering” that would give us an opportunity to discuss these and other issues critical to the future of MALCS. The Special Gathering, a one-day meeting held November 7, 2010 in San Antonio, Texas, was attended by mujeres from across the country.

What follows is a three-part report from the Executive Committee outlining the events that led to the Special Gathering, articulating key points made during the gathering, and providing an assessment and articulation of the next steps MALCS should take in order to ensure its success in the 21^st century.

Please click to read the complete report. 

Dear MALCistas,

In the coming weeks before our 2011 Institute, our website will feature a new section “News from the Exec”

The MALCS Special Gathering launched an assessment of our organization that would address how we, as a national body, bridge all aspects of our work. The Special Gathering called for exploring new and existing strategies of bridging letras y cambio social.

Since 2010, the Executive Committee has addressed bylaws, 501c3 status, building membership, and addressing critical infrastructural issues before us as a national organization. And other issues still are before us.

This section begins a series of discussions about MALCS and what we want it to become. It will feature various essays, hopefully short essays, to facilitate ideas for an assessment of our organization. The tracts will take up the following:

• Report back on Special Gathering
• Vision Statement
• Proposed Bylaws Changes, Summary of the changes and the procedure for Bylaws voting/ timeline
• Proposal for changing the meeting structure to every other year
• Update on MALCS as a financial entity with a fiscal agent, the Chicana/Latina Foundation

Key to our assessment is guaranteeing the membership’s input—recommendations to the Report Back and Vision Statement, discussion of the Bylaws revisions, etc. Therefore, the “News from the Exec” link will provide a viable avenue for discussion—this includes a blog space for-members-only, as well as utilizing survey forms so that members may respond more promptly and efficiently.

At this launching, the Executive Committee extends our gratitude to The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA) that graciously provided their final plenary session to MALCS in order to begin our assessment.

Siempre,
Keta Miranda, Chair