• In early December 2007, I incorporated a library tour before the lunch gathering. Chapter Vice President/President Elect, Grace Gu, who worked as a head librarian at the Conrad N. Hilton Library at the University of Houston (UH), gave us a tour of the library. The library houses some hotel management books, cook books and a special and private collection from the Hilton family.
• In mid-May 2008, Irene Ke, the Director of Library Instruction and Information Literacy program at UH-Central campus, gave a tour of UH library. Irene also conducted a short presentation titled “Cultivating Smart Information Consumers in the Information Age: Challenges and Strategies”.

Election for Vice President/President Elect 2008-2009 It is unfortunate that at the time of this report, the nomination committee consisting of, Hweifen Weng, George Teoh and Chloris Yue, was unable to find any one interested in being a nominee for the Vice President/President Elect (VP/PE) position. Therefore, no election was held. Our officers for the 2008-2009 year will be: President       Grace Gu VP/PE        Vacant Treasurer        Kwei-Feng Hsu, Director of Library Information and Technical Services Wharton Country Junior College, Wharton, Texas. Our new president, Grace Gu, is currently taking a leave of absence from her work but she is committed to serving the Southwest Chapter. She has stated that she will return to the field of library profession in the very near future. Although we were unable to fill the vacancy of the VP/PE position, we will continue our efforts to fill this position as we move on to the new fiscal year. Member News We are sad to report that in April 2008, one of our long time members, Helen Chang passed away. On behalf of CALA-SW, a floral basket was sent to her funeral and many members attended her memorial service. Membership Currently we have 29 members, nine of them are new members and 13 are life members. Of the 29 members 12 are in Houston area, 5 are in the State of Texas. Membership issue For many years, SW chapter has strived to promote the growth of membership in Houston Area but without success. Many come for the gathering to socialize but are not interested in joining. This year, we have expected that a large crowd of attendants would be drawn to our chapter gatherings that included two library tours and a short information session on recent library trends. The member’s schedule conflict with the chapter gathering may result a low attendance. There are still some factors need to be assessed in order to solve this issue. Lack of participation also effected the nomination of the VP/PE position. Many members declined the nomination for various reasons. We are also concerned for the members outside of the Houston area. The majority of chapter activities are held in Texas or Houston area. It is not always convenient for members outside the Houston area to participate in functions that are held in Texas. We worried that SW chapter would not be able to better serve these long-distance members. We are hoping that CALA board would enlighten us with ideas and options that would help us to solve the current issues and to reach out to more SW chapter members. Respectfully submitted by Siu Min Yu, President Grace Gu, Vice President Kwei-Feng Hsu — Treasurer