Fifty-six people attended a lively and interesting program held in the Alvin Sherman Library's new gallery.  Tours were offered of the Sherman Library during the lunch hour and were well attended.  Evaluations were distributed and the overall response was quite favorable.  The conference made a profit and at the FACRL Board meeting on November 2 there was a discussion on what to do with this windfall.  FACRL now hopes to offer competitive scholarships covering registration to library school students for the next FARCL meeting to be held in the fall of 2007.

In addition, playing off the success of having the FACRL meeting outside of Orlando and attracting a new audience, the Board also discussed the viability of rotating the fall meeting around the state to give the group better exposure and visibility.  It is hoped that this will encourage attendance by those who can only travel regionally and also allow members to visit each other's "shops." Nothing like a busman's holiday!  Plans are already underway to have the 2007 workshop at a "host" institution.

For FACRL the biggest change is occurring in our other capacity as the Academic Section of the Florida Library Association.  FLA is undergoing seismic changes in how the organization is operated and structured.  For many years the Academic Section had a guaranteed place on the FLA annual conference program.  This year FLA tried something different by doing a call for papers.  The FACRL Vice President, Betsy Simpson, working with other members of FACRL made a submission but it was not accepted.  Rather than lose our "place" in the program the FACRL Board asked FLA if we could sponsor programs done by members of the Academic Section.  It agreed and as you will see elsewhere in this newsletter FACRL/FLA Academic Section has made quite a splash in sponsoring – giving us much more prominence in the program than we might have had with just one speaker/slot.

Or next Board meeting will be FLA Annual Conference in Orlando on Tuesday, April 10.  All members are encouraged to attend and to participate!  The FACRL Board is always open to new ideas!

Nora J. Quinlan,
President, FACRL

Head of Reference
Alvin Sherman Library
Nova Southeastern University

Last updated March 28, 2007