Notes from HOLA Membership Meeting held on 06/14 in the Duke Ellington Room at Manhattan Plaza. Meeting began at 6:45pm and adjourned at 9:15pm.

The membership meeting was very well attended and engendered a very lively and informative colloquy. Needless to say, there were a number of interesting suggestions made and outlined below are some of those ideas:

• The formation of an Office Search Committee to find a new, more centrally located home for HOLA. This idea led to a discussion about the organization’s current location and the political problems faced by the tenants. It was suggested that one element that has been absent from any type of formal show of support for the tenants has been the membership of HOLA. The other organizations located in the building have, at times, been able to mobilize supporters and that it would be great to have that same engagement from HOLA members. The formation of this entity is still to be established.

• Meeting devoted to “The Business of the Business" or "New Member Orientation” for newer members about the entertainment industry. HOLA Board Member and actor Jack Landrón and HOLA Advisory Board Member and agent Wendy Curiel will sponsor a series of orientation sessions for newer members and such topics as presenting yourself as a professional to the industry and a discussion about getting an agent and those agents that are especially interested in representing Latino actors will be addressed at these meetings.

• Why has the membership of HOLA decreased over the last couple of years? One suggestion made to address this problem was the need for members to discuss, introduce, or refer new actors/artists to HOLA. To begin to accomplish this task it was suggested that a Referral Committee be formed and HOLA members and actors Sandie Luna and Memo volunteered to be on this committee.

• The Players is not really large enough to supply places for the membership to sit down during the award presentation during the annual award gala. While that space may not lend itself entirely to all aspects of the evening, such as a post-awards party atmosphere, but it does provide a sense of prestige to the event and in terms of other award show presentations, it is quite successful.

It was suggested that HOLA is currently looking at sponsoring a separate event, at a different location, that would facilitate membership networking along with a party atmosphere.

• Memberships meetings need to be held at least quarterly and this will in tern help to reinforce the mission of the organization and engender membership renewals. (At least one member even renewed at this event and another member spoke about the fact that she was really unaware, until this meeting, of all the myriad activities that HOLA does.) Hosting regular meetings would also help in providing more networking opportunities for the membership and foster a sense of pride in HOLA membership. In addition it was stressed that while the Latino population is now a much larger demographic, it is also not monolithic but that what separates us (slight cultural or accent differences) is infinitely less important than what unites us and HOLA can be vital in addressing the common united Latino culture. HOLA member and actor Varín Ayala volunteered to help plan the HOLA quarterly membership meetings.

• One member suggested that a few years ago he had gotten a number of jobs via HOLA but since that time things had dried up. It was suggested, by a number of speakers, that the industry has changed and one of the reasons for the implementation of regular memberships meetings is to address this issue and to be more aggressive in promoting the talent and mission of the HOLA.

• The formation of a Fundraising Committee and in addition to fundraising the organization should consider inviting successful Latino actors to come back for discussions with the membership, almost like the James Lipton/Actors' Studio discussions. HOLA member and actor Carolina Alvarez, who works in development at the Julliard School, volunteered to be on this committee.

• Members need to keep HOLA informed about professional engagements so that this can be featured in the newsletter, which will now be available both as a hard copy and via computer.
The importance of the directory and its new online-only format, which allows for constant updating, was stressed along with the importance of keeping contact numbers current. The directory will have, by the end of this month, received a quarter of a million hits.