The Dallas and Houston area visual resources professionals have been meeting in their respective cities and talking about forming a chapter of the Visual Resources Association. There seems to be an interest in making the chapter happen, but there are still many concerns about taking on the responsibilities of being officers in addition to everyday professional duties. Jacqui Allen at the Dallas Museum of Art and Marty Stein at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston have issued an invitation to both groups to form an alliance with ARLIS/Texas. As discussed at the last two chapter meetings, this alliance would provide the VRA/Lone Star Chapter to contribute to The Medium, making The Medium the newsletter for both chapters. In addition, both chapters would meet together to alleviate the necessity for separate chapter meetings. This alliance would benefit both professional communities. Many of the issues concerning the art library community are also of concern to the visual resources professionals. Just a few of these issues include the broad use of electronic means of disseminating materials, especially images and information pertinent to them; issues of copyright and intellectual property; site licensing and its associated costs; and, not least, the general interest in fine arts in Texas. This alliance would also bring more readers and contributors to The Medium, helping to make it an even better resource for the art library and visual resources community.

The plan now is to send this issue of The Medium to all of the Visual Resources professionals in Texas. Eileen Coffman at Southern Methodist University is working with Sheryl Garcia of the University of Houston to compile a list of recipients. Marty Stein is preparing a cover letter inviting the Texas VR professionals to subscribe to The Medium and attend this years ARLIS/Texas conference in Fort Worth. We hope that there will be a positive reception to both these invitations and that some sort of plan will be adopted in Fort Worth for the official formation of a VRA/Lone Star Chapter.

Thanks to everyone involved for helping to get this movement started! If anyone has other ideas or comments, please get in touch with Chia-Chun, Jacqui or Marty. The October conference will be very exciting - and it will be even more eventful if the VR professionals can attend!