"When I became TAA President in 1995, I didn't know it would be the single roughest year in TAA's history. One month into my presidency, executive director Norma Hood died of cancer. I spent the rest of the year organizing the move from TAA's headquarters in rural Florida where Hood had been running things by herself, to the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, where headquarters remains today. It took almost six months to recover the records. That was a tough and tentative time for the organization.

Although 1995-96 was a hard year, the experience created a better organization. Our organization had been broke since its inception. But with the successful receipt of foreign reprography funds, we became flush with funds and were able to do things for our members that we had only dreamed of doing before. Among activities the new finances allowed were random audits of publisher records and the start of a series of on-campus seminars (including one led by me and others with academic journal experience, 'Successful Academic Writing') to help people break into publishing and create better educational materials. The seminars resulted in doubling the TAA membership, ensuring the organization's future."