CLTA-South started out in 2002 as a workshop event organized by Lilly Chen, a faculty member of Rice University, for high school Chinese langauge teachers in the Metropolitan Houson area.  The participating teachers came from Housotn ISD, Clear Creek ISD, Fort Bend ISD, etc., in fact all high school Chinese language teachers in the area at the time.   It was the first time the teachers attended an organization of this nature and the first time they met together. The organizer had worked out with Rice School of Continuing Studies to grant the workshop participants certificates of Continuing Education Units (CEU), which was approved by Texas State Education Agency as part of teachers' professional development.  The cost of the certificates was generously supported by the Center for the Study of Languages (CSL) at Rice.  This event also signaled the begining of a tradition of support by CSL as part of Rice University's outreach service to the greater Houston community.  During discussion at this first workshop, participants felt and agreed that there should be a continuation of his kind of meeting to be held at Rice every year, if not more frequently.  The need for a structured permanent organization gradually emerged. It was a consensus among the participating teachers at the workshop of fall 2005 to form a teachers' association.  In spring of 2006 Chao-mei Shen, another Rice faculty, was entrusted with the mission to see to it that the association be incorpoated as a non-profit organization. The non-profit status was eventualy granted by the state of Texas in January 2007. At the workshop meeting held in January 2007, officers were elected by the association members to serve in the capacities of President, Vice President, Treasurer, Communication Director, and Newsletter Editors.