The group began as the "Four Corners HR Group," when four HR professionals met for lunch one afternoon in 1986 at KB Dillons. The first "membership roster" typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter on April 8, 1987, included:   

  

Mary Ancell, Southern Union
Dan Dible, City of Farmington
Fergie Olgren, El Paso
Dan Patterson, Farmington Municipal Schools
James Ray, PNM
Cricket Sisson, First Interstate Bank
Lynn Thompson, Utah International
Mike Voita, APS
Colleen Walker, San Juan College
Jim Walker, Meridian Oil
Gail Williams, Bloomfield Refining  

  

The early meetings were conducted as roundtable discussions on a pre-determined topic. For example, the topic of the April 1987 discussion was the treatment of alcoholism and whether it was considered a sickness under benefit plans in place at the time.   

  

In 1994, Mark Christensen, SHRM Area VI Manager, and Mary Rutland, SPHR from HRMA, met with committee members Dan Lott, SPHR, Christine Carson, PHR, June Markle, Gail Williams, and Charlene Scott, PHR, to research the possibilities of becoming a formal SHRM chapter.