Welcome to the summer 2012 issue of Affiliate News! I am Larisa Olesova and as Member A of the Affiliate Leadership Council (ALC), I serve as the Affiliate News editor. Affiliate News provides a great opportunity to share best practices and to network with the other affiliates of TESOL. I hope you will find this issue interesting and informative, and with your contributions the Affiliates News continues to be a great way to share ideas, practices, and experiences. Please note the submission deadline of 19 November for the spring 2013 issue.

In this issue we have updates from affiliates around the world: BELTA in Asia and Oceania; TESOL Arabia in Africa and the Middle East; HUPE and NALDIC in Europe and Eurasia; ARTESOL and PRTESOL in the Caribbean and Central and South America; and NJTESOL/NJBE, PTE, TexTESOL III, and TexTESOL IV in North America! We are happy to share the news from INTESOL and ANUPI on their upcoming events in October and November 2012.

I would like to thank Donald Weasenforth for his contribution to the 2012 convention reports and my colleagues on the ALC―Misty Adoniou, Dorothy Forbin, and Janet Pierce―for their help, advice, and support while working on this summer issue. In this issue, you will find a number of reports from the 2012 convention as well as reports from the Best of Affiliate presenters. My special and sincere gratitude goes to Jayme Adelson-Goldstein from CATESOL and Dena Abramowitz from Milwaukee Area Technical College; Susan Ranney from MinneTESOL; and Raafat Ganriel and Salama M. Salama from NileTESOL for sharing their Best of Affiliate presentations at the 2012 convention.

You can view and download my pictures from the 2012 convention at the Affiliates Leaders’ Online Community.

I hope you enjoy this issue of the newsletter. Remember to submit your articles and photographs for the next issue!

Larisa Olesova, Ph.D., is an instructional designer specializing in distance education at George Mason University. She recently graduated from Purdue University.  She is a faculty member at North-Eastern Federal University in Russia. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of instructional strategies in online learning environments. Teaching has been one of the most important parts of her career both in Russia and in the US. Currently, she serves as a coordinator of Becoming a Webhead, one of the Electronic Village Online sessions at TESOL.