Dear Affiliate colleagues,

On behalf of the Affiliate Leadership Council (ALC) I would like to start this message by thanking Janet Pierce for her commitment to the ALC. Janet served on the council for five years. All of us who had the chance to work with her know about her professional and permanent involvement with TESOL, and specifically with the ALC. She once described herself as an idea person, thankful that others appreciated her ideas, because then she asked questions and worked behind the scenes to figure out how she would do things. And she is an idea person! Her experience and enthusiasm helped the council members not to lose focus. We will miss Janet on the ALC but we hope she will always be around.

At every TESOL Convention the Affiliate Leadership Council, with the help and advice of Valerie Borchelt Novick, organizes six important events, the Affiliate Leaders' Workshop, the Affiliate Editors' Workshop, the Affiliate Colloquium, the Affiliate Assembly, the Best of Affiliate Sessions and the Affiliate Booth.

This year, in the morning session of the Affiliate Leaders’ Workshop, Karen Densky and Scott Douglas from BC TEAL, presented on “Actions that connect with membership: A case study reflection”. Debbie West and Elizabeth Smith coordinated a structured networking session based on Karen’s and Scott’s presentation. In the afternoon, affiliate representatives from BELTA, NYS TESOL, MITESOL, WEST VIRGINIA TESOL, ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION OF INDIA, SPELT, NJTESOL-NJBE, ANPI, CA & CB Basin TESOL Affiliates, MARYLAND TESOL facilitated nine breakout sessions.

The Affiliate Editors' Workshop, considered an opportunity for affiliates to exchange experiences on how they communicate with their membership and to share their publications with colleagues, was coordinated by Debbie West. The Affiliate Colloquium, “The Role of Affiliates in the Intercultural Communicative Competence Development of TESOL”, was organized and facilitated by Janet Pierce. The panelists were from five different affiliates, ELTAI, Bangladesh English Language Teachers’ Association, NYS TESOL, Mongolia TESOL, TESOL Arabia.

Regarding the Affiliate Assembly, this event was coordinated by Larisa Olesova. In the second part of the assembly, Richmond Stroupe, TESOL Affiliate Task Force (ATF) Chair, informed about the Final Report produced by the task force. The ATF’s functions have been very well described by Andy Curtis, Immediate TESOL Past President, in his article: Andy Curtis, 50th President, TESOL International Association, Letter from the President. TESOL Affiliate News, December 2015.

The Best of Affiliate Sessions, were made up of presentations from eight affiliate representatives, MEXICO TESOL, YAKUT TESOL, TESOL ARABIA, KENTUCKY TESOL, MICHIGAN TESOL, MASSACHUSSETS TESOL, TESOL ITALY and MINNESOTA TESOL.

Once the TESOL Convention in Baltimore was over all these events organized by the ALC were evaluated, and though very satisfied with the positive results, the ALC, together with Misty Adoniou as the TESOL Board Liaison and Valerie Borchelt Novick as the TESOL Staff Liaison have been analyzing suggestions on possible decisions to be taken for 2017 TESOL Convention in Seattle.

As part of its duties, the ALC has been working with TESOL International Association on the review of documents presented by potential TESOL affiliates, as a first step of the approval process. We are very pleased to welcome DR TESOL and Libya TESOL as new affiliates! The team also worked on the analysis of TESOL Affiliate Task Force Final Report and provided the council members’ feedback from the ALC’s perspective.

The organization of the affiliate events to take place at 2017 TESOL Convention in Seattle has already started. Apart from this task, and in keeping with the ALC’s mission, other plans on future activities are being analyzed by the council. Many projects have been accomplished by the ALC but there is still much to be done focusing on TESOL affiliates’ needs and strengths.

Let me conclude this message by welcoming Elizabeth Smith, new ALC Member A, who made this edition of the Affiliate News possible, and to express my gratitude to Larisa Olesova, ALC Past Chair, and Valerie Borchelt Novick for their constant support, understanding and good disposition to advise when needed.