This first half of 2019 has been wonderful for Korea and for KOTESOL. The weather has been beautiful for hosting a spring full of chapter workshops across the peninsula, chapter conferences in three corners of the nation, and just recently our national conference in Jeonju. KOTESOL works hard to bring to its members informative, top-quality conferencing events that lead to the strengthening of learning in the EFL classroom, and to do it at as little cost to its members as possible.

Our chapters have held over 30 workshop events so far this year at our nine chapters spread throughout the peninsula. In addition, three of our chapters held regional conferences this spring: the Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter in the southwest, the Seoul Chapter in the north, and the Busan-Gyeongnam Chapter in the southeast. They were all well organized and well attended, with a wide variety of quality presentations offered. Our national conference was held in late May this year, organized mainly by our chapter in Jeonju, also in southwestern Korea. We were fortunate to have as our plenary speaker a person selected by TESOL as one of the most influential individuals to the TESOL profession in the past 50 years: Jack C. Richards!

Organizationally, we have made a number of additions that we believe will make our association even stronger. To begin with, we have approved the creation of three new SIGs (special interest groups), all bottom-up, organic formations: the Classroom Management SIG, the People-of-Color Teachers SIG, and the Women and Gender Equality SIG. We have also entered into a partnership with ELTAI, the English Language Teachers’ Association of India, for cross-promotion of events and conference presenter exchange. The National Council has also created an ad hoc Diversity Committee to ensure and increase inclusiveness and diversity among our membership.

To strengthen our intra-organizational planning and knowledge base, we held an all-day “Leadership Retreat” at the end of last year to do 2019 brainstorming and planning, and to get newer members more involved. In February, our annual Chapter Presidents’ Meeting was held for the first time via online videoconferencing. In addition to being quite cost-effective, it facilitated higher attendance. At our national conference, we had a one-hour breakfast session to introduce our new and established SIGs to the membership who might not yet be aware of their respective activities. At a lunch-time session over pizza, we introduced this year’s International Conference team leaders in a very successful effort at filling out positions in our sub-teams.

If you want to know more about KOTESOL, you can now go to Wikipedia to find out; earlier this year we created our own entry, which has now been approved. KOTESOL research grant applications have been reviewed by the Research Committee, and two deserving members have been chosen to receive this year’s grants. We have put much time and thought into setting up a KOTESOL Teacher of the Year Award. We are now accepting applications (in June), and the awardee will be announced at our International Conference in October. Also in June, one of our domestic partners, KAFLA (the Korean Association of Foreign Language Academies), conducted a nationwide English speech contest for elementary and middle school students. KOTESOL supported KAFLA by supplying the judges for the judging teams. The contest and the cooperation were both a success, creating a consensus to do the same again next year.

As for KOTESOL publications, our first two issues of our planned four of our quarterly magazine, The English Connection (TEC) are out, one of our two annual issues of the Korea TESOL Journal has been published, and the KOTESOL Proceedings 2018 will be published online soon. KOTESOL’s online publications are member-access-only for a set period of time before becoming open access. Also, to get the KOTESOL name out in the public eye, we have been involved in branded item sales, selling KOTESOL items such as mugs, tumblers, business card cases, and pen–bookmark sets at just above cost. This type of promotion is now more robust than is past years.

On the policy front, KOTESOL has also initiated a couple of firsts. We have created a comprehensive Privacy Policy explaining how we deal with the online data that we might collect, a policy that we are confident meets European requirements. The National Council has also created and approved a Code of Conduct that applies to both face-to-face events and online spaces. With some of our social media spaces open to all, this Code of Conduct spells out appropriate behavior and how breaches may be dealt with.

As the Korean “dog days” of summer set in, the International Conference Committee members will be toiling away, making preparations for this October 12–13 event. The conference will feature as speakers several teachers, authors, and researchers who are known around the world for their contributions to ELT; they include Rod Ellis, Andrew D. Cohen, and Thomas Farrell. This year’s premier event will also feature two timely panel discussions: one four-member panel on “Women in Leadership in Korea” and the other an international panel spotlighting “Women in Leadership in ELT.” The conference will include a cornucopia of featured and concurrent sessions for the attendees to “harvest.”

Looking forward to next year and developing new avenues of cooperation, KOTESOL is collaborating with AsiaTEFL in organizing their 2020 international conference, which will be held in Seoul. Korea TESOL is marching onward and looking forward – looking forward to a very productive second half of 2019 as it marches onward into the 2020s.

David Shaffer, Korea TESOL President, has spent his teaching career in Korea at Chosun University, after first serving in the country in the U.S. Peace Corps. He received his MA and PhD in linguistics and has added post-graduate certificates in TESOL. Dr. Shaffer has been a member of Korea TESOL since its beginnings in 1993, volunteering extensively in publications, conference planning, and finances; and has served on Korea TESOL’s national council for many years. At present, he is board chair at the Gwangju International Center and editor-in-chief of the Gwangju News monthly magazine in Gwangju, Korea.