After a year of dealing with an extraordinary global situation that has affected us all, we have learned so much! We are very grateful to the TESOL International Association for its continuing support of the ANPC. Throughout the global pandemic, the Affiliate Network and Professional Council (ANPC) has sought to connect to the affiliates to gather information and build on our collective strengths. Over the past year, we have built a strong network and shared best practices. The affiliate associations have shown tremendous resilience in dealing with new technologies, widespread unemployment from our members, and changes in our teaching.

The ANPC are very grateful for the leadership of our outgoing chair George Kormpas, whose boundless energy not only kept the ANPC going throughout the difficult times last year, but also helped us to grow our connections. We thank George for all his hard work and dedication to improving the communication amongst affiliates.

Last year the TESOL Board of Directors approved the ANPC to be able to expand from 8 to 10 members. As a result, this year’s ANPC has welcomed on two new members, Karen Newman (Indiana TESOL) and Stephanie Marcotte (MATSOL). Thank you to both of them for diving in with both feet and for volunteering on so many projects. I would also like to thank Bessie Karras-Lazaris (CATESOL) for stepping forward as our incoming chair. Bessie brings with her a wealth of information as an experienced member of the ANPC with her commitments to the convention and newsletter. I would also like to thank Linh Phung (Three Rivers TESOL) and Jermaine McDougald (TESOL Columbia) for leading our events and newsletter committees respectively. The rest of our illustrious team is Cherrilyn Washington (GATTESOL), Valerie Jakar (ETAI), Petro Okoth (TELA). I would also like to thank Gabrielle Kleckova, the current TESOL President for all of her support to our council. Last but not least, to Valerie Novick , our support staff partner, for all her help and support with our initiatives.

We started this year with a look back at some of the challenges of last year with a session titled: ANPC Social Event: Networking and Finding 15% Solutions to Your Challenges which explored problems and solutions faced by affiliates. One of the challenges we heard was connecting with affiliations to share best practices. We had different representatives from more than 5 affiliates from around the world that reported on the solutions they had already taken to connect with others. The webinar was a good opportunity for the ANPC to connect.

We are also looking forward to hosting BC TEAL Charitable Foundation at the end of February for a feel good look at the impact a few tireless volunteers have had on the lives of refugees, immigrants and researchers in their community. To sign up, please look for the event notification in MyTESOL, but if you have happened to miss any of our webinars you can watch all the previous recordings in TESOL’s YouTube channel playlist. Since 2018 we have uploaded all of our online webinars to the channel and are thrilled to see so many of our affiliates liking and rewatching them. Stay tuned for more on our monthly webinar series!

April will also be a very busy time for the ANPC with our three day Affiliate network Forum planned for April 9-11th. I would like to cordially invite all of TESOL’s affiliates to join us over these three days. Join us to express your affiliates needs and to provide feedback as we discuss important affiliate developments. We will stagger the times of the events to make sure that all of our global affiliates can attend some of the webinars live. We plan to look at a variety of critical themes such as open educational resources, social media production for affiliates, and governance issues.

I would also like to highlight our Affiliate Peer Advisory Program (APAP) which has been working to connect affiliates with a member of the ANPC. Each one of us have been allocated 13 – 14 diverse affiliates. The mission of the APAP program is to create extensive networks between affiliates and to provide opportunities for collaborations in local, regional, and international settings. We have had several successful connections with affiliates sharing online speakers and resources over the past year. Another way that the APAP can support affiliates is through our resource library. The ANPC collects and curates materials from our affiliate members in areas such as Newsletter and Journals, Governance, Communications, and Social Media, Budget and Finance, Conference, and Event Planning, Advocacy, Marketing, and others. If you have not been contacted yet for the APAP, please contact me at j_papple@hotmail.com or Valerie Novick vnovick@tesol.org at the TESOL office. We would be happy to connect with you and to work with your affiliate.

By now, you should have received from Valerie Novick your annual report, which is an important annual requirement for your TESOL affiliation. If you have not yet submitted it, please get in touch with Valerie Novick vnovick@tesol.org to make certain that she has your current board leadership information. You may also want to reach out to your APAP contact to assist you.

It is hard to predict what this year will bring, but the ANPC will continue to support affiliate learning and respond to the challenges set out before us. Please feel free to contact the ANPC through MyTESOL. We would love to celebrate your successes through our webinar series, newsletter, and APAP connections, as well as support your through your challenges. On behalf of everyone at the ANPC we are looking forward to working with you in 2021!

James Papple
TESOL International Association, ANPC Chair, 2020-2021