Dear Affiliate Leader Colleagues,

In this issue we begin with a warm welcome to two new affiliates, a welcome to our New Member A for 2012, and a report on the work of the Affiliate Leadership Council (ALC) in preparation for our upcoming convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It’s hard to believe that it is already 2012 and our convention is just around the corner! I hope you all had some time to rest during the winter/summer break to prepare for the exciting year ahead!

WELCOME NEW AFFILATES & AFFILIATE LEADERS

On behalf of the ALC, I offer an especially warm welcome to the following affiliates who have recently joined TESOL:

TESL Nova Scotia and the English Teachers Association of Georgia (ETAG). Please welcome these new affiliates into our association; to learn more about each you can click on their links.

For those of you who are new affiliate leaders, the ALC is a council created to serve as a liaison between affiliates and the TESOL Board of Directors. Our duties include organizing the Affiliate Assembly, Leadership Workshop, Affiliate Newsletter Workshop, Affiliate Colloquium, and affiliate booth at the annual TESOL convention. These activities create forums for networking and exchanging ideas. Resources for affiliate leaders, including links to past newsletters, are available online at www.tesol.org/s_tesol/seccss.asp?CID=275&DID=1749.

NEEDS ASSESSMENT SURVEY

Thank you to all the affiliate leaders who completed the TESOL Affiliate Leaders Needs Assessment that was sent out at the end of last year. Your responses have been shared with the TESOL Board and will help both TESOL and the ALC better understand and meet the needs of affiliates. The ALC has reviewed the outcomes of the needs assessment, which was also shared online with affiliate leaders via the TESOL Affiliate Leaders Community

MEMBER A ELECTION

The ALC welcomes Larisa Olesova of Yakut TESOL as Member A for the 2012-13 year. We were fortunate this year to have four outstanding candidates nominated for ALC Member A; on behalf of the ALC Leadership Council I thank the following candidates for running for this position:

• Sufian Abu-Rmaileh, TESOL Arabia, past president
• Suzan Stamper, Indiana TESOL, past president
• Ulrich Schrader, MEX-TESOL, past president

We encourage all eligible affiliate leaders to consider serving on the ALC. Not only does the experience provide leaders with a broad perspective of TESOL, but it also offers numerous networking opportunities and invaluable experience with supporting the profession in very meaningful ways. Watch for the call for nominations, which will be distributed at the convention and posted to the Affiliate Leaders Community in the spring.

TESOL 2012: PHILADELPHIA, PA

The ALC has been working these past months in preparing for the key events at the convention in Philadelphia specifically for affiliate leaders. The first meeting will be the Affiliate Leadership Workshop to be held on Wednesday 25 March from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. The workshop will be led by Dorothy Forbin, ALC chair-elect; the purpose of the workshop is to provide opportunities for affiliate leaders to network and learn from each other with a focus this year in the areas of advocacy, membership, fund-raising, and professional development. In addition, the Newsletter Editors’ Workshop will be led by Member A, Janet Pierce, on 29 March from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. This workshop is open to both affiliate leaders and their newsletter editors. The workshop provides an opportunity for affiliates to share their newsletters (bring extra copies) and to learn from each other strategies and processes for creating engaging and informative publications. Misty Adoniou, past chair of ALC, has organized the Affiliate Leadership Council Colloquium titled English Language Teaching Goes Mainstream also on 29 March.

Please remember that all affiliates are required to attend the Affiliate Assembly at least once every two years. This year’s Affiliate Assembly is scheduled for Friday, 30 March, from 10:00 to 12:30. The Affiliate Assembly will be an opportunity for leaders from all affiliates to receive updates from the TESOL Leadership and also the forum for Affiliate Leader awards. We will continue utilizing the Assembly as a space for affiliate leaders to engage in discussion of questions and recommendations that leaders have raised via the TESOL Leadership Survey. One key question that we will address is: How do affiliates see/vision TESOL as a place/forum to expand knowledge? When asked in the survey how TESOL can benefit affiliates, many affiliate leaders responded that TESOL could provide expanded professional development for affiliates. The ALC looks forward to your dialogue and suggestions on this and other questions. Valerie Borchelt, the ALC’s Central Office Liaison, will send you additional information about the Assembly in the coming weeks via the TESOL Affiliate Leader Community e-list. To view the full list of the affiliate meetings go to https://s3.goeshow.com/tesol/annual/2012/orgmeetings.cfm.

Finally, the ALC has continued to review and revise the purpose and structure of the affiliate meetings at the annual convention based on your feedback and input. If you have any comments regarding what works, or suggestions for us to consider regarding these meetings, please send them to me at kcadiero@gmail.com.

I and the other ALC members look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia this March!