New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (NYS TESOL) is keeping busy these days. We are happy to share some of our highlights and looking forward to reading about our fellow TESOL affiliates.

TESOL Convention in Baltimore, Maryland

NYS TESOL was well-represented at this year’s TESOL Convention in Baltimore by its members and officers on the Executive Board. We are proud to announce that the Vice President of Advocacy, Juliet Luther, was elected as the Chair-Elect-Elect of TESOL’s Bilingual Education Interest Section. Other highlights included presentations at the affiliate workshops by our Business Manager and Past President, Cynthia Wiseman, and a reception at Kona Grill hosted by the Vice President of Membership, Ashley Fifer. The intent of the reception was to thank our members and to promote NYS TESOL’s presence. It was attended by over 150 members. A big thank you to our Board members and volunteers who were at the affiliate booth to share information about NYS TESOL

Annual Conference in Syracuse, New York

We will hold our 46th Annual Conference on November 4–5, 2016, in Syracuse, New York. Plenary speakers include Dr. Andy Curtis, Past President of TESOL International Association, Dr. Tatyana Kleyn, New York State Association for Bilingual Education (NYSABE) Immediate Past President, and Dr. Tej Bahatia, Professor of Linguistics and Director of South Asian Languages at Syracuse University. This year, we have expanded the annual essay contest to “Student Project Contest,” which includes essays and digital stories. We invite English language students of all ages and levels throughout New York State to submit their original work. We also have an annual awards ceremony at which we honor TESOL students and educators for their dedication to the TESOL profession.

In addition, this year we plan on implementing new grant opportunities as a means of thanking our members and “giving back” to them for their continued membership and participation in the organization.

Publications/social media

NYS TESOL’s quarterly newsletter, Idiom, will be offered free to the public beginning this summer. It is our hope to increase the readership and, hence, membership by means of publicizing our newsletter. Free to the public is our peer-reviewed NYS TESOL Journal.

We have an active Facebook page and welcome people from around the world to “like” us. We are also on Instagram (#NYSTESOL) and Twitter (@NYSTESOL).

NYS TESOL President’s personal connection with fellow affiliate leaders

One of the NYS TESOL goals is to strengthen our connection with fellow TESOL affiliates as we have so much to learn from one another. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Zakia Sarwar, the “mother” of the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT). It happened somewhat by chance. While spending some time in Boston, I emailed other TESOL affiliates, trying to make connections and to learn more about their organizations. SPELT forwarded the email to Zakia, who coincidentally was also in Boston. It turned out that we were only 20 minutes apart, so we met for ice cream the next day. We had a great time talking about our work in TESOL and sharing ideas about our organizations. Zakia warmly agreed to share her background and insight about TESOL in an interview for our quarterly newsletter. Look for the full interview in this summer's issue.

If you are interested in collaborating with NYS TESOL or becoming a sister organization, please contact us at info@nystesol.org.

Sarah Elia, NYS TESOL President, is a lecturer in the Haggerty English Language Program at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz. She also tutors English at Peking University in Beijing, China. Sarah is the current editor of TESOL International Association's Secondary Accents, the newsletter of the Secondary Schools Interest Section.

Fran Olmos, NYS TESOL Past President, has been an ENL teacher in the Yonkers Public Schools in Yonkers, New York, for the last 30 years, working with children in Pre K to 8. She received her bachelor of science in elementary education (N–6) with a concentration in Spanish from SUNY Oswego and her master’s in education in TESOL from the College of New Rochelle. She lived in and taught in Mexico City for several years. Fran has been very active in NYS TESOL over the last 20 years and has held many positions including President and Annual Conference Chair.

Anne Henry, NYS TESOL President-elect, has been in the TESOL field for over 15 years as a teacher and administrator. She is currently an instructional specialist for Buffalo City School District in Buffalo, New York.