During my presidential year, I have had many opportunities for connecting with new members and places. The Affiliate Speaker Program took me to the Southeast TESOL conference in Birmingham, Alabama (USA) last October. SETESOL is a regional conference that represents member affiliates from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. More than 950 individuals attended the conference! Presentations and poster sessions provided a mix of practical how-to workshops and research-based presentations that considered implications for practice. The 44th MEXTESOL convention was my next engagement as part of the Affiliate Speaker Program. The convention was held in the shoe-and-leather capital: León, Mexico. MEXTESOL’s conference theme focused on strengthening learning communities. Luciana de Oliveira, our current President-elect, wrote a wonderful reflection on the benefits of the Affiliate Speaker Program for both the affiliate and the board member.

I also had the opportunity to visit Sunshine State TESOL in Florida, USA last May and had the pleasure of presenting a keynote address at our New York Affiliate, NYSTESOL in Melville, Long Island, USA. The latter conference had social pedagogy and advocacy as its theme.

I will vividly remember the amazing commitment, enthusiasm, deep passion, and professionalism that I witnessed at each of these conferences! Together we advance English language teaching as a profession and partner to support English language teachers, administrators, and researchers in moving our field forward. Talking with participants at these conferences, I realized yet again how powerful our international TESOL International Association‘s Annual Convention and our affiliate conferences are to connect us across borders and boundaries, and to provide a professional space to share our success stories, our challenges, and our resources.

I hope to see you in Chicago for TESOL’s International Convention & English Language Expo, March 27-30, 2018!

Warm regards,

Ester de Jong