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The Affiliate Network Professional Council: A Global Presence of TESOL Professionals Connected
Whether you are on a summer vacation, teaching in a class, or
strategizing for the next year, I would like to give you an update of
the ANPC since the convention in Atlanta.
If you had the opportunity to join us in Atlanta this past
March, I hope you had a chance to make the best of all the leadership
and development sessions the ANPC had prepared for you. Our overarching theme was
collaboration amongst affiliates. In brief we had a total of 12
affiliate representatives (MDTESOL, TexTESOLIV, Yakut TESOL, TESOL Turkey, ARKTESOL, Georgia TESOL, CATESOL, and NYSTESOL) that were
conducting workshops and delivering sessions. Affiliates from 5
affiliates (Nile TESOL, TESOL Greece, SETESOL and VenTESOL)
participated in the Affiliate Colloquium entitled “The influence of
collaboration initiatives on TESOL Communities.” The ANPC had its annual
business meeting, the Affiliate Assembly in a packed room, we
discussed all our events in the past year, thanked our outgoing members
(Debbie West and Ana Maria Roca), and welcomed our newest affiliate TESOL Turkey. Bahar
Gun, the President of TESOL Turkey, was there to represent our newest
addition. We also honored New
Jersey TESOL/NJBE Inc., and Puerto Rico TESOL for 50
years of affiliation, as well as, TESOLANZ for
25.
The Best of Affiliate sessions were also during the convention
and we had the pleasure of welcoming 3 affiliates (Carolina
TESOL, Michigan
TESOL, and Northern
New England TESOL) this year to give a presentation that had
already been presented in an affiliate event the past year.
This year in Atlanta was unique as TESOL invited one
representative from every affiliate to attend the TESOL Leadership
Forum. This Forum is where all leaders of the association (Interest
Sections, Professional Councils, Professional Learning Networks and
others) get a sense of what TESOL is planning for the coming years, its
strategic planning and other pertinent matters. Uli Shrader, former ANPC
chair, presented the ANPC’s project entitled APAP (Affiliate Peer
Advisory Program). This was an initiative that started over a year ago as a mentoring program, but after careful
thought and consideration of all the types of affiliates that TESOL
currently has, it was refocused to be a peer advisory program.
Each ANPC member is allocated around 15 affiliates and they are working
together for more collaborative initiatives. More information will be
available during the convention in Denver.
Many affiliates have been long standing partners with TESOL for
many years, close to its inception. We will be celebrating 4
anniversaries next year. CATESOL, Illinois TESOL/BE, NYSTESOL, and WATESOL are affiliated with
TESOL for 50 years. We will be honoring these affiliates in a special
celebration in Denver 2020.
Being in the ANPC for more than a year now, has given me a
great experience of the different affiliates and their interactions. The
APAP has been growing with the personal work of our dedicated ANPC
members. I would urge you to respond to their emails, it is not
necessary that you need assistance from the program but you may be a
great resource for others. We definitely need help from all experienced
and less experienced affiliates. This is one of the basic tenets of the
program. I truly believe, from my
experience with 3 different affiliates (TESOL Greece, TESOL Arabia, and
KSAALT), that there is always something to learn from an affiliate.
There are always common problems, but may be different solutions.
Finally, I would like to ask you help and assistance in the following:
As we are expanding the work of the ANPC, we are looking for
new members, please take a look at this link and submit your
application till 23 September. Should you have any questions, please email
Valerie Novick, our staff liaison at affiliates@tesol.org or
you can email me at georgekormpas@gmail.com
We are also looking for presenters for our Denver program. As
usual we have the leadership sessions that we offer every year. Please submit your proposals by September 30th.
Moreover, you can also present a session that you have given at
an affiliate event this past year and you would like to share with
colleagues in Denver. These are the best of affiliate sessions. These
sessions are adjudicated by the ANPC. The deadline for these is September 30 and you can submit your
proposals online. Finally, as the APAP (Affiliate Peer Advisory Program) and other ANPC projects are growing, so we are looking for new members in our council. Please circulate this to all your past leadership, as they may be interested to apply. The link is here, and the deadline is September 23rd.
I know that it is different times in different parts of the
world, but I would like to thank you for reading this newsletter, please
share with your colleagues, friends and anyone you think will benefit
from reading it.
Always have in mind, that through collaboration we can be more
productive and learn from each other. Let us unite and offer more
development for our members.
I wish you a productive academic year.
Georgios V. Kormpas
ANPC Chair 2019 - 2020 | 
