Dear ICIS Colleagues,

What an incredibly exciting and productive year we had with Heidi Faust as the ICIS chair, and Natalia Balyasnikova and Patriann Smith as newsletter coeditors. Some of the highlights include having IS panels at the International Association of Language and Intercultural Communication Conference in Beijing, China and the Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research (SIETAR) Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA. These panels were a part of the effort to build collaborations with other relevant organizations as well as decentralize the IS focus on the TESOL convention. We hope other ICIS members will seize opportunities to participate in local or regional conferences related to intercultural communication and share what they have learned in our newsletter.

Other successes include having a successful virtual seminar with Darla Deardorff entitled, "Defining and Assessing Intercultural Competence in the Classroom," which included more than 100 participants during the live event. The ICIS newsletter was also noted as a model newsletter with its thematic focus, and we plan to do even more this year to increase member participation and provide more opportunities for professional development and networking throughout the year! Already, our new community manager Jeremy Slagoski has created a WordPress page and updated the Facebook page for our IS. I would encourage you to check out his updates on the community in this newsletter and on our websites.

Also new to the team this year is Ramin Yazdanpanah, who was a part of the panel at SIETAR. He joins the team as chair-elect and has already begun working with several ISs to create innovative and meaningful InterSection sessions for the convention next year.

Are you interested in joining the team? One of the main goals we have this year (see the Open Meeting Minutes for more detail) is to make the leadership responsibilities and benefits more clear through online discussions with current and past leadership. We hope that more members will participate in our elections and gain valuable leadership experience in the TESOL organization. This is your IS, and we believe the more active you are, the more you will gain. Over time, you may even begin to feel like this IS is your TESOL home away from home.

I look forward to working with you this year to make this IS more relevant and more meaningful for you.

Regards,

Maxi-Ann Campbell

ICIS Chair 2016–2017

Fun fact about Maxi-Ann: Maxi started learning belly dance shortly after moving to China, though it is not a dance typically associated with China. She now has more belly dance outfits than opportunities to wear them. In another dance class in Atlanta, Georgia, USA—this time a salsa class—Maxi met her current husband, who is from Fujian, China. She liked him at first sight; his vision was not quite as good back then, but it is clear for both now that they were meant to be together.