Hi ITAIS-ers.

The TESOL convention is fast approaching, and I am looking forward to it a lot, but it will not be the only time that I will see my ITA colleagues this year. I had the opportunity to spend time with colleagues at the Mid-Atlantic ITA meeting at Drexel in October, then to meet with ITA testers and trainers at Ohio TESOL in November. These meetings were both particularly satisfying; talking with other ITA trainers who deal with similar challenges, who have had similar successes and frustrations, made me determined to meet with colleagues more often. I decided to plan a daylong ITA meeting of my own, comprising as many of the ITA trainers and testers in the region as possible. This idea was met with enthusiasm by colleagues in the area as many of them don't have the resources to go to the international TESOL convention and usually miss out on meeting with other ITA folks.

As of this writing, the meeting has not taken place, but I am anticipating a great success. The set up of the meeting was simple, as we plan on using one of our classrooms. The agenda was filled with speakers almost immediately—our colleagues are very experienced and have a lot of creative research and best practices to talk about. It all came together very quickly.

These regional meetings make sense for ITA trainers in a lot of ways. Many of us work in small offices, where we may be the only ITA trainer in town. Another reason is that The Annual TESOL Convention is only
4 days now. We have fewer chances to hear about the excellent work our colleagues are doing. Smaller regional meetings give us other venues to get our work out to the bigger world.

Make the leap; call your ITA colleagues, invite them to your university. You will be surprised with how much you have to say to each other.