Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I hope those of you needing funding to attend our TESOL International Convention in Baltimore, Maryland this April have been successful. Those who self-fund, thank you, and I hope the convention delivers. Please plan to attend our annual general meeting on Wednesday, 6 April, in Convention Center room 319 at 6:45 pm. We really would like to hear what you have to say.

PAIS received many excellent proposals from people worldwide, and I believe we will be able to offer something helpful for everyone and in the full range of presentation formats from discussion group to workshops and colloquia. In addition, PAIS will present an academic panel and two InterSections. The academic presentation is:

Research and Protecting ESL Students: Honoring Classrooms and Adjudicating Requests

The panel is composed of administrators from a variety of situations and representing divergent viewpoints. In addition, two presenters will discuss the topic in the context of current research and ethical considerations in the area.

PAIS is the primary interest section in an InterSection with Intensive English Programs IS and Higher Education IS with a topic dear to and often frustrating for administrators and instructors:

Developing and Maintaining Standards in High Pressure Environments

In another InterSection, PAIS is secondary and the Nonnative English Speakers in TESOL IS primary for the topic:

Solutions for TESOL Programs’ Lack of Administrative Preparation

This presentation will include people from mid- and low-level positions as well as the “higher ups.”

I would like to sincerely thank all those who volunteered to review TESOL proposals and those who have helped in the planning of the academic and InterSection offerings. Everyone is busy, and finding time to add one more thing is really very challenging for many of us.

I would also like to thank our newsletter editors, Jackie Evans and Hannaliisa Savolainen, for their continued high-quality work. The Book Review and Meet the Member sections are great additions to the newsletter both in helping us to get current quickly on new and relevant publications as well as personalizing our newsletter in a way that speaks to us all.

I am turning over the chair position to two terrific human beings, Angela Dornbusch and Linda Wesley, at the annual general meeting in April. PAIS will be in excellent hands. I wish them and all PAIS members all the very best (as we say down under).

Bev Earles