SLWIS Newsletter - March 2018 (Plain Text Version)
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LEADERSHIP UPDATES LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
Dear SLWIS Members, The thermometer has been plunging below freezing here in Delaware for the past several weeks, so it must be about time to pack up my thermals for the TESOL Convention in Chicago, which brings to an end my tenure as Chair of the Second Language Writing Interest Section. This has been a year of transition for SLWIS and TESOL. For the past two years, we have been involved in lengthy and often impassioned discussions about the future of the interest sections as TESOL moved to implement its new governance plan and strategic agenda. As I reported in the October newsletter, SLWIS leaders have taken an active role in reshaping these plans in order to preserve the strengths of our interest section and pave the way for exciting new opportunities. President de Jong and the Board have graciously heard us and other IS colleagues, and towards the end of 2017, they voted in a new structure of Communities of Practices, within which SLWIS will remain an interest section. As a team, we have worked to define what SLWIS will look like as a Community of Practice. We will keep our existing leadership structure with a broad-based steering committee that guides the community and cultivates new chairs; our popular newsletter (thank you again to Elena Shvidko and Ilka Kostka for another wonderful issue!); an active online community; and the three-year sequence of Incoming Chair, Chair, and Past Chair. We will enhance our year-round offerings, including more webinars and discussions. And although we will no longer be directly involved in adjudicating conference proposals, we will continue to organize academic sessions and intersections that bring current debates and cutting-edge scholarship to the convention. Our goal is to engage you, our membership, and meet your professional and scholarly needs in the field of Second Language Writing. And that’s where you come in. If you have an idea for the future of SLWIS, please share it with us by email, on the discussion list, or at the SLWIS Open Meeting in Chicago (Wednesday, March 28, 6:45-8:15pm). Or better yet, run for an elected committee position next year! We are especially looking to recruit non-university teachers and colleagues outside North America for future positions so that our Steering Committee is truly representative of our diverse membership. The strength of this interest section has always been our members’ willingness to serve the profession, as Chair or member-at-large, as a conference speaker or proposal reviewer, or simply by answering a colleague’s question on the listserv. We have an outstanding succession of chairs for the next two years with Tanita Saenkhum and then Betsy Gilliland, and I know you will give them your full support as we move forward as the Community of Practice we have truly always been. Thank you to the Steering Committee for all your efforts and especially to Ryan Miller, who steps down this year after serving as the 2016-2017 Chair and current Past Chair. Thank you also to Hee-Seung Kang and Betsy Gilliland, whose terms as members-at-large end soon, and to our online community manager, Elena Shvidko. And thank you all for this opportunity to lead SLWIS through some interesting times! I look forward to seeing you in person in Chicago or virtually online in the coming months and years. Best wishes Nigel Caplan Chair, SLWIS Associate Professor, University of Delaware |
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