First of all, I want to extend a welcome to the newly elected ATJ Board members: Wesley Jacobsen, Phyllis Larson, Sachiko Matsunaga, Chris Thompson, and Suwako Watanabe. And, of course, I'd like to express my appreciation and that of the ATJ membership to the 2001 nomination committee, the outgoing Board members: Joan Ericson, HIroko Kataoka, Seiichi Makino, Judith Rabinovitch, and Kazuo Tsuda. In addition, we all owe a special word of thanks to the 2001 ATJ Seminar Committee, Yukiko Hatasa, Ginger Marcus, Mari Noda, Ann Sherif, and Masakzau Watabe. I especially appreciated their inviting Prof. Tom Rimer to speak at the conclusion of the Seminar. The session with Prof. Rimer brought the ATJ membership together at the end of a busy day during which three panels were taking place simultaneousy and gave us the opportunity to reflect on the links between all of our activities, whether our academic specialties be literature, linguistics, cultural studies, or language pedagogy. Professor Rimer set the tone for a series of AAS panels and roundtables on the ways in which our interests intersect.

I have two reminders of new opportunities for professional development: Last fall Jill Cheng of Cheng & Tsui Publishers endowed a professional development grant program which is open to teachers of Japanese at all levels. This is in addition to the professional development grants for K-12 teachers funded by the Japan Foundation Language Center. Both these grants will provide support for teachers of Japanese to accomplish professional development activities they might not otherwise be able to afford. ATJ is hopeful that others may consider matching Jill Cheng's generous gift to the field! Also, the Aurora Foundation, which offers fellowships for summer study in Japan (available to prospective as well as current non-native Japanese teachers), has extended its 2001 deadline for applications for support of summer 2002 study in Japan to April 30, 2001. I urge ATJ members to consider applying themselves and to let others (under- graduates or graduate students who plan to teach Japanese, for example!) know of these opportunities.

An AATJ (Alliance) ad hoc committee is gearing up for the combined language study and pedagogy/leadership training seminar for K-12 teachers which will take place at Middlebury College this summer with support from the US-Japan Foundation. Ten deserving non-native- speaking secondary teachers of Japanese have been selected as participants in the program, which will consist of a five-week language immersion and one-week pedagogy seminar. The Alliance is pleased that the Japan Foundation Language Center has decided to conduct its one-week pedagogy seminar for native-speaker teachers concurrently with this program at Middlebury. We anticipate an extraordinary learning opportunity for all involved. I want to express my apprecia- tion to Dennis Washburn, the new Director of the Japanese Language School at Middlebury, and to the Middlebury staff, for their willingness to collaborate with ATJ and the JFLC on this project.

Finally, AATJ is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a Fulbright Group Projects Abroad grant for summer 2002. The program, which will be based at the National Institute for Multimedia Education, will provide an opportunity for Japanese teachers at all levels (both native and non-native) to work on technology-enhanced instructional materials and models in collaboration with NIME staff, making use of the extraordinary NIME resources. Non-native teachers will receive language instruction, as well.

It's time now to start thinking of taking advantage of some of these professional development opportunities in the next year. Please spread the word to your colleagues and students.

Laurel Rasplica Rodd, President