Attending: Watanabe, Sherif, Marcus, Noda, Jacobsen, Kubota, Thornton, Larson, Watabe, Vance, Nakajima, Hatasa, McGloin, Matsunaga, Falsgraf; Officers: Rodd, Miller, Kleeman, Schmidt (Alliance). Meeting called to order at 9:03 a.m.; new Board members welcomed. Minutes from the previous meeting, at the AAS in Chicago, unanimously approved.

• President's Report
• Secretary's Report
• Treasurer's Report
• Newletter Editor's Report
• Journal Editor's Report
• Web Site Report
• Bridging Project Report
• SIG Reports
• Strategic Plan Review
• New Business
• Bylaws Committee Report

President's Report
Continuing activities include the ATJ Journal (now renamed Japanese Language and Literature and published twice a year); Newsletter (4 issues per year); Dissertation Abstracts (now appearing in every issue of the Journal); Occasional Papers; Membership Directory (now includes members' specialties); Seminar (expanded to a full day of concurrent sessions); greatly expanded website; Bridging Project to promote study abroad in Japan; publication of a Post-Basic Framework for Japanese (in final stages).

Secretary's Report
ATJ Membership Breakdown

Treasurer's Report
January 1 - September 15, 2000
With Kumiko Takahara's retirement, Faye Kleeman has agreed to serve as Treasurer this year. Approval of her appointment requested. Approved. Discussion of Treasurer's report from January 1 to August 31. Report accepted as presented.

Newsletter Editor's Report
The next issue will come out in November. Discussion of transition to an online or e-mailed version of the newsletter; consensus that membership is not ready to abandon print. We might consider giving members the option of receiving newsletter electronically or on the web. Meanwhile, office has begun sending out monthly Bulletins by e-mail, and Board agreed that this was a good idea.

Journal Editors' Report
Maggie Childs has resigned as literature editor; Sarah Strong at Bates College will take over, but not until next April. Strong has worked on both classical and modern literature. Tim is looking for a new book review editor for linguistics and literature; would like suggestions. Two special issues in the works. JLL should be included in more databases so JLL articles come up in searches. We need more modern literature submissions. The next issue of the journal, October 2001, will appear in the cover date month for the first time in five years. Table of Contents for the October issue handed out.

Web Site Report
The japaneseteaching.org site approved at last year's meeting has been set up. Info on SIGs and online application for Seminar are there. It is seamless with the ATJ site. If we go to a password-protected system, then more of our info will go to the japaneseteaching.org site. Keiko Schneider has been helping us with those features.

Japaneseteaching.org is helpful for Japanese language applications like seminar applications as university servers do not support non-romanized languages. Discussion of putting the membership directory online: a commercial estimate was for $4000 just to set it up (with maintenance extra). How far do we want to go to putting info online? As an organization we're a bit below the size for doing this easily and cost efficiently. The Board would like to go in the direction of more web-based member services, but not too fast.

Bridging Project Report
The Bridging Scholarship program has expanded, with the help of the US-Japan Bridging Foundation, which raises money for scholarships from US businesses active in Japan. Number of scholarships awarded this year doubled from last year. Ratio of applicants to recipients is 5 or 6:1 for the fall semester, 3 or 4:1 for the spring. Semester recipients receive $2,500; those who go to Japan for the full academic year receive $4,000. Application forms and lists of all scholarship recipients since 1999 distributed. Copies of the essays sent by students after their study in Japan are available in print and electronically.

The Alliance started formally two years ago, but discussion started before that, encouraged by funding organizations like Japan Foundation and Japan-US Friendship Commission who wanted the field to speak with a single voice. The Alliance has just been approved for the fourth year by funding agencies. Constituent organizations are ATJ and NCJLT; the Board of Directors has members from ATJ (Rodd, Kataoka, Thornton) and 3 from NCJLT. The delegations include the presidents of both organizations. Other nationally-based organizations may become Alliance members in the future. Alliance projects focus on professional development and are grant-funded.

SIG Reports
Activities and Curriculum SIG chair Chris Thompson (not present at meeting) sent a report noting that he plans to use the SIG section of the website to promote contact among teachers. Classical SIG chair Stephen Miller reported that the SIG is presenting a panel at the AAS conference in April 2002 in Washington and will hold a meeting there as well. Professional Development SIG chair Yashy Tohsaku (not present) sent a report outlining the SIG's activities, which include: (1) an e-newsletter, next issue to be published in October and to include articles on use of the Internet for developing teaching materials, teaching Japanese in elementary schools, and use of literature in beginning-level Japanese language courses; (2) a breakfast or lunch/business meeting planned in conjunction with the annual membership meeting in Washington, D.C. next April; (3) cooperating with translation of the last ATJ Occasional Papers, on Education and Professional Development for Japanese Language Teachers, into Japanese by Nihongo Kyoiku Gakkai; (4) cooperating with a 3-hour Bi-National Conference on Teacher Education and Technology sponsored by Japan's Cultural Affairs Agency (Bunkacho) on November 4, 2001; (5) participation in the National Standards Collaborative Project; (6) participation in JNCL-NCLIS advocacy and lobbying activities; (7) participation in New Visions in Foreign Language Education, a joint project of the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University and ACTFL. Heritage SIG co-chair Hiroko Kataoka reported that the SIG, which was formed last March formally, has set up a listserv and is discussing a variety of issues, but has not taken action at this time. SIGs can hold meetings at AAS outside the times of regular AAS panels if they send requests to the ATJ office. Last year the Classical SIG and Heritage SIG had meetings.

Strategic Plan Review
The most recent Strategic Plan, from 1997, was discussed and additions and revisions suggested in several priority areas. 1) "Gathering and Disseminating Information" should include expanding participation in the ATJ Seminar; ongoing fieldwide discussions; holding a joint Board meeting; participating in national organizations; classroom materials publications; the e-newsletter; occasional papers publications; more regular publication of listserv information in the Newsletter; publication of information on internships in the newsletter and on the website; developing an information questionnaire for Bridging recipients for feedback on programs / link with advanced assessment project which includes pre- and post-testing of students in Japan. 2) "Advocacy" should include outreach to administrators; providing of information on teacher language skills and abilities; working with INTASC (Interstate New Teacher Assessment Consortium) and NBPTS (National Board for Professional Teacher Standards); helping graduates of certification programs to find jobs by producing an information resource packet for newly accredited teachers about finding jobs; using regional associations to reach candidates and schools producing new teachers; letting state education departments know that they can advertise with NATJ, NCJLT to recruit teachers. Lobbying for designation of Japanese as a critical language? 3) "Infrastructure and Networking": Post-basic Framework should be completed and published. Stronger connections with regional organizations. Make some parts of website password-protected. Closer relationship and information exchange with Nihongo Kyoiku Gakkai (by ATJ Board member serving as liaison?). Publish list of resources on Japanese teaching on website. Collect information on Bridging students and JET alumni and let them know about opportunities in Japanese studies and the language teaching field. 4) "Teacher Training and Development": Continue to work through Alliance on professional development projects and resources for teachers. Develop distance education courses for upper-level students (or teachers); connect people to existing programs like those at Ohio State University, California State University-Monterey Bay, SUNY-Buffalo. Collect information on experts and expertise and direct people to them (examples: CARLA database of experts). Develop an on-line directory of university programs and their areas of strength.

New Business
Seminar Committee Report (McGloin): Call for Papers has been distributed. On-line submission possible through the website for the first time this year. Board members will be asked to read abstracts. Agreement to charge presenters up to a certain amount for the use of some AV equipment like LCD projectors. The amount charged will be determined by the Seminar Committee. The Committee will also consider a keynote speaker who will attract attendees.

Bylaws Committee Report
The Bylaws Committee (Falsgraf, Kubota, Thornton) presented the proposed changes to the Bylaws in the areas of (a) officers; (b) Board membership; (c) election procedures; (d) nominating committee. The changes proposed are to serve the purpose of decentralization (moving from having a group of appointed officers at a single institution), facilitating transitions (by having a president elected by the entire membership serve one year as president-elect, one as president, and one as past president), efficiency (by having an executive director and a smaller Board + officers, 12 instead of the present 19), and diversity of representation (by having one designated seat on the Board reserved for each of the 4 fields of expertise - literature, linguistics, pedagogy, pre-college). Lengthy discussion and votes on each of the changes resulted in a revised version of the Bylaws that was voted on as a whole. Motion to approve passed by a vote of 10 in favor, 2 abstentions. The revised Bylaws will be mailed to the full membership by the end of October with ballots. Votes will be returned by November 30. Discussion of transition from old to new system if revised Bylaws are approved. Motion to ask Rodd to serve one more year as president, with person elected next spring to serve a three-year term as president-elect for one year and then as president was passed by a vote of 10 in favor, 2 abstentions.