[The minutes of the September 2002 Board meeting were inadvertently omitted from an earlier issue of the Newsletter. We are including them at this time for the record.]
September 28, 2002. Attending: Rodd, Wetzel (Officers); Falsgraf, Jacobsen, Johnson, Kubota, Larson, Matsunaga, Miura, McGloin, Nakajima, Thornton, Watanabe (Board); Jones, Nara, Vance (Journal); Schmidt (Secretariat). Absent: Thompson, Washburn (Board); Brown, Strong (Journal). Meeting called to order at 9:15 a.m. Minutes of the previous meeting, in April 2002, were accepted as corrected.
- President's Report
- President-Elect's Report
- Membership Report
- Financial Report
- Journal Report
- Seminar Committee Report
- Nominating Committee Report
- Heritage SIG Report
- Bridging Project Report
- New Business
President’s Report on projects currently being undertaken by the Association: (1) LangNet project—the National Foreign Language Center project, started a few years ago, features materials collection and posting on Web for access by teachers and learners (independent, etc.). A new committee (partly old one and partly new) will work with revised and (possibly) more workable software for the database, which may be useful to teachers looking for materials for particular students, e.g. heritage students; useful to publishers who want their materials endorsed by the field; useful to independent learners. Web-based materials; textbooks; learning modules or units are emphasized. Nakajima mentioned that Heritage SIG members might be interested in working on this.
(2) Advanced assessment project (funded by Japan-US Friendship Commission) to find out how advanced students are getting there and look at study abroad institutions to see how they are contributing to development of advanced skills. Teams of the advisory committee (Seiichi Makino, Mari Noda, Laurel Rodd, Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, Pat Wetzel) went to five institutions in Japan and reported on them; DLPT and OPIs were used to assess student listening and reading skills around the US and in Japan at study abroad programs. Survey info and data analysis are with NFLC; final objective is to tie individual data with the institutional assessments. Preliminary institution report is finished and will be submitted and distributed. NFLC agenda may be to tie these findings to the Russian findings they have. It was suggested that the report might be published as an Occasional Paper.
(3) JNCL-NCLIS is lobbying organization for foreign language field; Alliance is representative for the Japanese field. A main activity is annual meeting in DC to lobby and advocate for foreign-language education. Each organization can send as many representatives as it wants. The 2003 meeting will be May 8-10.
(4) NCOLCTL. The National Council of Organizations of less Commonly Taught Languages was founded in the early 1990s to help institution building among LCTLs. Initial funding from Ford Foundation; NFLC supports a staff position. Annual conference originally in DC but now collaborating with NLRCs; UCLA will hold next conference (May 2-4, 2003); theme will be focus on the learner.
President-Elect’s report: Wetzel has spent six months since the election getting up to speed on what the office does and what the President’s duties are. A major theme is relation between the professional organizations; ATJ/ Alliance/NCJLT, etc. Questions to be answered: What should the incoming president do? What is the organization’s role? Wetzel attended a meeting in Washington during the summer for the advanced assessment project; she has been involved in the Bridging Project; she will chair ATJ’s sponsored Roundtable session at 2003 AAS on study abroad in Asia. By April she plans to develop a statement of what she intends to do as president. The secretariat will endorse proposals for Japanese content at other conferences and also at AAS if people want support for proposals. The Post-basic Framework, on which Wetzel has done a final edit, will go on the web soon, and may be published as an Occasional Paper.
Current membership stands at 865 (608 Regular members, 93 Student members, 134 Institutional members, 20 Complimentary members, and 10 Retired members). Discussion centered on ways to promote membership and increase numbers. Ideas included promoting membership at the annual conference of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies (AJLS) and at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS); giving a $5 rebate to people who bring in other members; promoting membership among graduate students; promoting gift memberships. The following steps were decided on: (1) forming a Literature SIG; (2) creating a message about ATJ membership that Board members can forward to their grad students; (3) sending notes to departments that post job openings on our website; (4) putting a "teaser" about membership on the home page of the web site; (5) exhibiting at the next AAS conference.
The Association is in good financial shape, with funds available in checking and money market accounts totaling $202,911.11. Large expenditures so far this year included a deposit to the University of Colorado, which administers salaries and overhead expenses, mailing and telecommunications costs. Discussion of the financial implications of moving the office from place to place each year under the new presidency system. Conclusion that the office should stay in Colorado for the time being. The secretariat will need some oversight from Board members (topic to be returned to under New Business.) A handbook for Board members will be produced this year.
(Vance, Nara, Jones present): Copies of Table of Contents for April 2002 issue (to be mailed shortly) were distributed. Issue was delayed because of lack of submissions. Board members should encourage colleagues and grad students to submit manuscripts—especially needed in literature. Acceptance rate in linguistics and language teaching is low (more articles rejected than accepted), partly because people who are just starting their careers are sending "unfinished" work. Tim will remind everyone by email to solicit articles. An article inviting submissions will appear in the next newsletter. Schmidt will attend AJLS conference in October and ask attendees to consider submitted to JLL. Exhibit at next year's AAS conference will feature JLL.
Suggestion of cross-promotion with "Nihongo Kyoiku" subscribers. A Board member might attend Nihongo Kyoiku Gakkai conference to exhibit and solicit journal submissions. Are dual memberships (with break on dues) a possibility? It was noted that NKG members are most mostly linguistics and pedagogy specialists, not literature scholars and teachers. It was suggested that we also look into coordinating with Japanese studies organizations in Europe.
Schmidt will investigate the cost of exhibiting at AAS, and NKG will be invited to send materials for distribution at the exhibit. • All Board members should check and see if their library subscribes to JLL (and make sure it does). • The April 2003 issue of JLL will be a special issue on Sociocultural Issues in Teaching Japanese. • An on-line searchable index of journal contents is being prepared by the ATJ office. • A special issue of JLL in memory of Marian Ury (edited by Haruo Shirane) has been proposed in the past; editors will check on the status of the issue.
All back issues of the journal (from Vols. 1 to 33) will be online in October as part of the JSTOR digitized journal project begun by MLA. University libraries that subscribe to JSTOR's Language & Literature group of 47 journals will have automatic access to JATJ. The editors of the journal recommended that individual access be offered to ATJ members under a special program developed by JSTOR. Jacobsen moved that members be offered individual access for an experimental period of one year at no cost. Johnson seconded; the motion was approved. The office will work with JSTOR to set up the program, which will require passwords for members in order to have access to the database.
The office will supply business cards and letterhead to the Journal editors.
Seminar Committee Report: Seminar committee report: Each paper/panel proposal will be reviewed anonymously by three reviewers, who will recommend, recommend with reservations, or reject. Categories will be listed for the reviewing process. All Board members will be asked to identify specialties in which they are willing to review proposals. People who submit proposals will not be asked to review other proposals. Panel proposals will be evaluated based on coherence and unity of the panel as well as quality of individual papers. The proposals will again be submitted online; the deadline is October 25. ATJ will pay for all AV equipment except LCD projector; presenters will be billed for using LCD. Sessions which were organized as panels will have a "chair"; others will have a "moderator" who will preside and introduce presenters. Ideas are being considered for an invited lecturer to cap the day's sessions. There is no budget for inviting speakers, but possible to pick up some expenses.
The committee is charged with nominating at least two candidates for president-elect + candidates for the three open board positions. The incoming 2003 Board will lack a pre-college/ community college representative, so there will be a separate category for that on the ballot; at least two candidates are needed for that category. Other nominees will run for at-large positions. Board members asked to suggest names of possible candidates. Schmidt will remind all Board members asking for suggestions (with specializations of suggested candidates). The membership will also be asked to suggest candidates. The committee needs to submit a list of candidates by December 1.
Meetings have been held at AAS in DC; at CASTEL/J; in New York at NECTJ (autumn). A mini-grant was received from NCOLTCL. Five papers will be presented at the National Heritage Languages Conference in October. A grant pre-proposal has been submitted to the Sociological Initiatives Foundation.
70 scholarships were awarded in spring 2002, bringing total scholarships awarded since 1999 to 250; fundraising continues, and the project has been re-funded by the Japan-US Friendship Commission. Deadline for fall applications is October 3. Board members who serve on the selection/advisory committee (Larson, Matsunaga, Watanabe) were thanked; other volunteers were requested.
The meeting split at 11:00 a.m. into standing committees: Nominating Committee (Kubota [chair], Falsgraf, McGloin, Nakajima, Thornton) and Seminar Committee (Watanabe [chair], Jacobsen, Larson, Matsunaga). New Board members Johnson and Miura joined the committees as observers. Motion by Wetzel to suspend bylaws stipulation of a 6-member Nominating Committee until Board membership number is fully compliant with Bylaws (2004). It was noted that in future it would be good to have one member of each committee continue the following year for the sake of continuity.
New Business: Discussion of Board responsibilities and volunteer positions: financial help and consulting; membership (how to attract new members / serve existing members better); newsletter reminder persons who will gather regional news. It was suggested that regional databases be created for e-mailing members in regions to solicit news.
Discussion of dual membership: Wetzel will talk with Nihongo Kyoiku Gakkai about various kinds of cooperation including events, exhibits, joint membership, and announcements in newsletter of NKG events of possible interest to ATJ members.
Suggestion that new SIGs be formed for Pedagogy of Literature and Study Abroad.
Ideas were suggested for future Occasional Papers: Language & Study Abroad; Post-basic Framework.
Board Handbook: A handbook for Board members will be published this year. It will include: bylaws; history of organization (statements from past presidents); list of past presidents; information about SIGs, Alliance; translation of the acronyms (national organizations, etc.); explanation of committees and other jobs; journal organization and publication; list of responsibilities of Board members (including advocacy, drumming up members, & journal submissions). A past Board member will be asked to edit the handbook.