March 6, 2004, San Diego, CA
Present: Patricia Wetzel (president), Seiichi Makino (incoming president), Naomi Hanaoka McGloin (incoming president-elect), Laurel Rasplica Rodd (outgoing past president); Hiroko Furuyama, Wesley Jacobsen, Phyllis Larson, Lawrence Marceau, Sachiko Matsunaga, Ken-ichi Miura, Keiko Schneider, Chris Thompson, Suwako Watanabe, Yasuko Ito Watt (Board members); Tim Vance, Hiroshi Nara (Journal editorial committee); Susan Schmidt, Kathy Ajisaka (ATJ office).
Wetzel called the meeting to order at 7:10 a.m. Present: The minutes of the September 2003 meeting were approved as amended to correct the name of the Association of Japanese Teachers in Europe (AJE).
Wetzel thanked outgoing Board members Jacobsen, Larson, Matsunaga, Thompson, and Watanabe, as well as outgoing Past President Rodd. She announced the results of the 2003 election: incoming President-Elect Naomi McGloin; Board members Mutsuko Endo Hudson, Junko Mori, and Lindsay Amthor Yotsukura.
Outgoing President report: Rodd was nominated by ATJ for the Walton Award presented annually by the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL). A proposal for funding of an ATJ-sponsored 3-year study abroad research project was re-submitted to the Department of Education, with Dan Dewey of Pittsburgh as Principal Investigator; ATJ will be collaborating organization if project is approved. (Results will be announced in June.)
Wetzel turned the meeting over to incoming President Makino.
Incoming President report: ATJ and the Japanese education field can be characterized in terms of Triads: the three-person Executive Committee; the three main subject areas of members—literature, pedagogy, linguistics; and the three-organization matrix of ATJ/NCJLT/AATJ. 2004-05 has been declared the Year of Languages. For Japanese, the development of an AP program and continuing to work for inclusion of Japanese in the National Board Certification process for teachers are big agenda items.
Rodd mentioned that the Alliance has set up a Task Force to work on issues regarding the AP Japanese program. The College Board has started working to establish the program and is looking for outside funding and collaboration with the field. Wetzel proposed that the membership be asked for opinions about AP and how it will be structure and conducted; she will draw up questions to be sent to members.
Membership: Schmidt reported on efforts during the past year to recruit new members: publicity to AJLS members, promotional mailing to libraries, letters to individual ATJ members whose institutions’ libraries do not subscribe; letters to Japanese faculty who wrote recommendations for Bridging Scholarship applicants but are not ATJ members. Makino proposed that ATJ have a membership campaign— perhaps asking each current member to bring in one new member next year. Watanabe suggested that a membership form be included with each issue of the newsletter, and that it would helpful to include expiration dates on the labels used to mail newsletters. Nara suggested that Board members encourage faculty members to get their graduate students to join, or follow Pittsburgh’s example in offering memberships to teachers who attend outreach workshops. It was suggested that an email promotion message be sent to regular members encouraging them to get money from their institutions for graduate students.
Journal report: Vance reported that the next issue of the journal has been delayed slightly but will be ready soon: there were two special issues last year, so the next regular issue will be a big one. The Journal is looking for manuscripts. It was suggested that Board members be asked to listen to the papers in their specialties at next year’s Seminar and encourage the authors of the best presentations to submit them to the Journal.
New Committees: The Nominating Committee for the 2005 election will be the outgoing Board members (Johnson, Marceau, Miura) plus Past President Wetzel. Miura will chair the committee. The Seminar Committee will be Furuyama, Schneider, Mori, and Watt, plus Larson as liaison with past committee and the newly elected Board members. Watt will chair the committee.
The 2004 Seminar Committee (chaired by Johnson) was thanked for organizing a most successful Seminar. The Board agreed that summaries of all Seminar presentations should again be published as an Occasional Paper and mailed to members with the spring issue of the Newsletter.
SIG reports: The Professional Development SIG held a half-day workshop on TA training March 5 at UC- San Diego, as well as an evening business meeting. Next year the SIG would like a guaranteed panel slot at the ATJ Seminar. The Heritage SIG met briefly on March 4; the SIG is planning an on-line refereed journal and would also like a guaranteed slot at the Seminar.
The Classical SIG’s session on March 5 was attended by 20 people; the program included a presentation by Steven Carter. The SIG would like to post curriculum materials on the web site to be shared with others
The SAFAS SIG’s meeting on March 5 was attended by 17 people; discussion centered on the problems faced by students returning from study abroad. Notes on the meeting will be included in the next issue of the Newsletter. The SIG is co-sponsoring a small seminar at OSU on March 18 on advanced skills; notes will be sent out to members of the SIG listserv.
The Community College SIG’s meeting on March 4 was attended by a dozen people. It was pointed out that no data are collected on community college enrollments. It was suggested that the ATJ membership form differentiate between community college and four-year college faculty.
The results of the membership survey conducted in December and January have been compiled; a summary was handed out to Board members. The September Board meeting will feature an in-depth discussion of the survey results.
It was voted to hold the September Board meeting on September 18 (Saturday) in Toronto; Johnson has offered the University of Toronto as host venue.
The 2005 ATJ Seminar will be held Thursday, March 31, in Chicago in conjunction with the AAS Conference (March 31–April 3). A proposal for the ATJ-designated panel at AAS must be submitted by August 6.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:25.