The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. In attendance: Seiichi Makino (outgoing President); Naomi McGloin (incoming President); Wesley Jacobsen (incoming President-Elect); Patricia Wetzel (outgoing Past President); Board members Mutsuko Endo Hudson, Hiroko Furuyama, Yuki Johnson, Lawrence Marceau, Ken-ichi Miura, Junko Mori, Keiko Schneider, Yasuko Ito Watt, Lindsay Amthor Yotsukura; Journal coordinating editor Tim Vance; staff members Kathy Ajisaka and Susan Schmidt.

Makino thanked the members of the Seminar committee (Furuyama, Schneider, Watt, Mori, and past Board member Phyllis Larson) for their efforts in putting together a successful Seminar on March 31 in conjunction with the Association for Asian Studies conference. He also thanked retiring Board members Johnson, Marceau, and Miura for their service and thanked retiring Past President Wetzel for serving as the first president under the new triumvirate system.

The results of the 2005 election were announced. The President for (2006-07) is Wes Jacobsen. The new Board members, who will serve until 2008, are Janet Ikeda, Yoshiko Mori, and Eve Zimmerman.

The Minutes of the previous meeting (September 2005) were reviewed. Members were asked to send any corrections to the office by April 15. The corrected minutes will be published in the next issue of the newsletter (May 2005). Wetzel moved to approve the Minutes; Johnson seconded.

President’s report (Makino): Makino noted that three heads together are better than one, and said that the new triumvirate Executive Committee system seems to be working well. The organization should try the system for a few years before considering another change, he said. Makino turned the meeting over to the new President, Naomi McGloin.

Membership report: ATJ’s membership stands at 667 as of March 31, 2005. Of these, 431 were regular members, 26 were part-time faculty, 61 were student members, and 7 were retired faculty. There were 142 institutional members. Membership fluctuates during the calendar year, but usually reaches high of 850-900 members by August when most members (after several reminders) renew. This year is the first for the new membership category of part-time instructor; 26 have joined in that category (or switched to it). The ATJ Seminar always attracts some new members–about 20 this year–but most do not renew and retain their memberships. In the past year special membership campaigns have also been conducted in mid-year, aimed at (a) teachers who write recommendations for Bridging Scholarship applicants and are not already members, and (b) libraries at institutions where faculty are ATJ members.

Discussion: A membership campaign for pre-college teachers was suggested. Should we give lifetime memberships to past presidents? How can we get more literature people to be involved? Membership has changed–fewer literature specialists, and literature specialists do not teach language anymore.

Financial report: Income for 2004 (including grants, scholarship stipends, and membership dues and other regular income) totaled $496,724. (Of this, $370,000 was scholarship stipends, which were paid out immediately to students for Bridging Scholarships.) Expenses totaled $544,629 (including the $370,000 in Bridging Scholarship stipends). Expenses were in excess of income in 2004, partly because the organization returned $27,000 in unexpended funds from a grant received earlier. The Newsletter and Seminar also were major expenses. Because of carried-over funds, the organization had a total of $189,048 in its two bank accounts (checking and money-market savings) as of December 31, 2004.

In the discussion of finances it was noted that income had been received from the JSTOR online archive of back issues of the journal (about $1,500 each year) and from sale of mailing labels and ads in the newsletter and journal. These sources of income should be enhanced if possible. Costs for the ATJ Seminar vary from year to year based on the venue (some cities and hotels are more expensive than others); the 2005 Seminar will be costly because the venue is Chicago. The booth at AAS costs about $1,000 to rent and staff; ATJ has had a booth for the past 3 years, but it may not be worth the expense; not many new members are gained. The financial report was accepted.

Journal editor’s report: Journal Coordinating Editor Tim Vance reported that the April 2005 issue was about to be printed and should reach members in May. The past several issues of the journal have been very large (and heavy, requiring more postage), partly because of the large number of pages required to print the Dissertation Abstracts compiled (as a service to the field) by Frank Schulman. The Board agreed that while titles and authors of dissertations in foreign languages should continue to be included, it is not necessary to print abstracts that are in other languages than English. The type size for the dissertation abstracts will also be reduced. JSTOR income helps to defray some of the inreased printing and mailing costs.

In response to several questions on copyright of articles published in the journal, it was noted that authors of individual articles hold the copyright to their work and can reprint it freely. Similarly, Frank Schulman owns the copyright to the dissertation abstract compilations that he produces.

The October 2005 issue of the journal will be a special issue on linguistics edited by Kim Jones (University of Arizona) and Yoshi Ono (University of Alberta).

Newsletter report: The May newsletter will be published at the beginning of May and mailed together with the 2005 membership directory. In the past few years summaries of the ATJ Seminar presentations were published in the newsletter or separately as an Occasional Paper, but the Board agreed that for 2005 the summaries will be published on-line only.

Bridging Project report: The Japan-US Friendship Commission’s funding for the Bridging Project to encourage study abroad in Japan by American undergraduate students has been approved for another year. (This grant was first awarded in 1997 and has so far been renewed annually since then. It supports staff and administration for ATJ.) The scholarship stipends which go directly to students are funded by a separate grant from the US-Japan Bridging Foundation, a Friendship-Commission-initiated nonprofit that solicits donations from companies and foundations to support the students’ scholarships. Applications are currently being submitted for about 75 scholarships from students who will study abroad in Japan beginning in Fall 2005. More than 400 applications are expected by the deadline of April 4.

A 12-member selection committee reviews the applications and determines the recipients; the members of the committee include ATJ Board members, ATJ members-at-large, and a representative of the Japan-US Friendship Commission, which supports the program financially. Susan Schmidt, executive director of the Bridging Project, invited any Board member who is interested in serving on the committee to contact her.

Seminar committee report: Watt (chair of the Seminar committee) reported that 102 submissions had been received for this year’s Seminar. Proposals were reviewed by 24 specialist ATJ members, and about half of the proposals were accepted for the Seminar, which ended up consisting of 15 sessions. There were 50-80 participants in SLA and pedagogy panels, 10-15 participants in literature panels. Attendance at the Seminar was about 180 people. The ATJ-sponsored session at the overall AAS conference, on Japanese language teaching around the world, was not well attended.

Nominating committee report: Miura (chair of the nominating committee) reported that the committee’s goal was to have a slate of nominations by Nov. 1. Five people turned down the committee’s invitations to run for President (4) or Board member (1). By December 1 the candidate slate was complete. There were 16 nominations for the open at-large position, fewer for the two open literature positions. It is becoming more difficult to recruit candidates for president. The executive committee members were asked to participate in persuading people to be candidates. It was also suggested that the slate of candidates for President consist of 3 candidates rather than 2, if possible, to make the election seem less like a two-person popularity contest.

Committees: The Nominating committee for next year will be Watt, Furuyama, and Schneider.

The Seminar committee (Endo, Mori, Yotsukura) will be folded into the organizing committee for the International Conference in 2006.

The Board discussed the question of what activities might be scheduled at the 2006 AAS conference, in the absence of the Seminar (which will be replaced by the International Conference in August). It was suggested that the SIGs could meet and/or convene panels during the Thursday afternoon slot regularly used for the ATJ Seminar. The Board should also meet, and the regular general membership meeting should be held. The booth in the exhibit hall is also a possibility, although it has not been very successful at recruiting new members. It was noted that if we are to continue our affiliate relationship with AAS, we need to have a presence at the conference, which will be held April 6-9, 2006, in San Francisco. Further discussion was postponed until the September Board meeting.

Suggestions for the ATJ-sponsored panel at AAS included a session on literature and language teaching. ATJ members should be encouraged to submit proposals for the AAS conference, so that language will be well represented. ATJ can endorse proposals by members.

SIGs: The formation of a new SIG on culture was proposed by Makino, who offered to chair it. The new SIG was approved unanimously. The total number of SIGs now stands at 6 (Classical Japanese, Professional Development, Heritage Language, Study Abroad for Advanced Skills, Community College Teaching, and Culture).

International Conference: McGloin reported on progress in organizing the 2006 International Conference. An initial planning committee meeting was held in Chicago in November at the ACTFL conference, and a second meeting was held earlier on the day of the Board meeting, at the Japanese Consulate’s Japan Information Center. The program is being developed, with 8-10 invited panels, two or three keynote speakers, roundtables and panel and poster sessions to be included. Delegates will be invited from Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Australia, EU, Mexico, and Brazil–and perhaps others–to participate in a special session on Japanese language education around the world. The planning committee consists of representatives from the Boards of both ATJ and NCJLT, as well as other ATJ members who contribute special expertise.

Grant funding will be sought to finance the conference (which will also be supported by registration fees of approximately $50 per person). However, planning requires money, and the Board was asked to authorize the expenditure of up to $10,000 from the ATJ treasury for expenses incurred by the international conference. Authorization was moved by Endo, seconded by Yotsukura, and approved unanimously.

The next Board meeting is tentatively scheduled for September 17 in Madison, Wisconsin. The September meeting is a joint meeting with NCJLT, which is funded by a grant to the Alliance from the Japan-US Friendship Commission.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:12 p.m.