From the President

September 1999

Source: CLTA Newsletter 23.2. September 1999.

Greetings GEWEI from your sadly harassed end-of-the-millenium president. In this issue of the newsletter you will find the results of a hotly contested election, with news of the next crop of dedicated individuals who will lead the association forwards, into the dawn of the new millenium. Congratulations to the new officers, the elections committee and the association, for the impressive new slate.

You also have a message from past-president Scott McGinnis, who is leaving academia to become the equivalent of a full-time strategist for the Chinese language teaching profession. I am confident that, with Scott’s input, the next few years will be dynamic ones for our field.

I have taken as my major charge for CLTA the production of an officer’s handbook, so that procedural knowhow and institutional records of the association can be readily accessible in writing. The handbook will be presented to the Board of Directors at the November meeting in Dallas, and will, I hope, help guide directors and officers in the future. Given the convenience of editing on computer, I also expect that the handbook will be updated and expanded regularly.

To date, the handbook includes information on the following:

* Board Meetings (frequency and location of board meetings)
* Board Members & Officers (listing of names of all board members and officers since 1991)
* Budget & Finance (Annual budgets & financial statements since 1993)
* By-laws (current)
* Dues (immediate past and current dues structures)
* Minutes of Board Meetings (complete minutes of annual meetings since 1993)
* Monograph Guidelines (draft, as proposed by the 1998-9 monograph committee)
* Newsletter (article submission information; names of current and two most recent editors)
* Nominating Committee Procedures (as proposed by current nominating committee chair)
* Program Committee Procedures (as proposed by current program committee chair)
* Walton Fund (as described by current fund curator)
* Website (as described by current webmaster)

I thank executive director Madeline Chu, past-president Scott McGinnis, committee chairs and other members of the board for their input. To submit additional information for the manual, or to request a draft copy for review, please contact me at cyndy@hawaii.edu.

Best wishes for a productive fall semester.

Cyndy Ning