TESOL Board Seeks Member Feedback on Interest Sections

In April 2015 the TESOL Board of Directors crafted a vision for knowledge-based member communities within TESOL, saying that such communities should:

• Cultivate knowledge for the field
• Increase the ability of members to identify and discuss professional issues relevant to their areas of interest
• Provide the means for this knowledge and information to be easily shared and disseminated both horizontally and vertically within the association
• Regularly provide information on current issues within the field to both leadership and staff to inform the programming and activities of the association
• Provide for different forms of groups relevant to their role and function (i.e. not a one-size-fits-all model)
• Support leadership paths for members
• Maximize the benefits from time and financial investment of members in TESOL International Association governance
• Align with, and advance, the association’s strategic plan

The board then struck an Interest Section Task Force (ISTF) charged with proposing options for models and structures that would achieve this vision. The ISTF Final Report presents the ideas generated by the task force based on their research of other associations’ models and the views of TESOL members.

The board now invites comments from the membership on these ideas as well as suggestions for the road ahead. We are particularly interested in ideas that members would see as both feasible and enhancing their association with TESOL International Association. Comments should be posted no later than 10 June 2016.

With the input from the report and this general discussion, the board will formulate a plan for achieving the vision outlined above. Before making a final decision, we will once again ask the interest sections and membership at large for comments on this plan beginning in November 2016, and we will have a face-to-face meeting at the 2017 TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo in Seattle.

Dudley Reynolds
President, on behalf of the TESOL Board of Directors

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/tesol-board-seeks-member-feedback-on-interest-sections/