Issue 8-1
Officers’ Reports

Looking Back: Accomplishments in 1998
*JALT98
*TMIT Mini-Workshop
*CALL N-SIG Publications

Minutes of the 1998 CALL N-SIG Annual
General Meeting

The 1998 CALL N-SIG AGM Minutes
Date & Time: Sunday, November 22nd, 1998
Place: Sonic City, Omiya, Saitama

This meeting was called to order at 6:31, presided by Elin Melchior, CALL Coordinator. Officers present: Paul Daniels, Paul Lewis, Bryn Holmes, Malcolm Swanson, and Kevin Ryan.

1. Old Business

1.1. The 1998 CALL conference
Despite the last minute absence of our guest from Australia, the program was full with over 25 different sessions. 28 people presented at the conference. They were joined by 66 attendees on Saturday, May 30th. 19 of the 66 returned on Sunday, May 31st and were joined by 15 more attendees. Of the 81 people who paid to attend the conference, 54 were members of the CALL NSIG.

People who answered the survey at the conference want the CALL NSIG to provide: one day workshops (10 people); a software review archive (10); local chapter presentations (9); a CALL resource handbook (7); workshops in schools (4); more newsletters (4); con-ference proceedings (4); list of troubleshooters to help with problems (1).

The conference cost 80,912 yen. This cost was split between West Tokyo- Tokyo, Mr. Wada and the CALL NSIG. The CALL NSIG paid for 7,476 yen of the 80,912 yen. Kevin said that these figures are incorrect and that the CALL NSIG actually made a small amount of money.

1.2 Books
- CALL: Basics & Beyond
450 books were printed at a cost of 365,620 yen. About 150 books remain.

- Teachers, Learners, and Computers: Exploring Relationships with CALL
600 copies have been printed for 360,000 yen. Plans for advertising are underway. Paul reported that 236 pages and 600 pages were printed for the same price as last year's proceedings even though there were 150 more books and 60 extra pages. We've sold 70,000 yen worth of books already and should sell out the 600 soon. All were asked to help advertise. Elin reported that Bryn had created a library request form so that people could ask their school libraries to buy a copy of the book.

1.3 JALTNET
Can we change the focus of this list? If not, how can we create a CALL NSIG list? Should the CALL NSIG list be closed? We will make new lists as soon as possible. We will not use the JALTNET list for other than its original purpose, which was to create a forum for JALT web page authors and mailing list owners.

1.4 Librarian
At the May CALL conference, we decided that a librarian was not a feasible post at this time.

2. Officer Reports

2.1 Coordinator
Elin reported that she was very pleased with this year's progress which would be discussed in this meeting.

2.2 Program Chairs
Bryn reported that she and Paul Daniels had done their best to complete Scott Rule's plans and to work on more programs such as the Kyoto conference.

2.3 Newsletter Editor
Kevin reported that 3 online newsletters were completed and 2 brief informational newsletters were sent out by mail. The membership should decide whether it should be this way or whether more needs to be printed on paper.

2.4 Finance Chair
Neal Jost could not attend but the Coordinator presented the finances. Elin reported that the 384,585 yen that we currently have will be used up by pending expenses. The intake from the conference should put us at about 0 in January.

Officers have not been good about turning in receipts. Neil needs receipts not only for outgoing money, but also for incoming money. Clear receipts must be written for every monetary transaction that takes place.

2.5 Membership Chair
No report

2.6 Telecommunications Chair
No report

3. New Business

3.1 Amendments to the CALL NSIG Constitution

3.1.1. New Chairs
Should the new chairs be elected or appointed? Also, should PastChair positions be instituted? These people would serve as advisors to the current chairs. How about a committee like the TESOL CALLIS has? These people could be added to the officer mailing list and then more people could help out with projects and decisions.

a. Publications Chair
The Publications Chair shall foster and coordinate publications within the CALL NSIG, this shall include, but not be limited to, newsletters, books, online resources, and software. S/he shall be responsible for obtaining ISBN and ISSN numbers for publications. S/he shall be responsible for establishing and maintaining relations with JALT Associate Members.

Elin stated that the publications need to be coordinated. And that Kazunori Nozawa has been working on CALLEJ without the support of the CALL NSIG. We need to work together and coordinate all the internet and paper publications with which we are involved.

b. Publicity Chair
The Publicity Chair shall be responsible for keeping uptodate flyers, brochures, and press releases for the NSIG and the various NSIG activities. S/he will keep a list of pertinent media contacts for announcement purposes.

c. Japanese Language Coordinator
The Japanese Language Coordinator shall work with the Publicity Chair to make sure that all flyers, brochures, and press releases are also available in Japanese. S/he shall coordinate with the Telecommunications Chair to ensure that there is Japanese on our website. S/he shall coordinate with the Program Chair to make sure that the CALL NSIG program includes events in the Japanese language.

James Wada volunteered a former student of his, Tomoko Arai. Tom Robb stated that LLA already provides this service. Elin stated that all previous presentations in Japanese have been by invitation. Marie Cosgrove volunteered to help. David Kluge asked to ask Japanese members. Some people said it may be helpful to have some things in Japanese—it may encourage people to volunteer. Some things have to be done in Japanese like "koen meigi", so there is a need. A bilingual home-page does not double the presentation time. Bryn Holmes said it would be ideal to function in both languages. James Wada said that it is difficult to find volunteers. We should have people helping out—it's a matter of finding that person. David Kluge said that "helping out" is patronizing and we have to work together. Elin said that there are very few Japanese names in the membership database. Bryn Holmes said that we have to have the door open for them to come and volunteer.

Vote (members only)

Publications Chair: 29 for, 1 opposed

Publicity Chair: 28 for, 0 opposed

Japanese Language Coordinator: 26 for, 1 opposed

d. Should these positions be elected or appointed? (All three are appointed or elected.) David Kluge said we should try to avoid an "old boy system". Paul Lewis said we should have elections. Kevin Ryan said there are logistics problems with coordinating. It was stated that all positions should be on the same footing and that the new positions should be appointed at first.

Vote (members only)

Should the new positions be appointed? 12 for, 16 for elected positions

3.1.2. Redefinition of existing Chair descriptions
a. Membership Chair
The Membership Chair shall be responsible for registering and renewing membership, keeping membership information provided by members, maintaining a comprehensive and uptodate list of the membership, databasing for internal analysis, and forwarding membership information to the appropriate JALT officers. S/he shall also be responsible for mailings to the members.

Vote (members only)

To change Membership Chair description 32 for, 0 opposed

b. Telecommunications Chair
The Telecommunications Chair shall foster and coordinate telecommunications among CALL NSIG members. S/he shall be responsible for the CALL NSIG website which shall be updated at least three times a year. S/he shall coordinate with the Newsletter Editor to share information and content. S/he shall coordinate the CALL NSIG mailing list.

Vote (members only)

To change Telecommunications Chair description 28 for, 0 opposed

c. Newsletter Editor
The Newsletter Editor(s) shall work with the CALL NSIG newsletter staff and publicationsrelated officers in editing and publishing at least 3 regular newsletters or special publications of this organization per calendar year. At least 3 of these publications shall be in print form. Why should we use paper? Kevin Ryan said that the internet newsletter will save money, but there were some problems. Why not only the web? It's being done. David Kluge said that not everybody has Internet access now, and since everyone can access the web, why have a CALL NSig or why belong to one. It was suggested that we mail only to those who do not have internet access. Someone said that while it is inconvenient for use to print our news-letters, people need to have publications printed in paper for their uni-versity requirements. We have two options really, to have no printed matter or to have some printed matter. Paul Lewis said that we will be losing advertising income if we go strictly online.

Vote (members only)

To print at least three things a year 24 for, 2 opposed

3.1.3. Addition to Nominations, Elections, and Removals
In the event of a position going unfilled after the AGM, the CALL NSIG Coordinating Committee shall have one month to find candidates for the position. Ballots in the case of a contested position may be sent by fax, mail, or email to the designated elections officer, a Coordinating Committee member not contesting the position. Elin made a correction in the sentences printed above. It was changed to "In the event of a position going unfilled after the AGM, the CALL NSIG Coordinating Committee shall have one month to find candidates for the position. In the case of a contested position, the CALL NSIG Coordinating Committee will vote. Ballots may be sent by fax, mail, or email to the designated elections officer, a Coordinating Committee member not contesting the position." Vote (members only)

To add the above to the constitution 27 for, 0 opposed. Elin announced that there was not enough time to dis-cuss new business, but the discussion would be continued online. Items BG were tabled.

3.2 The annual CALL conference

3.2.1. CALLing Asia
CALLing Asia, the 4th Annual JALT CALL NSIG Conference on Computers and Language Learning, will meet May 22-25. Workshops and various other types of computer presentations will be held in the brand new `StateoftheArt' computer facilities at Kyoto Sangyo University in Kyoto. The deadline for submitting conference presentation proposals is February 7th. More information about submitting a proposal can be found at <http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/c@ll/conferences/call99>.

3.2.2. The conference in 2000 Tokyo?

3.3. Getting our own website
Rationale: There are many things we cannot do at Chubu because of the nature of the server there. See the options below and choose one to best complete the motion.

3.3.1. Moved that the CALL SIG make an additional site on the Internet to supplement our current one at Chubu University. Approve both authority and funds for one appointed CALL member to carry out the setup of this web site to:

a. Get a minimal 12 email accounts for the price of 510$ a month plus setup fee of $100. This is primarily to reserve our domain name before it is taken by someone else.

b. Get a standard web account under the domain name jaltcall.org for approximately $20 a month plus setup fee of $100. This includes normal web exposure with ability to send audio and video files, form extensions and database facilities for collecting and disseminating information.

c. Get an extended web account under the domain name jaltcall.org for approximately $40 a month plus setup fee of $100. This includes normal web exposure with ability to send audio and video files, form extensions and database facilities for collecting and disseminating information. In addition this includes capabilities for credit card sales of publications and other CALL SIG productions.

3.4 Electronic distribution of newsletters
While we haven't had much response from CALL members on this subject. The feeling of the officers is that we need several written publications in a year.

3.5. Sister CALL labs in Asia for research purposes and for student projects Thai TESOL? Connections in Asia?

3.3. Secondary School CALL TMIT workshops

3.4. Software Authoring Project Proposal
A CD of multimedia software created by NSIG members. A workshop to help create the CD.

3.5. A new book
Something along the lines of Recipes for Tired Teachers (Addison Wesley Publishing House) and the TESOL Ways series. Lots of one page ideas. Possibly a two year project involving the Asian CALL groups which would follow on nicely from the CALLing Asia theme of the Kyoto conference and tie in very well with the PanAsia JALT conference in Fukuoka in 2001.

3.6. Ideas from the floor

4. Elections

4.1. Nominations

4.1.1. Previously nominated:
Coordinator Bryn Holmes, Program Cochairs Patricia Thornton and Larry Davies, Telecommunications Chair Paul Daniels, Finance Chair Neal Jost, MemberAtLarge Elin Melchior

4.1.2. From the floor
David Dycus was nominated for Newsletter Editor. Paul Lewis was nominated for Publications. Marie Cosgrove and Tomoko Arai were nominated for Japanese Language Cocoordinators. There was no one nominated for Publicity Chair.

4.2. Elections
Vote (members only)
The nominees were unanimously elected in a slate election. 31 for, 0 opposed.

-Submitted by Elin Melchior

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