Inquiry: Formation of heritage SIGs for ACTFL

[McGinnis, Scott]

Good day, all,
 
I had a conversation with Christy Brown yesterday afternoon, who, as
many of you know, is the current president of ACTFL. Before her term
ends (in about a month!), she would like to start the wheels turning for
setting up a few new SIGs (Special Interest Groups) for ACTFL -
potentially including ones for heritage languages, both the immigrant
and indigenous constituencies.
 
There are a series of guidelines - in summary, it requires a mission
statement, a leadership structure, 100 potential members and a $5 fee
per member (you DO have to be a member of ACTFL to join an ACTFL SIG).
But there are fairly substantial benefits: at least one and (as space
allows) up to two session slots, plus a business meeting space,
twice-yearly dedicated space in the "Member News" section of FOREIGN
LANGUAGE ANNALS, and $300 annually to help SIGs cover expenses such as
postage for mailings to SIG members. I have the complete guidelines
document for anybody that is interested.
 
It is important to note that there is already a Spanish for Native
Speakers (SNS) SIG, and Christy is not looking to undercut the very
important work of that SIG. She merely recognizes (as we all do, and all
the more so now after the conference two weeks ago) that there are also
unique needs and conditions with respect to the heritage languages other
than Spanish, as well as some considerable differences between the
languages associated with immigrant populations and the AmerIndian
languages.
 
Recognizing full well that for a variety of reasons, many of you do not
belong to ACTFL and/or cannot attend the ACTFL annual meeting, I
nonetheless promised Christy that I would raise the issue with the
members of this list to see if anybody was interested in following up on
this. Even as the Heritage Languages Initiative continues to develop on
its own, our alliances with the other major national organizations such
as ACTFL are critical; indeed, I think it is a recognition of our own
health and strategic importance within the American language education
system that we are increasingly having these sorts of interactions.
 
Thanks for your time and attention,
Best,
s.
 
Scott McGinnis
Executive Director
National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages
 
Associate, LCTLs
National Foreign Language Center
7100 Baltimore Avenue, Suite 410
College Park, MD 20740
Voice: 301-403-1750 x35       Fax: 301-403-1754
E-mail: smcginnis at nflc.org OR sm167 at umail.umd.edu
WWW: www.councilnet.org OR www.nflc.org
 
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