The door is opening, albeit just a crack, unto spring. On the other side of the door is a season budding with opportunities for the KOTESOL English teacher to prime themselves for the new school year. Numerous KOTESOL events will be coming your way: monthly chapter meetings, annual chapter conferences, and the spring national conference!
With all the upcoming events preparing to blossom this spring, it may appear that KOTESOL was dormant during the winter months – but oh, not so. Much was going on behind the scenes to make our spring flower. On the first Saturday in December, the new National Council met in Seoul, setting a budget for our events and projects planned for 2018. On the following day, KOTESOL members from across the country gathered for our annual Leadership Retreat. “Retreat” is a misnomer as it conjures up visions of strolling into cabins in the countryside and cuddling up in a comfy armchair by the fireplace with a book or a pillow. Our Retreat was nothing like that. Braving the cold to converge on Seoul, members discussed KOTESOL’s major activities (conferences, publications, chapters, SIGs, membership, publicity, website), made many valuable suggestions, and volunteered to work on various committees. If you would like to contribute your talents but missed out on the Retreat opportunity, contact your chapter president or a national committee chair. Their contact information is available in the recently updated KOTESOL Directory on our website. A thank-you goes out to Second Vice-President Mike Peacock for organizing the Retreat.
Over the past several months, many of our chapters have elected and selected new officers, who didn’t wait for the spring thaw to spring into action. Planning is underway for at least three chapter conferences this spring: Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter, March 10; Seoul Chapter, March 31; and Busan-Gyeongnam April 21. Consider attending one or more of them. A thank-you goes out to the organizers of all these spring events.
By the time of publication of this issue, the chapter presidents will have held their annual February meeting. They will be sharing ideas, working on solutions to challenges, and discussing how they can better serve their members. In a bit of a change in format this year, chapter treasurers will also be at the meeting, gathering with the national treasurer to discuss a standardizing of chapter bookkeeping to dovetail with national records. A thank-you goes out to First Vice-President Michael Free and Treasurer Phillip Schrank for organizing this meeting.
Another event date to circle on your calendar is May 12, the 2018 KOTESOL National Conference. This year’s theme is “Crossing Borders: Korean ELT in the Modern World.” The plenary speaker will be the well-known Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto. Register online or on-site, but I do urge you to attend this premier spring event. A thank-you goes out to Stewart Gray and his team for putting together everything that goes into planning an event of this scope.
I have just mentioned some of the highlights of KOTESOL’s spring activities. Much more will be going on at our chapters. If last year is any indication, we will be having more than two dozen chapter-level events during the spring months. I cannot emphasize too much how important our chapters are to our organization. It is the work of our chapters, our chapter officers and chapter members, that makes KOTESOL so vibrant. Our members are essential to our organization. They are our lifeblood. Therefore, I would like to make this “KOTESOL Challenge” to each of us: to bring one new member to KOTESOL this year. I hope we are all up to the challenge!
And let us not forget our perennial challenge – that of professional development. In addition to the individual plans that you may be making, it is my hope that you will take advantage of our chapter, SIG, and national activities coming up this spring for your professional development. I hope to see you at one of our events.
[From The English Connection, President's Message, Spring 2018, 22-1]
Warmly,
Dr. David Shaffer
Korea TESOL President
