Due to technical issue with the original link to our voting poll, and we are re-administering this vote using the Election Buddy system.
You should have received a message entitled “Vote Now! — Holding CLTA’s Annual Meeting Independent of ACTFL” from ElectionBuddy.com
There is a link in the message for you. Please click it and vote. It will only take you one minute.
Thank you for your attention and support.
Dear CLTA members:
On September 21, 2016, on behalf of the CLTA Board, I sent out a message of “Asking for a vote on holding a CLTA annual conference independent of the ACTFL” to the CLTA members.
Recently, we received a few inquiries regarding what relationship between CLTA and ACTFL would be like if CLTA starts to hold its own annual conference independent of ACTFL. If you have the same question, please refer to the Qs and As below. If you have other questions, please send them to clta@uvm.edu. We will answer your question as soon as we can.
Thank you,
Helen Shen
CLTA President
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Questions and Answers
Q1: The message from President Shen states that “CLTA will remain as a partner of ACTFL and will continue to support ACTFL for its conventions.” Could you let us know whether CLTA will still be part of ACTFL annual convention with ACTFL like we have been doing thus far if CLTA organizes its conference independent of ACTFL?
A1: The answer is “yes.” CLTA will continue its usual collaboration with ACTFL regardless of the voting result. Please be assured that CLTA members can continue to attend the annual ACTFL convention while CLTA remain a convention partner for ACTFL. CLTA now has more than 800 members, and the Board is asking members’ opinion on holding an additional annual conference independent of ACTFL. If a majority vote is in favor of holding an annual conference independent of ACTFL, this independent annual conference will replace the CLTA International Symposium, which was held in October 2014 and in April 2016.
Q2: I am a new member, could you explain a bit more about the context of this issue?
A2: Before 2013, CLTA had been holding its annual conference in conjunction with ACTFL convention. Since 2013, ACTFL has changed its policy. The role of each participating partner, including CLTA, in the convention is to assist and support ACTFL for running its convention. We actually can no longer claim that it is a CLTA annual conference in conjunction with ACTFL; rather, it is the ACTFL conference with CLTA as a partner to support it. The new policy has restricted CLTA to run its annual conference with desirable features stated in the CLTA President’s message to you. Because of its convention policy change, ACTFL also encourages CLTA to hold its own independent conference.
Background Information and Board’s Position
Dear CLTA members:
I am writing to ask you to vote on holding a CLTA annual conference independent of the ACTFL Annual Convention.
Background
The CLTA has been a sponsor of the ACTFL Convention since 1967. For nearly 50 years, the CLTA held its Annual Conference in conjunction with the ACTFL Convention. The ACTFL gave the CLTA autonomy for proposal solicitation and review, organizing panels and events, and hosting exhibitions and pre-conference workshops. The ACTFL provided the CLTA with services such as conference registration, hotel discounts, and facilities for presentations and meetings. Starting in 2013, the ACTFL stopped supporting the integrated annual conferences of its sponsors, focusing instead on its own annual convention. The partner organizations, including the CLTA, were no longer permitted to organize any of their own events at the convention. Every convention activity was organized under the umbrella of the ACTFL. All proposals had to be submitted directly to the ACTFL convention proposal process. The role of the CLTA, together with that of other partners, was reduced to assisting the ACTFL in less significant ways. In addition, the conference registration fee has become increasingly higher over the years.
The Board’s Position
For the best interests of CLTA members, the CLTA Board has tried repeatedly over the past three years to negotiate with the ACTFL to regain essential autonomy in organizing our events and activities during the CLTA Annual Conference in conjunction with the ACTFL Annual Convention. However, these efforts have been unsuccessful. We, therefore, believe that it is not possible for the ACTFL to meet the CLTA’s needs in the following respects:
- Set affordable registration fees to enable many more CLTA members, especially young scholars, university lecturers, school teachers, and graduate students to attend the CLTA Annual Conference;
- Offer our own pre-conference workshops to meet the diverse needs of our members;
- Organize keynote speech panels, plenary sessions, theme-based forums, and other types of events/activities to further academic exchanges and excellence;
- Have fundamental control over the call for proposals, proposal reviews, and panel session scheduling based on our organization’s needs;
- Allow non-CLTA international scholars to submit proposals and attend the CLTA Annual Conference;
- Strengthen ties and increase collaborations with organizations of Chinese language teachers in other countries and regions through annual conferences.
The members of the CLTA Board of Directors present at the Board meeting on November 19, 2015 voted unanimously in favor of the CLTA holding its own annual conference independent of the ACTFL and decided that the final decision will be made based on the result of a general vote among the CLTA members. The Board believed that an independent conference would serve CLTA members better and meet the demands of a fast-growing association. Given the fact that the CLTA has independently organized two international symposiums with great success, the CLTA Board is confident that the CLTA is entirely ready to hold its own independent annual conference with many new features to provide better support for our members’ academic advancement and professional development.
Therefore, the CLTA Board of Directors is now asking for your vote on this issue, and a final decision will be made based on the result.
It is important to note that holding an independent CLTA Annual Conference is not intended to change CLTA’s relationship with the ACTFL. The CLTA will remain as a partner of the ACTFL and will continue to support the ACTFL for its conventions.
Voting deadline: October 15, 2016
Thank you for helping the CLTA Board to make an important decision.
Sincerely,
Helen Shen, President
On behalf of
Chengzhi Chu, Immediate Past President
Chao Fen Sun, Vice President, Incoming President
Baozhang He, Incoming Vice President
John Jing-hua Yin, Executive Director
Board Members:
Nyan-Ping Bi, Chengzhi Chu, Jun Da, Baozhang He, Wayne Wenchao He, Song Jiang, Nan Jiang, Claire Kotenbeutel, Jianling Liao, Zhijun Wang, Yun Xiao, Yi Xu, Fangyuan Yuan