Dear MW-Member,

I’m writing to let you know what’s been going on with our group recently.

We’ve been working hard on improving our online presence and hopefully soon be revealing a new look for our website and a new online discussion group. Also, we are working on finalizing the latest issue of Between the Keys. We hope to have it out to you soon. Once we have the latest issue published, we will announce a call for submissions for the next issue.

We’ve also been working on the planning for the Pan-SIG conference this summer. It will be held at the Higashi Hiroshima campus of Hiroshima University on June 16-17, 2012. The deadline for presentation proposals is coming soon, February 29, 2012. Proposals can be submitted HERE.

For more information, please see the conference website: http://pansig.org/2012/

This weekend I attended the JALT Executive Board Meeting (EBM) and represented our SIG. For those who don’t know, JALT is mandated by NPO rules to hold an EBM three times a year, usually February, June and at the conference. The national directors, representatives from each chapter and SIG and other national officers get together to talk about issues affecting JALT and discuss plans for the conference, other events, publications, etc. In other words, to do the ‘business’ of JALT.

At the EBM this last weekend, we discussed many things and I am happy to announce a few to you now. First, we had lots of discussion about ways to improve the JALT experience for our members and how we can better serve our community, including approving the national budget and some changes to the national website.

Also, we were informed by the president that the constitutional changes voted on by the general membership in 2010 were approved by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and we now have a fully up-to-date constitution. You can find JALT’s constitution HERE.

Finally, the Director of Membership and the Director of Publicity, with the permission of the EBM, have created a membership campaign starting in March and running until August. Every member who renews their membership for five years will be entered into a drawing to win a conference waiver, valued at ¥17,000. Look for more details about this campaign coming from JALT national.

If you would like to see some images from the EBM, please check out this wonderful video made by Kim Horne HERE.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or any of the other officers of the MW SIG.

Thank you for your continued support of the Materials Writers SIG

Cameron Romney

Coordinator