Learner Development SIG Annual General Meeting
Sunday, November 22rd 12:45 AM – 1:30 PM

Room 1001-1

1. Purpose● review, plan and discuss SIG budget, activities and goals● approve continuing or new officers for different committee positions and shadow positions● listen to SIG members’ concerns, suggestions, criticisms and comments

2. Co-coordination for 2016
Co-coordinators: ​Fumiko Murase & Alison Stewart
2A. 2014-2015 Co-coordinator Report (submitted by Fumiko Murase & Alison Stewart)
Since the JALT2014 Conference in Tsukuba, the LD SIG has continued to provide opportunities formembers to meet and discuss, research, publish, and contribute to learner development in theirclassrooms and beyond. Our role as coordinators has been to support the teams who contribute to
the smooth running of the SIG, to open up and maintain communication channels with the teams andthe membership generally, and to represent LD SIG members at JALT national executive meetings. We
would like to highlight some of the SIG’s major achievements of the year:● stable membership of about 200, supported by sustained personalized communication with

SIG members and subscribers (membership team)● grants awarded to members for conferences, research, and outreach (grants team); *excellent treasury administration (treasury team)● two regular issues of Learning Learning and one special issue -- Proceedings of LD SIG 20th

Anniversary Conference (LL editorial team)● two book publication projects (LD Working Papers and CLiLD), now available online with one(CLiLD) also available in print (publications team, editors and authors)● forums at national conferences (JALT2014, PanSIG, and JALTCALL), and an article in JALT2014

Conference Proceedings (programme team)

● planning for a new annual journal – The Learner Development Journal (Learner Development

Journal Steering Group)● JALT Journal Review mentoring scheme, a scheme initiated by JJ Reviews Editor Greg Rouault,

in which experienced writers in the SIG work with new writers to publish reviews in the JALT
Journal● a forum on the translation project at JALT2014, and an article in JALT2014 Conference

Proceedings; online publication of a collection of essays on 3.11 by children in Rikuzentakata,with a small print edition by a local Tohoku print company financed in part by contributions to
be raised at the Creating Community, Learning Together 2 event (see below)● regular meetings of the Tokyo get-togethers, which culminated in a successful

mini-conference “Creating Community: Learning Together” for teachers and their students in
December 2014, and the second mini-conference in December 2015 (Tokyo get-togetherorganizing team); regular meetings of Hiroshima get-togethers● discussions with LD members about (re)starting get-togethers in Kansai and Fukuoka. New

get-togethers starting in Kansai this year
● regular bilingual new announcements in The Language Teacher (publicity team)● regular monthly dialogue column on the LD SIG website by Jim Ronald and Naomi Fujishima● collaboration with other organizations in JALT: cosponsoring a featured speaker (Alice Chik)with Tokyo Chapter, cosponsoring film screening Tohoku Tomo with Tohoku chapters,
supporting THT project in Nepal.
These activities could not have been achieved without the great amount of time and effort voluntarily
offered by our hardworking committee members. We would like to thank everyone who has
contributed to the SIG activities over the past year.
One of our objectives in the past year has been to re-think the way LD manages its finances. There has
been a lot of discussion in the JALT executive meetings about the financial situation of theorganization as a whole, leading up to the hike in membership fees in September. At last year’s AGM,
it was agreed that we would cut our reserves in order to free up money for grants (conference,research and outreach), and sponsorship of a featured speaker at JALT. We have also maintained apolicy of self-financing, raising money from the JALT Development Fund for help in funding printed
editions of the two recently completed books, and for putting on the Creating Communities, Learning
Together mini-conference at Otsuma Women’s University.

JALT financial difficulty over the past year has meant that, as coordinators, we have covered our own
costs in attending some of the national meetings during the year, and have supported JALT’s decision
to claim a donation from each of the SIGs and Chapters. Now that the fees rise has come into effectand the structure of JALT has changed so that members get a free SIG membership as well as theoption to forego membership in a local chapter, how this will affect the SIG over the coming year or
two is still uncertain. We believe that the SIG will continue to attract and keep members as long as it
continues to be a welcoming and inclusive association that serves the interests and needs of its
members.
At the AGM in Shizuoka, we are stepping down after the two-year term as the co-coordinators, andMayumi Abe and Mathew Porter will take over the role. Mayumi was the lead treasurer in 2014 to2015, and Mathew has been lead editor of the past three issues of Learning Learning, as well as one of
the coordinating editors of the Rikuzentakata translation project. We are confident that we areleaving the coordination of the SIG in excellent hands.
Goals for 2016​(Written by Mathew Porter & Mayumi Abe)​
1. Represent the SIG within the larger JALT organization
2. Recruit new volunteers for SIG teams
3. Clarify team roles and strengthen cooperation between teams
4. Create materials/systems for strengthening institutional knowledge (e.g., basic job
descriptions/notes about past projects)
5. Support the launch of the LD Journal and clarify the purpose/content of LL
2B. To be approved at AGM:​______________ and _______________ as shadows for co-coordination from 2015​

3. Treasury
Treasury team: Huw Davies & Satomi Yoshimuta
3A. 2014-2015 Treasury Report ​(submitted by Huw Davies)
Achievements
Outwardly appearing calm when JALT National decided to take 93,000 yen from our account with little

warning.
Goals for 2016
● To communicate well together, and with other teams.
● To keep the account balance in the black.

IssuesHow can the SIG generate more revenue? The draft budget (below) shows another loss.
Do the value of the grants need to be restructured? PanSIG will be in Okinawa, is the current grantlarge enough?
When we have more information, we would like to discuss with other officers what the changes to
JALT membership and SIG membership costs will have on our finances.
Draft SIG budget for2016(April 2016 – March2017)

FY2015 Budget（April 2015March 2016）

FY2015 Actual（April 20156 November 2015）

FY2016 Budget(April 2016March 2017）

Table rental for JALT
National Conference-17,0000*-17,000

Shipping LD materials
to and from JALT
National Conference-10,0000*-10,000

Shipping fees forother events-20,000-4,876-20,000

LD web site cost(including domainname registration)-7,5000*-7,500Donation for Best of
JALT 2015-20,000-5,000

0

JALT Pan-SIG-40,000-40,000-40,000

Expensesconference grant(40,000 yen each)
JALT CALL conference
grant (1 x 40,000 yen)

-40,000-40,000-40,000

LD SIG research grant(1 x 25,000 yen)

-25,000-25,000-25,000

Outreach grants-40,000-40,000-40,000

National conference
grants (2 x 40,000
yen)-80,000-80,000-80,000

December informal
conference

0

0*

0

Co-sponsor a JALT
speaker-125,000-116,420

0

Get-together room
hire

-25,000-7,776-25,000

Publishing costs

0-227,880

0

Other miscellaneous-20,000-97,786[inc. 93,000 to JALT;
further 15,000 video atconference later]-20,000

SUB-TOTAL-469,500-684,738-317,000

Membership x 1500
yen

260,000

249,500

260,000

Book sales

0

76,0000Development fund
(CLILD publication)0

225,0000(2 x 20,000 yen)

Revenues

December informal
conference Creating
Community: Learning
Together00*

0

Other miscellaneous

023,531[inc. 23,514 fromPanSIG]

0

SUB-TOTAL

260,000

574,031*260,000

TOTAL (Projected
revenues – expenses)-209,500-110,707-57,000

Reserve liabilities

200,000

200,000

200,000

GRAND TOTAL-9,50048,985143,000

Balance ​(483,965 inMarch 2015: 230 cash
+ 283,735 in bankaccount + 200,000 as
reserve liabilities)

About 240,000
expected in March
2016 (About 38,250 inbank account +200,000 as reserve
liabilities)

373,450 in November
2015 (2,500 cash +170,950 in bankaccount + 200,000 as
reserve liabilities)

3C. For approval by AGMa) Approve Huw Davies (banking/OEC/email) and Satomi Yoshimuta (grants) as continued SIG
Treasurersb) Approve draft budget for 2016 [see above]c)​
Approve ______________ and _______________ as assistants/shadows from 2016

4. Membership Team ReportMembership team: Brandon Kramer, Ann Flanagan, Stephanie Corwin
4A. 2014-2015 Membership Report ​(submitted by Brandon Kramer)
Achievements*The process of updating and sending out letters went pretty smoothly, I think.
*We were available for individual communication when necessary.
*The files were organized in Google Docs for easier access.
*The membership update procedures were written and updated to make the transitions easier.
Goals for 2016
*Transition smoothly to the next committee*Revise welcome, 2-month renewal, 1-month renewal letters*Continue regular mail-outs, list updates, and personal communication when necessary
IssuesWhat is happening with the National membership database? This was discussed last year but it
doesn't seem like anything has changed. Perhaps it will be discussed at the Membership chair meetingon Sunday, however.
4B. For approval by AGMa) Approve Ann Flanagan (chair) and Stephanie Corwin as continued SIG membership team. Approve
Barrie Matte as a new member of the membership team.
b)​
Approve ______________ and _______________ as assistants/shadows from 2016

5. Grants
Grants team: Satomi Yoshimuta, Kris Sullivan , Jennie Morgan

5A. 2014-2015 Grants Team Report (submitted by Kris Sullivan )Achievementsa) Revision of the grants: We revised the explanation of each grant to further improve clarity, added
information about the selection criteria, added a Japanese translation for the Outreach Grant
explanation, and updated this information on the new SIG homepage. We also revised the deadlinesof the grants (particularly changing the subscription and membership grants to a rolling deadline) andchanged the criteria of the Outreach Grant to allow those receiving institutional research funds to also
apply.
b) Publicity of the grants: We advertised the grants to the SIG membership via the website andmailing list. We contacted other SIGs and Chapters and requested that they also promote the grants
to their members so that we could more widely publicize the grants and also attract applicants for the
Subscription and Membership grants. The grants were also advertised in the TLT with the aim ofreaching non-LD SIG members.
c) Awarding of grants: We communicated with grant applicants and potential applicants via thededicated email address, and as a team we assessed each application and selected awardees. We
contacted awardees regarding the receipt of the grant and the writing-up of their reports for Learning
Learning (in coordination with the Treasury and Publication teams) and we provided unsuccessful
applicants with feedback and information about other grant opportunities.
There were three applicants each for the PanSIG, CALL, International Conference, and Outreach
Grants, and two applicants for the Research Grant. The recipients are listed below. Although we madeattempts to more widely publicize the subscription and membership grants (which are targeted at
non-JALT members and non-LD SIG members respectively) and also introduced a rolling deadline to
make it easier for people to apply, there were no applicants for these two grant categories.
● JALT 2015 PanSIG Conference Grant (40,000 yen x1): Nicole Gallagher● JALT 2015 CALL Conference Grant (40,000 yen x1): Michael Sullivan● JALT 2015 International Conference Grants (40,000 yen x2): Paul Arenson; Bjorn Fuisting● LD SIG Research Grant (25,000 yen x1): Hiromi Tsuda● LD SIG Outreach Grants (20,000 yen x2): Greg Rouault; Alison Stewart

Goals for 2016
In general things seem to be running smoothly, so we aim to continue with our efforts, putting
particular emphasis on promotion of the grants. In particular, we hope to receive applications for thesubscription/membership grants and will further consider ways to promote these grants in order torealize this goal. We will try to widen the methods we have been using to promote these grants—for
example, by sending information about the grants to various graduate school programs or JET
associations.
Issuesa) Subscription/Membership Grants: We need to consider why there were no applicants for thesegrants. Is there actually a need for these grants? Should we continue to offer them? Is there anything
we can do to make the grants more attractive to make it more worthwhile for people to apply for
them?
These grants target non-JALT and non-SIG members, so advertising is an issue. We feel that members
need to be more personally involved in the promotion of these grants, by perhaps personallyintroducing the grants to colleagues or students (especially graduate students) who are eligible toapply. It seems that one of the main points of these grants is to attract new members to the SIG. If
this is indeed their purpose, then doing something to make it more worthwhile for people to apply forthe grants, and perhaps for current members to encourage colleagues to apply for the grants, may
need to be considered. (Some of our current SIG offers joined the SIG after receiving these grants, so
this is something that we should not forget). If the grants don't seem to be leading to an increase inmembership, perhaps alternative strategies need to be considered.
It is possible that with the raising of JALT membership fees some people might hesitate to join asecond SIG, and this could lead to more interest in at least the membership grants which are open
only to current JALT members.
Regardless of whether these grants are continued or not, we suggest that the SIG as a whole needs tocontinue to think of alternative ways to attract new members, from both within and outside the JALT
community.
b) Outreach Grants: With the winding down of the Tohoko and NGO Outreach projects there is a needto confirm whether the outreach grants need to be continued or not.
5B. For approval by AGMa) Approve Satomi Yoshimuta, Kris Sullivan , Jennie Morgan as continued SIG Grant team.
b)​
Approve ______________ and _______________ as assistants/shadows from 2016

6. Publications
Publications coordinators: James Underwood, Tim Ashwell
Learning Learning team: Mathew Porter, Monika Szirmai, Yoko Sakurai, James Underwood
6A. 2014-2015 Publications Team Report (submitted by Tim Ashwell)Achievements
1. LD Working Papers: In December 2014 ​Learner Development: Different Cases, Different
Interests​edited by​Andy Barfield and Aiko Minematsu was published online at the following​
dedicated website: http://ldworkingpapers.wix.com/ld-working-papers.
The contributors were: Yukiko Banno, Andy Barfield, Phil Benson, J.D. Brown, Peter Cassidy,
Robert Croker, Paul Crook, Nathan Ducker, Adriana Edwards Wurzinger, Chris Fitzgerald,
Judith Hanks, Chika Hayashi, Mike Hennessey, Hideo Kojima, Mike Mahon, Aiko Minematsu,
Masuko Miyahara, Guy Modica, Martin Mullen, Fumiko Murase, Hugh Nicoll, Mike Nix, Debra
Occhi, Mary Jo Pichette, Mark Posselius, Alison Stewart, Joe Tomei, Stacey Vye, Atsushi
Yoshinaka, and Zorana Vasiljevic
Eight of the nine chapters are downloadable separately as pdfs. One chapter (Andy's) stillneeds completing before the book can be printed. Andy offers his apologies to everyone
concerned. He hopes to have time to finalise the chapter in the December/January break.
The full bibliographical information is as follows:
Barfield, A., & Minematsu, A. (Eds.). (2014). ​Learner Development Working Papers: Different

Cases, Different Interests​. Tokyo: JALT Learner Development SIG. ISBN (online edition)
978-4-901352-44-4.
2. CLiLD: In December 2014 ​Collaborative Learning in Learner Development​edited by Tim
Ashwell, Masuko Miyahara, Steven Paydon and Alison Stewart was published on Smashwords
in pdf and then in epub formats . As of October 17th​​2015, there had been 434 full and sample
downloads of the book from Smashwords.
The contributors were: Tim Ashwell, Dexter Da Silva, Chris Fitzgerald, Chika Hayashi, Ken
Ikeda, Hideo Kojima, Ann Mayeda, Masuko Miyahara, Martin Mullen, Steven Paydon, Mathew
Porter, Etsuko Shimo, Alison Stewart, and Hiromi Tsuda
The book consists of 12 chapters. The full bibliographical information for this online version is
as follows:
Ashwell, T., Miyahara, M., Paydon, S. & Stewart, A. (Eds.). (2014). ​Collaborative Learning in
Learner Development.​
Tokyo: JALT Learner Development SIG. ISBN (online edition)
978-4-901352-45-1
3. Print versions of LD Working Papers and CLiLD: In March we applied for and were awarded a
grant worth ￥225,000 from the JALT Development Fund to cover half the estimated costs ofprinting 150 copies of Working Papers and 100 copies of CLiLD. The remaining costs werecovered by SIG reserves (￥100,000 ) and a bridging loan of ￥125,000 from several SIG
members. To date, 100 copies of CLiLD have been printed (at a cost of 227, 624 yen), 36
copies have been sold at ￥2,000 each, and complimentary copies have been distributed to
the 14 contributors. The ISBN for the print version of CLiLD is: ​978-4-901352-46-8
4. Learning Learning: ​The spring issue of Learning Learning (Volume 22, No.1) edited by Mathew
Porter included contributions from Soyhan Egitim, Caroline Kocel-Ross, Hiroshi Nakagawa,
Yoko Sakurai, Kazuko Unosawa, and Adrianne Verla together with the regular LL features.
In early October a special issue of Learning Learning (Volume 22, No.2) was published. Edited
by Tim Ashwell and Glenn Magee, it consists of the Proceedings of the JALT Learner
Development 20th Anniversary Conference held in November 2013. It contains contributions
from Sarah Lee, Agnes Patko, Debjani Ray, Maho Sano & Ritsuko Rita, Michael Sullivan, andSatomi Yoshimuta, Huw Davies & Mayumi Abe.
In mid-November, ​the autumn issue of Learning Learning (Volume 22, No.3) edited by
Mathew Porter included contributions from Alison Stewart, Darren Elliot, Joel Laurier, Michael
Sullivan, and Nicole Gallagher together with the regular LL features.
Learning Learning Issues
Written by James Underwood● Need for co-editors of the issue from 2017: Perhaps the section editors could be encouraged

to be whole issue editors? or be able to switch to other sections if they are interested.
● Need for new people as shadows. Currently we do not have any shadows. If any of thecommittee know anyone interested in joining the team, please could you recommend them.
Also if you are an LDSIG member and are interested in joining the team for at least a year (twoissues of LL), please get in touch!.
● Need for an alternative to the current system of email and dropbox. There have been someissues with dropbox not syncing properly and some communication issues. One proposal
would be to move to semi-regular skype meetings with the team / editor(s). There are about 5
months between each issue. At least two or three 1-hour Skype sessions at set times would begreat. Perhaps one at the start to talk about the contributions and feedback we will give.
Before the meeting we share the contributions, prepare comments which we share in themeeting. The section editors will then pass on the comments about each contribution to thecontributor. One Skype to quickly talk about the issue before publication. And maybe one to
air any issues that came up after publication. Another proposal would be to use Google Docsfor proofreading and editing contributions.
Learning Learning Issues
Written by Mathew Porter● Better project management (timeline, communication with section editors, resource

management) and clear definition of roles.
● Creation of a simple style guide (basics only) to make it easier for the layout editor to move

final submissions into layout.
● Re-evaluation of the use of Japanese in the newsletter. There’s a need for terminology

management regarding translation of SIG business. How much of the issue should betranslated? Also, should we ask for a brief summary in Japanese upon submission of allarticles?
● Re-evaluation of the role of the newsletter once the LD Journal gets off the ground. Should

contents and number of issues be rethought? Would a quarterly newsletter with more
publicity of SIG events better serve our needs? How about switching to a blog formula like the
SiSAL (Studies in Self-Access Learning) Journal has done? (see ​http://sisaljournal.org/​). Thiswould eliminate the need for new layout editors to have platform-specific software and makeit easier to distribute the layout workload.
5. The Learner Development Journal (LDJ): ​In May, SIG members were invited to respond to an
online survey about the proposed LD Journal to discuss its purpose, concept and format.
Thirty-seven people answered the survey. Twenty-five indicated that they would be interested
in writing on particular themes for the journal and 13 indicated that they would be preparedto act in some kind of editorial role. On October 4th​​a call was put out for proposals frompeople who would like to act as co-editors of a themed issue, and ​bring together a group ofcontributors with a shared interest in exploring a particular learner development theme
together. A full explanation of the rationale for the journal can be found online here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LtOOpAqfVXwgxpAja2fLDT2kDFnU3dTVaBdBjgzfv_o/e
dit?usp=sharing
Goals for 2016
To see that the Learner Development Journal gets safely off the ground, including the development ofan appropriate website/web presence for the LDJ. This will include identifying co-editors and setting apublication date for the first issue. It looks as though April/May 2017 might be the earliest realistic
option.
Issues
1. Roles and responsibilities of officers in Pubs teama) Two years ago, a clearer structure was adopted for ​Learning Learning​, allowing more
people to be involved as editors of new regular sections, and including a coordinator in
addition to a lead editor. More structure should lead to better division of labour in producing
the newsletter, but are the roles and responsibilities clear enough yet?
b) At present we have two Publications coordinators: one for ​Learning​
Learning​​
and the otherfor other publications. These roles were created at a time when there were two book projects
in progress. Do we need two coordinators still, or would one be sufficient?
2. Other publications
The SIG holds forums every year at the JALT international and other conferences, and reportsof these are often published in Proceedings. In the latest Proceedings of the JALT2014
conference, LD has published two articles based on two separate forums, organized andwritten up by the Events team and Outreach team respectively. Should the Publications teamhave a role in coordinating, editing, and/or promoting these?
Changes
Learning Learning editor: Alison Stewart
Layout: Monika Szirmai, James Underwood
Translators: Yoko Sakurai & Michiko Imai (new)Section editors
Grant Awardees Essays editor: Yoko Sakurai
Members Voices: James Underwood
Creative Writing:Outreach:

6B. For approval by AGMa) Approve Tim Ashwell and James Underwood as continued SIG Publications coordinators.
b) Approve Learning Learning team changes as noted in 6a.
c)​Approve ______________ and _______________ as assistants/shadows from 2016

7. Programs
Programmes team: Lee Arnold, Joel Laurier, and Blair Barr
7A. 2014-2015 Program Team Report (submitted by Lee Arnold)

Achievements
Events: PanSIG2015, JALT CALL, JALT2015
1. Teamwork
The team, under Lee’s leadership, divided the work of sending out calls for proposals, vetting
the abstracts, setting the presentation schedules. There were no last minute rushes tocomplete things. Communication between the committee members went very well. The
directives from the leader were clear so that nobody was left wondering what they had to do.
2. Attendance
Attendance at the first two events was respectable. The participants to the first two eventswere very enthusiastic and there were no concerns reported. Members appeared to add totheir personal and professional networks and overall the events achieved what their themes
and goals set out. There were good numbers of presenters at each event. For the PanSIG
there were six presenters with five presentations (one joint presentation between two
presenters plus four individual presentations) for the LD forum, while CALL was smaller - three
individual presenters and presentations for the LD forum there. The international conference
will be quite sizeable, however, with 16 presenters across ten presentations (five jointpresentations plus five individual), so overall participation and enthusiasm is high.
Challenges
1. Google Drive
At one point, we had too many “Master Lists” going which resulted in us having one presenter
not placed on the JALT2015 roster of presenters. The situation was promptly attended to andthe presenter was pleased with the outcome.
Recommendations
1. List of duties
Teamwork worked as all the members rallied to the job when it was required. Having a list ofthings to do, a system of sorts, would make members more accountable and not leave it up to
the Programs Committee leader to organize things in the end.
2. Program Management TimelimeEstablishing one Google Doc with deadlines and specific duties from the outset of the year will
help committee members know what they have to do and when to invest larger amounts oftime throughout the year.
3. Promoting Events
Start promoting events well before the conference dates to get potential presenters thinking
about how to carry out their research and collect data relevant to the themes of theconferences.
4. Google
When using Google programs to share information (Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc.), ensurethat all team members are included through a Gmail account
Goals
Program goals for 2016 Continue to seek out novel themes and platforms by which such themes may
be realized, as well as continue to maintain smooth connections and relations with our fellow SIGs,
especially those we have partnered with previously, such as CALL. Continue to make our forums andconferences attractive for new membership, as well as bolster existing membership, through our
get-togethers in Tokyo and elsewhere, and events.
Issues
One thing we would like to see in programs are some Japanese shadows. We have a well-functioning
program team, yet all members are foreign; having 1-2 Japanese shadows would boost outreach, add
greater versatility to our events, signal to JTEs and researchers that LD is welcoming of Japanese
voices in the literal sense, and expand the space and sense of what learner development issues coverand perhaps open new areas of research that may have been inadvertently overlooked before.
7B. For approval by AGMa) Approve Lee Arnold, Joel Laurier, and Blair Barr as continued SIG Programs team.
b)​
Approve ______________ and _______________ as assistants/shadows from 2016

8. Publicity
Publicity team: Rob Moreau, Kie Yamamoto, and Tomoko Imamura
8A. 2014-2015 Publicity Report (​submitted by Rob Moreau​)
Achievements
The publicity team has been able to meet all of the requests of the SIG this year. Main projects haveincluded designing the promotional logo for the December one-day conference and maintaining the
LD-SIG news items for the TLT publication as required. Please note: the submission policy for the TLT
publication changed in July, no longer requiring SIGs to update their blurb bi-monthly.
Goals for 2016
The team wishes to continue providing quality promotional materials, bilingually of course, as
requested by the SIG. It is important I feel to continue maintaining the high standard of professional
design in our promotional material that we have been producing thus far. I also feel it that would also
be a good idea to produce some kind of promotional flier for the SIG to be used at various
conferences.
8B. For approval by AGMa) Approve Rob Moreau, Kie Yamamoto, and Tomoko Imamura as continued SIG Publicity team.
b)​
Approve ______________ and _______________ as assistants/shadows from 2016

9. Web Maintenance and Development
Web team: Hugh Nicoll, James Underwood, and Rachel Meilleur
9A. Web Maintenance and Development Team Report (​Submitted by Hugh Nicoll​)
Achievements
Since last year's conference, I have continued to play the lead role in maintaining the LD-SIG web site,
now hosted on the WordPress platform, with the domain name <ld-sig.org>.

I have just renewed our domain name with our current registrar (GoDaddy.com), and my ISP(Dathorn) has just upgraded its servers, so technically we are in pretty good shape.
After the web team – James (Underwood), our silent collaborator, Billy Hassett, and me – completed
the migration from the static web site to the WordPress platform in the autumn of 2014, we have an
open (i.e. GUI-editable) site that will allow the SIG coordinators or other officer teams to upload
content, add or edit pages, etc. This has allowed, for example -- and most successfully in the case ofour 2015 Talking Points column editors, Naomi Fujishima and Jim Ronald, to manage their own posts.
We had hoped to develop an editing-in-teams approach to web publishing more completely, but thatremains an achievable goal to strive for. James has done a bit of Learning Learning (LL) uploading
work, but the majority of the re-writing, updating of content, and managing the web site has stayed in
my hands.
The biggest needs to be addressed in the next year or two include: (1) how to create a more
successfully inclusive work flow, so that content editing and maintenance responsibilities can beseparated; (2) to accommodate James's need to step down; and, (3) to plan for a transition in a year
or two, should I need/want to pass on the administrative role(s) to someone.
Financial Notes:
I currently pay $27/month for my ISP account. Calculating LD's portion of the web administration
costs at one third of that makes our rough bill for web services $9/mo. With the exchange rate shiftsof the last year, that comes to an annual bill of approximately ¥13,000, plus the costs of our domainname registrations, ld-sig.org (3 years) and ld-sig.net (insurance against domain name poaching), at¥6,553.
Goals for 2016
The biggest needs to be addressed in the next year or two include: (1) how to create a more
successfully inclusive work flow, so that content editing and maintenance responsibilities can beseparated; (2) to accommodate James's need to step down; and, (3) to plan for a transition in a year
or two, should I need/want to pass on the administrative role(s) to someone.
IssuesPlease see the financial notes and "issues for the coming year or two" sections in my first post

9B. For approval by AGMa) Approve Hugh Nicoll, James Underwood, and Rachel Meilleur as continued SIG Web team.
b) Approve Nicole Gallagher & Hugh Nicoll as 2016 Talking Points colum editors.
c)​Approve ______________ and _______________ as assistants/shadows from 201610.

Outreach

Outreach team: Colin Rundle & Caroline Kocel-Ross
Translation Project: Mathew Porter & Sayuri Hasegawa
10A. 2014-2015 NGO Outreach Report (Submitted by Colin Rundle)
Activities and Participation
In 2015, Student Ambassador coordinators (Colin Rundle and Caroline Kocel-Ross) sent out an email(in English) to LD-SIG members in May, inviting teachers and students to participate, along with a linkto the LD-SIG Outreach webpages where teachers could download posters in Japanese and English fordisplay in their classrooms and campuses. An innovation this year was to invite students who alreadyhad experience with NGOs to participate in the Ambassador program by presenting about their NGO
at the December Mini Conference. Several teachers who had previously participated with theirstudents in previous years responded to the email showing interest, but unfortunately none of theirstudents participated this year. Three other teachers responded, but their enquiries did not result inany students joining the program.
Examining the number of participants shows that in the year 2015, as in 2014, interest in the Student
Ambassador program is weak (See Figure 1). The number of students who we were able to place withan NGO fell dramatically from nine students in 2013, to two students in 2014. Similarly, the number ofstudents who participated in our Mini-Conference fell even more from 11 students representing threeNGOs to two students representing one NGO in 2014. In 2015, three students found volunteer
opportunities with two NGOs. For the 2015 Mini-Conference, four students are planning to represent
two NGOs.

Year

2013

2014

University

NGO

Student No.

Student No.

(Volunteer)(Conference)

Soka

SVA

3

5

Soka

FTCJ

3

3

ToyamaJapan Tent

2

2

Tokai

FTCJ

1

1

Gakushui

FTCJ

2

1

Soka

FTCJ

3

0

Soka

Sage

3

3**

1

1**

18

16

n

2015

Japan*

Soka

Total

NGO Fest

Figure 1.
*These students were already involved with this NGO for their senior Zemi class in Education. Thus,
they joined the ambassador program’s new entry option.
** These students have committed to present at the conference, which is still one month away.
Evaluation

These are disappointing numbers, especially as we hoped to increase participation after the first year.
It is noteworthy that out of the 18 students who have volunteered with an NGO through theambassador program, 17 were introduced by teachers who are office bearers of the LD-SIG, 13 ofwhich were introduced by Colin, an Outreach Program coordinator. This suggests that there is little
grass-roots interest in the program among LD members. Furthermore, problems that were identified
in the first year, such as the costs incurred by students to volunteer and to attend a conference, havenot been addressed; there are no SIG funds for this program, so it is up to students to fundthemselves, or for teachers to find university funds. Thirdly, only one email was sent to the membersin May to promote the ambassador program. Follow up emails to remind members could increase
participation. Finally, the Student Ambassador Program coordinators are not well placed to recruit
students from their own institutions, as Colin mostly teaches English for Engineering, and Caroline
teaches high school, where demands of the curriculum allow little opportunity and no credit forexperiential learning. For example, as in 2014, this year Colin was unable to recruit any students fromthe 20 classes he teaches each year. This tended to reduce the time that coordinators otherwise
would have spent promoting and developing the program.
FutureThe Student Ambassador Program coordinators, Caroline and Colin, are both stepping down. Thus, if
the program is to continue, new coordinators will need to stand for the positions at the AGM. Those
coordinators should preferably already be involved in teaching social issues, preferably in a program
involving students with NGOs. That would make their work introducing other teachers and students to
NGOs easier. The new coordinators could also promote the outreach program through more regularemails to the membership. More generally, there should be a discussion about the relevance of theStudent Ambassador Program to LD members. At the 2014 AGM there was a view that the program
was worthwhile in spite of the weak participation. While it is undoubtedly a worthwhile idea, whether
or how it fits in with LD members’ needs is a moot point. It should be noted that the Ambassador
program was basically an experiment and did not arise from any pressing need.

10B. 2014-2015 Outreach Translation Report (submitted by Mathew Porter)
The forum at JALT2014 (Collaborative Approaches to Outreach) brought together people from
Rikuzentakata-shi and project members to discuss the process of working together to translate andpresent the students’ reflections. The event was successful and during the discussion that followed,
we talked about another visit to Miyagi in the spring/summer to present a hardcopy of the translation

to the junior high school. Most of the forum participants worked together to write up the forum for
the JALT2014 Proceedings.
At the time of the conference, the translated collection was still unfinished. The project managers(Sayuri, Caroline, and I) worked on proofing and revising the Japanese and English texts during thewinter break and revising the website by adding the Japanese title to the landing screen, updating the
project members’ names, and making some changes to the various supporting texts. We discussed
adding a “contact us” button and counter on the website and setting up a unique email address forthe project. We also proposed a web addresses for the final project-- ​lookingback3-11.wix.com​, whichwould be linked from various partner websites. The draft website will be moved to this link in part by
Friday, November 20, and completed before the mini-conference in December.
We had planned to go live with the site and do a publicity blitz at the end of January, and the publicity
team began to draw up a press release for the many media outlets that were suggested. But then welost touch with Musashi-san, our contact in Rikuzen and this situation continued for months. Duringthat time, we had a rather long discussion about copyright, and it seemed that a consensus had beenreached to include information on the About page in English and Japanese explaining that the rights
to the works belong to the student authors and that the content may be used without permission for
educational purposes under a Creative Commons license (​Attribution­NonCommercial­NoDerivs).
However, since the collection is the property of the school, we also needed their permission to launch thewebsite. ​By this time, the launch date had passed and had been moved to coincide with theanniversary of the disaster. Musashi-san reappeared in mid-February in time for the discussion about
Creative Commons and encouraged us to speak directly with the school. Sayuri spoke with the viceprincipal and learned that we’d need to get permission from each student in order to launch thewebsite, and then Musashi-san disappeared again.
This caused some chaos. We discussed launching without any input from the school as long as all thecontent was scrubbed of identifying details. This suggestion was not taken up. In mid-May, Caroline
suggested a visit to Rikuzentakata and a planning meeting was convened on May 24 with Alison, Andy,
Caroline, Fumiko, and Ted in attendance. They drew up plans to visit Rikuzentakata on June 12 tomeet with Musashi-san and the JHS. I worked (with the help of many) to prepare a draft hardcopy ofthe collection for the school. Over the previous few months, our contact at the school (Murakami-san)had been transferred and a new vice principal was installed (Chiba-san). Alison, Natsumi (her student),
and Caroline had a very productive meeting with Chiba Sensei, Suzuki Sensei (new principal), andMusashi-san on the 12th and plans were made to craft permission letters, prepare return envelopes,
and send them to Musashi-san for distribution to families of the original authors. After delays inreceiving the returned permission forms, we finally received permission in mid-October to run 47
reflections on the website (about 50% of the total). The site should be completed during the final
week before the conference.
IssuesSayuri has since stepped down from the team and I’m not prepared to continue working on the
project past November. Do we need to maintain a Translation Project team? Will we still promote thelaunch as we had planned earlier in 2015?
10C. For approval by AGMa) Approve ______________ and _______________ as new Outreach Team. In the case of no newvolunteers, approve the disbanding of the Outreach Team.

11.

Get-Togethers

Tokyo
Tokyo Get-Together team: Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda, and Agnes Patko
11A. Tokyo Get-Together Team Report (Submitted by Andy Barfield)
Achievements
At this time last year we reported we had had six get-togethers, and that we were looking forward toa final meeting in December 2014 featuring the first Creating Community: Learning Together informal
afternoon conference (http://ld-sig.org/creating-community-learning-together/ ). We also noted thatthe 2014 get-togethers had been collaboratively written up using Google Docs with all participants
invited to contribute to the write-up. For more details, please see
http://tokyogettogethers.blogspot.jp/
While we’ve continued to do collaborative write-ups this year, there’s also been a couple of changes
in 2015. First,with Stacey stepping down last December, Agnes joined Andy and Ken as
co-coordinator, and, second, we started the 2015 get-togethers in April (rather than January) with theaim of holding five in total over the year and culminating in the second Creating Community: Learning
Together afternoon conference in December 2015. (Our thanks to Rob Moreau for creating anothereye-catching logo.) The get-togethers this year have had a shared focus on community andcommunity building for part of each session; they also provided a very helpful base for developing
ideas for the Learner Development Journal.
By reducing the number of get-togethers we hoped that more people would attend more regularly
from one get-together to the next. As far as participation is concerned, this year 16 people took partin the April and May get-togethers, 15 in June, and 12 in October, so participation has remained moreor less the same as last year (average: 15). In the first four get-togethers of 2015 28 different people
took part or sent their regrets, with 27 people attending at least one get-together: Agnes Patko, Aiko
Chamberlain, Alena Zhuro, Alison Stewart, Andy Barfield, Billy Hassett, Blair Barr, Colin Rundle,
Debjani Ray, Fumiko Kurosawa, Fumiko Murase, Huw Davies, Ian Hurrell, James Underwood, Jenny
Morgan, Joel Laurier, Ken Ikeda, Kevin Ryan, Lee Arnold, Mayumi Abe, Osolya Szatzker, Rob Werner,
Shinobu Nakamura, Stephanie Corwin, Terry Yearley, Tim Ashwell, and Yuri Shima (with regrets fromKie Yamamoto and Stacey Vye). Overall, then, there has been continuity in terms of numbers, withseveral participants joining the get-togethers for the first time (Akiko Chamberlain, Alena Zhuro,
Osolya Szatzker, Shinobu Nakamura and Yuri Shima).
Last year 26 teachers and 28 students participated as presenters in the end-of-year informal
conference in December. For the 2015 Creating Community: Learning Together event, by the end of
October we should have received 30 proposals, involving 16 students and 20 teachers as presenters(the exact number may change with final adjustments being made in November). (November 18
update: There are now 37 presentations, with 26 students and 26 teachers taking part.)
Goals for 2016(i) hold the get-togethers at a new site in central Tokyo(ii) hold the first get-together of 2016 in February to focus our learner development interests andresearch possibilities ahead of the 2016 academic year(iii) develop clear thematic areas of focus for individual and small-group exploration to support thelaunching of the Learner Development JournalTeam changes
For co-coordination in 2016, Agnes would like to take a more active role in the team. She has spentthis year familiarising herself with the new role and learning from Andy and Ken. She believes thatfrom 2016 she can add more to the get-togethers in terms of both ideas and action.

Ken has continued to be as on-site liaison between Otsuma Women’s University and the SIG with theuse of facilities and equipment. The get-togethers have been held with ample time (thanks to thegenerosity of the university staff). Likewise, the CC:LL hosting experience from mid-summer up to theDecember event in 2014 was a new and daunting task for him, but he is very grateful to the university
staff for being flexible and accommodating with their time, language helps, resources andarrangements.
Andy would like to step back from co-coordinating the Tokyo get-togethers by the middle of 2016, so
he hopes that other people will step forward as shadow co-coordinators for the get-togethers in 2016.
Ken will also be going on research leave in April 2017, so at least one other person will need to step
forward in 2016. We would therefore be very grateful if other people could step up and join thecoordination team for 2016. If you’re interested, please feel free to contact us: Agnes <​patkoagi888
AT MARK gmail.com​>, Andy <barfield.andy ​AT MARK​gmail.com>, Ken <kodanuki ​AT MARKgmail.com>. Many thanks in advance!
Issues(i) continuity of thematic focus over different get-togethers for 2016 - If there is an issue that we havebeen concerned with this year, it is the overlap in participation from one get-together to another. Thishas been around 33% (or a core of six people). Our sense is that there has been perhaps lesscontinuity in group discussions of specific themes from one get-together to another this year, so thiswould be a useful issue for discussion and reflection among get-together participants as we looktowards 2016.
(ii) a new site for get-togethers from February 2016 (Alison checking on the possibilities here)(iii) Creating Community: Learning Together 3 in December 2016

Hiroshima

Hiroshima Get-Together team: Jim Ronald & Ariel Sorensen
11B. Tokyo Get-Together Team Report (Submitted by Jim Ronald)
Achievements
After a break of a few months, the Hiroshima LD get-togethers started again in May of this year, andwe've been meeting almost every month since then. Each time we meet, we discuss one chapter ofThomas Farrell's Reflective Language Teaching: From Research to Practice. Although this book is notdirectly concerned with learner development or autonomy, it does help us to keep asking what we aredoing in the classroom, where we're going, and what our goals for our students are. Our group also
serves as a good sounding board for research ideas, classroom practices, and even plans for
textbooks. For better or worse (both, in fact) the get-togethers tend to attract the same people we
see in our monthly Hiroshima JALT meetings; as an "alternative" teachers' group it would be evenbetter if we could appeal to a wider range of teachers.
Goals for 2016
To continue focusing on learner and teacher development - recognizing that these are not minority
interests for language teachers, and that we have a duty to reach out to the wider language teachingcommunity.

KansaiKansai Get-Together team: Chris Fitzgerald
11C. Kansai Get-Together Team Report (Submitted by Chris Fitzgerald​)
Achievements
We have collated information about members' interest in holding Kansai region get-togethers andhave arranged a first get-together in Kyoto in November.
Goals for 2016
To have Kansai get-togethers grow and strengthen interest in the SIG in this region.
11D. For approval by AGMa) Approve Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda, and Agnes Patko (Tokyo); Jim Ronald & Ariel Sorensen(Hiroshima); and Chris Fitzgerald (Osaka) as continued Get-Together coordinators.
b)​Approve ______________ and _______________ as assistants/shadows for _______________
from 201612.

Members-at-large

Current Members-at-Large: Bill Mboutsiadis, Dexter Da Silva, Jackie Suginaga, Martha Robinson,
Gretchen Clark, Mike Nix, Matt Coomber, Stacey Vye
12B. For approval by AGMa) Approve the following as ​Members-at-Large for 2015-2016: Fumiko Murase