Minutes of Learner Development SIG Annual General Meeting
JALT2015, Shizuoka, November 22nd, 2015, 12.45-1.30 pm
Participants: Mathew Porter, Mayumi Abe, Fumiko Murase, Masako Wakisaka, BarrieMatte, Brandon Kramer, Tim Ashwell, Alison Stewart, Anita Aden, Lee Arnold, BlairBarr, Andy Barfield, Jenny Morgan, Chris Fitzgerald, Agnes Patko, Fumiko Kurosawa,
Joel Laurier, Prumel Barbudo, Stacey Vye, Patrick Kiernan, Kristen Sullivan, Yoko
Sakurai, Hugh Nicoll, Sami Yoshimuta, Nicole Gallagher, James Underwood
Minutes taken by Alison Stewart
1. Meeting opened by Mathew Porter. Self-introduction of incoming co-coordinators,Mathew Porter and Mayumi Abe
2. Discussion and setting of goals for 2016(a) Outreach(i) Future of Outreach teamColin Rundle and Caroline Ross are both stepping down from their positions as
coordinators of the Outreach team. As neither of them could attend the AGM, Alison
Stewart reported that the NGO Student Ambassadors programme that they initiated
had slowed to a trickle of participants in the last couple of years. Although Caroline andColin both agreed to help any future students (or teachers) who like to be involved inthe NGO Student Ambassadors programme, they felt it did not justify a dedicated teamin LD.
Mathew added that that the other Outreach project, the Kesen Junior High School
Essay Translation website is now almost complete.
(b) Proposed THT merger
Mathew proposed that the Outreach team could serve as a home for Teacher Helping
Teachers SIG, which is looking to merge with a larger SIG, such as LD. Initial email
discussion on this possibility has raised the objection that LD may not be the best fit forTHT, and that TED may be more appropriate. Hugh Nicoll clarified that the reason for
the THT approach is for the sake of rationalization within JALT, which currently has
too many unsustainably small SIGs and chapters. Alison suggested on the basis ofattending THT’s AGM that there seem to be two contradictory tendencies within THT,
one that views JALT teachers as experts, the other that views them as learners andguests in the participants’ countries. Jenny Morgan suggested that more collaboration
between LD and THT might be helpful for deciding whether or not to merge, andMathew and Andy suggested that THT collaboration could be a good focus for the newKansai get-together meetings.
Tim Ashwell proposed that LD respond to THT by advising them to approach TED first.
If a merger with TED does not work out, we could continue discussion about this later.
RESOLVED
b. Publicity
Mathew raised the issue of a more active role for the publicity team, explaining that hisview of publicity is colored by his experience as publicity chair for Hiroshima Chapter
previously. He feels that publicity can be coordinated more effectively between different
activities of the SIG, such as Learning Learning, Programmes, and Grants.
Kris Sullivan brought up the issue of publicizing grants. Generally, there are only a few
people applying for each category, and there have been no applications at all for thesubscription or membership grants. She suggested that members be more proactive inpublicizing the grants to/through personal contacts. Sami Yoshimuta suggested
targeting graduate schools for advertising grants.
Andy Barfield said that the publicity team was willing to create publicity on requestfrom the teams. Alison said that autonomy in the teams needed to be balanced withcoordination in the interest of the SIG as a whole.
Hugh mentioned that he was willing to help with publicity by posting notices on thewebsite, although one of the advantages of the new Wordpress site is that individual
teams have direct access and can post themselves.
Tim proposed that the meeting move to approve the officer positions. Mathew andMayumi were approved unanimously as new SIG coordinators.
Mathew asked for volunteers for shadows for their position and invited anyone
interested to contact him and Mayumi about this.

Hugh and Nicole Gallagher were announced and approved as new Talking Points
Bloggers(c) Grants
With the future of the Outreach team still in doubt, Kris suggested scrapping orrenaming the Outreach grant. Andy suggested renaming it as “project” grant and thiswas accepted by the meeting. There would be a requirement that applicants have noinstitutional funding and that they write about their project for Learning Learning.
RESOLVED(d) Publications(i)

Two coordinators

Tim brought up the issue of whether we need to continue with two publications
coordinators. He explained that the situation of two years ago when the twocoordinators positions were created no longer applied since the two book projects havenow been completed. James Underwood says that he is willing to continue as
coordinator of Learning Learning for another year.
Tim offered to step down as coordinator, but is staying as a member of the new journal
steering group. RESOLVED(ii)

Learning Learning

To avoid overlap with the new journal, should Learning Learning change its format, forexample, featured articles? Tim suggested that this could be an ongoing discussion overthe coming year, since the new journal will not start until 2017.
(iii)

Conference proceedings

Mathew asked whether the Publications team should be involved in compiling andediting articles for publication in the Post-Conference Publication (previously known as
Conference Proceedings). Lee Arnold explained the background to this question: after
last year’s conference, Ian Hurrell coordinated a multi-author write-up for theProceedings, whose editors allowed the SIG to self-edit short papers. The SIG editors
were Lee, Martha, and Ian. Lee (?) said he would send out requests to participants inthe Forum to find out what they wanted to do with regard to publication.

(e) Treasury
Sami explained that there was a large amount of 93,000 yen deducted from the SIG
account by JALT national to keep the whole organization afloat. It is not known
whether this kind of exceptional deduction will happen again next year. Also uncertainis the income from membership, since the income structure for JALT has changed with
the new change in membership fees.
A further issue for treasury is whether the amount we are providing for grants isappropriate. Next year’s PanSIG will be held in Okinawa, and our current grant of
40,000 yen will not cover the air fare. Kris suggested the PanSIG grant be increased asa one-off.
The meeting was adjourned at 1.35. Mathew encouraged participants to continue going
through the agenda online, and to work on a document detailing the typical duties androles of each team.