Japanese Language Teachers' Association of the Northeastern Region of the United States

The acronym "JLTANE" stands for "The Japanese Language Teachers' Association of the Northeast Region of the United States."

It is a professional association for Japanese language teachers at all levels in the Northeast region of the United States who are interested in presenting, exchanging, and promoting the ideas and skills involved in the teaching of the Japanese language.

A conference is to be held annually at an institution within the Northeast region of the United States.

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1986

The first Japanese teachers' pedagogical workshop in New England was designed and hosted by the late Professor Tazuko Ajiro Monane (1939-1991) at Harvard University. Professor Monane's goal was to create a regional horizontal support group for the hard-working teachers of Japanese. At Professor Monane's clarion call, different colleges and universities started taking turns in hosting the annual workshops.

1992

Professor Rieko Wagoner (Trinity College) convened its first business meeting to establish an advisory committee which was later membered by nine representatives from different schools. Professor Wagoner served as its first secretary. For the lack of an alternative ideas, the workshop were then called "The New England Region Japanese Language Teachers' Pedagogical Workshop."

1997

Tamae Prindle (Colby College) was named the second secretary. During her tenure, the organization was named the "Japanese Language Teachers' Association in New England (JLTA-New England)," and the title "Secretary" was changed to "President." At this point, its first home page was created.

1999

The 13th workshop at Connecticut College hosted by Professor Timothy Vance made its attendants aware of a need for a regional vertical network ("articulation") which would serve as a link between post secondary and K-12 teachers of Japanese. Also during this meeting, the Advisory Committee was expanded to nine representatives from colleges and universities and to four teachers from grades K to 12.

2006

For the first time in it's history, JLTA-New England sponsored its annual conference jointly with NECTJ (Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese) at Wesleyan University in June.

2007

During the 21st conference at Harvard University, the Advisory Committee changed the acronym of the association from "JLTA-New England" to "JLTANE." It also reduced the number of its members to six: President, Chair of the previous year's conference, Chair of the current year's conference, and Chair of the next year's conference, two representatives of NECTJ (Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese). The downsizing to six members will take place in three stages, completing them in 2010.

2008

Advisory Committee revisited the issues of (1) downsizing the Advisory Committee members, (2) the relationship between JLTANE and NECTJ, and (3) frequency of the joint conferences.

Decisions:

• The Advisory Committee will consist of nine voting members and one non-voting President. It will draw three members voting from NECTJ (Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese) and six from JLTANE (Japanese Language Teachers' Association of New England).
• NECTJ has no obligation to contribute the fund it raises to the JLTANE/NECTJ joint conferences.
• JLTANE/NECTJ will continue holding a conference annually.

2009

The Advisory Committee met for a day-long follow-up meeting on August 14 at Amherst College attended by Tomoko Graham (Noble and Greenough School) Kiyomi Kagawa (Tufts University), Hisae Kobayashi (Connecticut College), Naoto Kobayashi (Hall-Dale High School), Yoshimi Nagaya (MIT University), Kazuko Ozawa (Wellesley College), Tamae Prindle (Colby College), Mari Stever (Yale University), Wako Tawa (Amherst College), Reiko Yamada (Williams College), Kasumi Yamamoto (Williams College).

The new web page reflects the changes made at this meeting.

• The acronym "JLTANE" henceforward will stand for "Japanese Language Teachers' Association of the Northeastern U.S.A.," rather than "Japanese Language Teachers' Association of New England."
• The "What is JLTANE" section within the new "JLTANE Basics" section is so worded that it will include the K-12 level teachers as well as independent teachers and scholars. This change makes it unnecessary to name NECTJ as the co-sponsor of JLTANE conferences.
• The job specifications of various offices are added to the "Basics."
• The position of the Vice President is newly created. (Cf. "About the JLTANE Vice President" section)
• The backgrounds of the Advisory Committee members are redefined. (Cf. "Advisory Committee Members 2009-2010" table)
• The JLTANE web page will be made independent from Colby College. It will be made accessible as JLTANE.org.

We are grateful to Professor Wako Tawa for hosting the follow-up meeting, Professor Yoshimi Nagaya for accepting the two-year Vice Presidency, which will automatically extend to the four-year Presidency starting in the fall of 2011, Mr. Naoto Kobayashi who set up the independent web page (jltane.org), and other committee members who took the time to meet for the follow-up meeting and contributed helpful comments and suggestions.

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President

JLTANE President's responsibilities include:

• sharing all information with the Vice President of the committee
• recruiting organizers of future conferences
• helping the Chair in every aspect of the conference preparation and in the transmission of the result to the following year's Chair
• if the web page is created by the Chair, it must be linked to the JLTANE.org web page
• periodically checking with the Chair how the preparation is progressing
• if necessary, creating the conference web page for the Chair
• updating the JLTANE web page each year
• attending all the JLTANE conferences as a rule
• receiving the report of that year's conference, and forwarding it to the Chair of the following year's conference unless a copy is sent directly from the Chair of that year's conference to the Chair of the following conference

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Vice President

JLTANE Vice President's responsibilities include:

• assisting the JLTANE President in every aspect of the President's work
• managing the jltane.org web page

His/her term of appointment coincides with that of the President.

At the completion of the term, the Vice President will automatically take up the JLTANE President's post.

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Conference Chair

JLTANE Conference Chair's responsibilities include:

• deciding the date and site of the conference
• selecting a keynote or guest speaker, as well as workshop discussion leader(s) if appropriate
• publicizing the conference and soliciting presentations in an effective way
• obtaining necessary funding
• setting and collecting a (pre-)registration fee
• creating an electronic conference web page with:
• call for proposals
• conference program
• pre-registration form
• information about the host institution (directions to the school, map and necessary addresses—a complete address with the zip code will help the GPS navigator users—, and other contact information)
• confirming presenters of their presentations in a timely fashion
• securing a working crew (in-house colleagues and technical assistance if necessary) to help with all aspects of the conference preparations, convening, and reporting the conference
• providing necessary space, equipment for presentations, and a packet that may contain:
• the program
• campus map
• attendant list (name, school name, email address)
• receipt for the registration
• restaurants in the area
• making arrangements for parking, lodging, and meal services for participants as much as possible
• posting directional signs to the conference center in key corners on campus
• providing meal(s), refreshment(s), and book-seller's display table if appropriate
• providing certificates of attendance for those participants who desire
• keeping the conference records, such as the mailing list of the participants, the grant proposals, call for proposal letter, and the expenditures, and submitting them to the President of the JLTANE and the Chair of the following year's conference
• paying the annual jltanew.org domain usage fee ($15.17 as of 2009)

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Advisory Committee

About the advisory committee:

• It consists of nine representatives from colleges/universities and K-to-12 level teachers.
• The nine representatives consist of:
• President of the association
• Vice President of the association
• Chair of the conference of the previous year
• Chair of that year's conference
• Chair of the conference of the following year
• Chair of the conference of two years later
• Three representatives of the K~12 level teachers of Japanese
• Only one representative from each member school may serve in the committee at a time.
• The term of service for each member is four years, beginning two years prior to being the hosting conference member and ending the year after. During the hosting year, the conference will be held at the member's college/university.
• The committee may create and/or revise the existing JLTANE guidelines.
• It will assist the Chairs of future and past conferences in screening the presenters, and other logistic matters of the conference as needed.
• It will keep the committee membership pool systematically replenished.
• Normally, it will convene during the lunchtime of each year's conference.

See a list of the advisory committee members.

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