PAC Meeting Minutes
PAC Meeting
National Olympics Memorial Youth Center
JALT International Conference, 2007
PAC Minutes
Index
Chair: Steve Brown
Minutes: Todd Vercoe (KOTESOL);
Revised December 3, 2007
In attendance: (In no particular order)
Name Affiliation e-mail address
(webmaster's note - email's removed from the online version of these minutes)
Steve Brown (JALT President)
Kip Cates (Asian Youth Forum)
Aleda Krause (JALT 2008 Conf. Prog. Chair)
Stephen Ryan (FEELTA representative)
Nopporn Sarobol (ThaiTESOL representative)
Cynthia Keith (JALT Vice-President)
(Andy) Yiu-nam Leung (ETA-ROC representative)
Caroline C. Latham (JALT 2008 Conference Chair)
Yvette Valdez (PALT representative)
Todd Vercoe (KOTESOL representative)
Steven Nishida (JALT Inter. Affairs Com. Chair)
Richmond Stroupe (JALT Inter. Affair Com. Member)
12:40 pm.
Steven Brown opened our meeting with a discussion of PAC 7. He asserted
that he hopes to get additional support from all PAC members in the
development of the conference.
PAC 7 Conference: Tokyo, National Olympic Memorial Youth Center October 31-November 2 2008.
Theme: "Shared Identities: Our Interweaving Threads"
The conference will be a joint conference between the 34th annual JALT
conference, the 7th Pan Asian Consortium and the 6th Asian Youth Forum.
Conference Chair will be Caroline C. Latham.
Steve Brown spoke on the idea of bringing in a conference co-chair who
is familiar with both JALT and PAC conferences. Currently speaking with
Alan Mackenzie of the British Council in Thailand.
• A link with the British Council could mean additional support from offices around Asia.
Steven Nishida spoke on bringing in Alan Mackenzie He also commented on
the additional costs of having a conference in Japan/Tokyo.
Kip Cates questioned about a timeline to get a confirmation for the commitment from Alan Mackenzie.
Steve Brown said that question will be answered by the end of this year (2007).
Steven Nishida spoke on how well connected and informed Alan Mackenzie
is and that this could lead to a "higher profile for PAC."
Caroline C. Latham's 'bona fides' were discussed in very positive terms.
Steve Brown asserted that JALT is committed to reaching out and trying to make a joint conference.
A general discussion ensued over: "What are the requirements from PAC members?"
• featured speakers
• plenary speakers
Steven Nishida spoke on the nature of funding and requesting speakers.
Recommendations and requests for speakers are encouraged, but a
consideration of funding needs to be considered.
There was a general discussion over funding and when/where it can come.
(Andy) Yiu-nam Leung asked how many delegates each member of PAC should prepare.
This lead to a general discussion over the numbers of presenters each PAC member would supply.
Steve Brown suggested that a balance of presenters from each PAC member needs to be found.
Steven Nishida again spoke on the needs for PAC to be concerned with funding.
It was determined that the FINAL list of names of plenary and feature speakers needs to be arrived at by April 1st, 2008.
No exact time line was worked out, but the suggestion that most feature
speakers be nominated by January 15th, 2008 was discussed. This would
only include speaker's names and topic area, not to include abstracts
and biographical information at this early date.
It was agreed that each PAC member would nominate one pre-vetted
featured speaker, plus any number of nominations for plenary speakers.
There was a discussion over allowing the first plenary/featured speaker
to be from the previous PAC conference host nation and the final
plenary/featured speaker to be form the following PAC conference host
nation.
Stephen Ryan suggested that there should be assorted PAC panel discussions.
It was decided that before January 15, 2008 (and hopefully before the
end of this year) specific details will be mailed out to PAC members.
Steven Nishida spoke on the frustration with the PAC internet
discussion list. The PAC email discussion list hasn't been read and
answered well in the past. There is a lack of contribution.
Kip Cates requested information on when publicity information/posters would be available for the PAC 7 conference.
Steven Nishida responded that it was planned to be prepared for the
current JALT conference, but there were delays and it should be ready
soon.
Nopporn Sarobol spoke about the difficulties about email discussion and inclusion on the PAC list.
Steven Nishida said he would attempt to deal with the problem.
Kip Cates spoke on the inclusion of the Asian Youth Forum.
• Each PAC member should attempt to provide a delegation of 5-10 students.
• funding would be important and a priority.
• Finding professors to accompany students can also be a problem and should be a concern.
• On-site assistance for visiting delegates is also a concern.
Steven Nishida will create an Asian Youth Forum liaison.
Caroline C. Latham suggested that the Asian Youth Forum do presentations of "Introducing our cultures.
It was also discussed that the AYF will have parallel sessions throughout the conference.
Discussion was shifted to PAC 8.
Yvette Valdez suggested that PALT would be interested in hosting PAC 8
in December 2009 as a joint conference with the TESOL (Inc.) Asian
Symposium, which PALT is hosting.
It was decided that each representative should report back to their
respective organizations and, unless an objection is raised at or
before the January PAC meeting in Thailand (ThaiTESOL Conference), PALT
will be confirmed as the PAC8 host.
There was a request to have the PAC7 conference theme: "Shared
Identities: Our Interweaving Threads" translated into the local
language of each PAC member.
The next PAC meeting will be in Thailand on January 24th. If members
can't make that meeting, comments should be made via email discussion
list.
Each PAC member is requested to return home and consider who else should be added to the PAC discussion list.
Stephen Ryan spoke on the need for PAC members to establish additional
links between organizations such as linking up Special Interest Groups
(SIGs) with similar SIGs in each member nation.
Kip Cates suggested that PAC should court a teachers' organization in the People's Republic of China to become a member of PAC.
Steve Brown suggested that A PAC conference could be held in the
People's Republic of China. Steven Nishida suggested that such a
conference might present a few problems. (see PAC6 Meeting minutes)
Kip Cates recommended that PAC send formal invitations to the People's
Republic of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Todd Vercoe suggested that such invitations could create difficulties
for Republic of Korea members as it could be seen as 'acts of
espionage' and for foreign members in the Republic of Korea as
political activity outside the scope of their visas.
(Andy) Yiu-nam Leung suggested that it would create similar problems in the Republic of China.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:45pm