The Language Teacher
February 2004

A Chapter Conference Copes with Change

Ken Hartmann

Hokkaido JALT

Perspectives

. . . with Joyce Cunningham & Mariko Miyao perspectives@jalt-publications.org

The co-editors warmly encourage 750-word reports of interest to JALT members in English, Japanese, or both. This month, Ken Hartman describes the Hokkaido chapter to us and the many successes and challenges it has had over the years.

For 20 years the Hokkaido Language Conference has been the signature event which demonstrates the success of the chapter. The Hokkaido chapter holds about 10 meetings each year, but the energy, cost, and management skill required to put on the conference is greater than that of all the other meetings combined. The conference has undergone many transformations, and this year marked the biggest. One would think that after 20 years there would be stability, but the strength of this chapter appears to be flexibility.

Until now, this event has always been held in late spring when the lilacs bloom. The call for papers, combined with the beauty of Hokkaido, always seems to lure speakers from the main island and beyond. The conference is a golden opportunity for university teachers and authors to present their research. Most attendees come using school or company funding, so our chapter doesn't have to pay any of their travel expenses. Our conferences have been both 1 and 2-day events. This year it was 1 full day with 48 presentations and 20 publisher displays.

The annual event has always stimulated membership growth and provided extra funds for special projects. The low publisher participation fee for ads and book displays encouraged Associate Members (AMs) to participate. We put out the Hokkaido welcome mat, ran a well-organized event, and the number of teachers attending grew steadily. However, as the economy declined, so did the number of AMs and the number of members. As a result, the publishers informed us that they would prefer an event in the fall, when they typically come to visit their customers. Being flexible, and realizing where our bread is buttered, we decided to move the conference to November.

They also asked us to work with English Teachers in Japan (ETJ), an organization created by David Paul. They were committed to working with ETJ to put on English Language Teaching (ELT) Expos in nine cities. They wanted to stage one Expo in Sapporo, but they could not support our conference and the Expo. This came as a shock, but we quickly realized that it was in the best interests of both ETJ and our chapter to work together. Our chapter had years of experience putting on successful conferences, whereas the ETJ group was just getting started in Hokkaido. On the other hand, ETJ and the publishers could take advantage of their advertising power to contact new teachers. We decided to negotiate for a fixed sum of money, which hopefully would compensate for some of the lost revenue we usually gained from previous JALT-only conferences. We felt that we would earn the guaranteed fee from ETJ by doing most of the work required to secure a site and manage the event. One concern we had was not being able to recruit as many new members as we had at past conferences.

At its peak, our chapter had 200 national members, but during the dark years of decline, it bottomed out around 90. Since introducing a local member plan, we have raised our total to 155 members, of which 45 are local. This year about half of them came to the conference, along with an equal number of nonmember participants. We managed to sign up 11 new local members and half a dozen national members thanks to a lottery which was only open to JALT members. We gave away ¥¥50,000 in prizes such as a DVD, VCR, coffee maker, and other useful items.

Doing the event in conjunction with the local group of ETJ has laid the foundation for future cooperation. We proved that joint events are viable and allow us to reach out to more teachers. We already have a JALT/ETJ committee formed to prepare for the conference next year. We did not attract as many Japanese teachers of English, Assistant English Teachers, or language school teachers as we would have liked. It is obvious that we must improve our advertising and communication skills, so that many more teachers learn about JALT and come to participate in our activities.

We have also developed a strong online presence and established a web system for communication among our officers. The members have a forum to discuss all aspects of teaching, too. The website recently gave birth to a sister site, journal.jalthokkaido.org, which contains the JALT Hokkaido Journal (JHJ). This is an online refereed publication that offers a large cash award to the author whose paper is deemed to be the best. We hope many teachers will submit papers for publication and that the JHJ will be read by teachers throughout the world. This online extension of our chapter should also help to attract new presenters to future Hokkaido conferences.

The chapter is once again growing and implementing new ideas. We hope other chapters will follow our lead and work closely with ETJ and other organizations in their areas. This can help to generate new energy within chapters. Don't hesitate to contact us for more detailed information about chapter and conference management.

Ken Hartmann
president@jalthokkaido.org

The Language TeacherFebruary 2004

A Chapter Conference Copes with Change

Ken Hartmann

Hokkaido JALT

Perspectives

The Language Teacher
February 2004