Dear Fellow KOTESOL Members,

      In this farewell message as outgoing President, I would like to offer a summary of what we have accomplished over the past year and offer suggestions for the future of our organization.

      First, we accomplished a lot over what will most likely be known as the “transition year” between the one-year and two-year presidential terms. I am proud to say that we managed to do the following during my year as President.

• We started the year with probably the most “presidential” National Council lineup ever with many past presidents agreeing to take positions on my team. I feel fortunate to have worked with so many experienced people, all of whom were an enormous asset immediately upon assuming their roles/positions. All but two of all the Council positions were filled within a short time of my taking over as President. Although there was the inevitable attrition, I would like to take a moment to recognize and thank the Council for their effort over their twelve months in office.
• Both the Seoul Chapter and National Conferences had over 300 people in attendance – a true testament to the work of both Seoul Chapter’s executive and the Daejeon-Chungcheon Chapter’s efforts to publicize and put on quality events.
• Thanks to the superior efforts of the Publications Committee, Conference Proceedings are ready to go to press for every year up to 2008, and they are already working on 2009. TEC has continued to come out while the Journal remains a prime concern.
• We held the first-ever Global Spelling Event with Franklin and TESOL this past May and will hold the second one next year.
• The Pan-Asia Conference (PAC 2010) will be hosted by Korea TESOL next October, and preparations are already underway for this.
• We are in the midst of a dialogue with the Special Interest Groups and are trying to address many of their concerns as valued members of the KOTESOL organization.
• We have put in place the groundwork necessary for the creation of the KOTESOL Procedures Manual, and much of this is due to Tim Dalby’s efforts to get documents up on the KOTESOL website for easy access by members and officers alike.
• Despite what has been a rough couple of years economically for much of the world, we actually reached the 700-member level earlier this year and, given KOTESOL’s recent accomplishments and momentum, I am optimistic that we can reach 800 in the months ahead..
• Thanks to Sherry Seymour as Nominations and Elections Chair, we had probably the best slate of candidates for election in the history of our organization.
• On the international front, we re-signed the KOTESOL-JALT agreement for another three-year term over the summer, and to the best of my knowledge, we are up to date on all our agreements with our partner organizations at home and abroad.

Not everything done this year has been a success, and we definitely need better communication with and sensitivity to the Chapters and general membership, but we are addressing this and will continue to do so. Hard as it may be, we need to step back from the negativity of past grievances and the idea that the National Council, Chapters, and SIGs are all separate and deserve to be recognized as valuable members of our organization in and of themselves.

      Every KOTESOL member is in fact a National member as well as a Chapter member, exemplified by the fact that membership dues paid are split equally between National and the Chapter. We need to remind ourselves and others of this fact and be mindful of this as we mould and rebuild our organization over the next few years.

   I am aware, for example, that my idea of a “Policies and Procedures Manual” for KOTESOL is already taking shape and – while I have not yet seen a copy of this document – I sincerely hope that it will indeed serve as a way to unite our efforts and guide the present and future councils in making KOTESOL an organization to be admired and respected, both locally and internationally even more than it already is. With this goal in mind, I wish the new President and Council all the best as their term of office begins. 

   Yours sincerely,

   Tory S. Thorkelson, M.Ed.

   Immediate Past President.