Informes anuales

Informes anuales de EUROCALL

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Asamblea General de Socios y actas de las Asambleas

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Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Burdeos (Francia) 11/09/2010 (inglés)

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of EUROCALL

held on Friday 11 September 2010
Bordeaux, France

 

Present:

Tita Beaven, Jean-Luc Bergey, Françoise Blin, Alex Boulton, Rhonwen Bowen, Marina Canapero, Katia Carraro, Thierry Chanier, Suzanne Cloke, Graham Davies, Françoise Demaizière, Kathryn English, Jeanine Gerbault, John Gillespie (Acting Secretary), Ana Gimeno-Sanz (President), Nicolas Guichon, Morio Hamada, Mirjam Hauck, Sake Jager, Kurt Kohn, Inge-Anna Koleff, Anya Lansangan, Dominique Macaire, Gary Motteram, Daniela Munca, Helen Myers, Antje Neuhoff, Van Toan Nguyen, Hiroyuki Obari, Stephanie O’Riordan, Elena Osinsky, Luisa Panichi, Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous, Françoise Raby, Céline Restrepo Zea, Bernd Rueschoff, Oranna Speicher, Anthony Stenton, Kirsi Syynimaa, Peppi Taalas, June Thompson, Cornelia Tschchold, Sylvi Vigmo, Dominique Vinet, Claudia Warth, Johannes Widmann, Scott Windeat

1. Minutes

The minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Gandia on 11th September 2009 were approved and signed as a true record, nem con.

2. Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

3. President’s Report

Dr Ana Gimeno-Sanz presented her report, which included the following items:

EUROCALL Executive Committee

The Executive Committee meets twice a year at the conference venue. This year’s meetings took place in Bordeaux on 6th March and 7 th September. She paid tribute to the work of those committee members who were standing down: Angela Chambers as Treasurer, for personal reasons and Margaret Gammell as Secretary General who is moving to a job in full-time teaching. She thanked them most warmly for their many years of dedication to the work of EUROCALL.

Headquarters: She also reported that the Executive had agreed to propose that EUROCALL Headquarters be transferred from the University of Limerick to the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Ulster (Coleraine, Northern Ireland), subject to ratification at this AGM (see item 6 on the agenda). Professor John Gillespie had been appointed Treasurer of EUROCALL. Karin Duffner had been temporarily appointed Secretary, but had now left to take up a teaching position. A replacement was being sought and would be reported to the next AGM.

Membership: Currently there were around 260 members with two thirds from Europe and one third from the rest of the world. EUROCALL-CALICO joint-membership had proved a positive development. She encouraged colleagues to consider corporate membership and to take out library subscriptions of ReCALL at their Universities. The increase in the membership fee in 2010 was noted: for Individuals it was 90 € Corporate members 225 € and student members 55 €.

EUROCALL Publications
(i) ReCALL Journal : Co-edited by Françoise Blin and June Thompson. Now published in 3 issues per year (January / May / September), strenuous efforts are being made to increase listings in specialised research indices. From Oct. 2009 ReCALL has been included in the Thompson ISI Web of Knowledge (Social Sciences Citation Index / Arts & Humanities Citation Index). Other indices which are targeted include:

  • ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)
  • European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH)
  • Educational Research Abstracts (ERA)
  • Modern Language Association Database (MLA)
  • Scopus

Online access to past issues of ReCALL is now available through CUP Journals.

(ii) The EUROCALL Review Published twice yearly in March & September it has an 8-member Scientific Committee and is pleased to publish peer-reviewed articles and conference papers. Again efforts are being made to increase listings in specialised journal indices. Regular sections include:

  • Reports on EUROCALL Special Interest Groups
  • Projects : reports on on-going CALL-related R&D projects
  • Recommended websites : reports and reviews of examples of good practice in language learning website development and use.
  • Publications by EUROCALL members : reviews of new books, CALL software, etc. published or edited by members.

Research Policy Statement : the EUROCALL Research Policy Statement having been agreed by the Executive Committee after consultation with the membership, was published in June 2010 (see http://www.eurocall-languages.org/ research/research_policy.html ). The President paid special thanks to John Gillespie for his work in drawing up the statement. The former version, dating from 1999, is archived at: http://www.eurocall-languages.org/research/archive/research_policy.html

Research Award

Award winners are listed on the website. The Award enables the winner to publish his/her article in ReCALL , gives them free registration to attend a EUROCALL conference and one year’s free EUROCALL membership. The submission deadline is 31st January each year, and notes for contributors are available on the EUROCALL website. She was pleased to announce that the winner of the award for 2010 was Chao-Jung Ko of the University of Edinburgh for ‘ A case study of L2 learners’ social presence in synchronous CMC’.

Jànos Kohn Scholarship 2010

This annual scholarship assists a scholar from a Central European member state to participate in a EUROCALL conference. This year’s winner is Daniela Munca, who is studying for a PhD in English/American Language and Literature and teaches Business English at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova.

EURODIS project

This project is an EU-funded accompanying measure aiming to provide a means of giving prominence to the projects that have recently been funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme managed by the European Commission’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency and presented at EUROCALL conferences. For the 2010 conference 36 of the presentations delivered are directly related to an EU-funded project. The aim of this accompanying measure is to explore and find ways of further disseminating these projects and their outcomes. Presentations are duly acknowledged in the conference programme. Leaflets will be published with relevant information about the projects and their products (project acronym, contact information, brief description, target audience, etc.)

The presenters of these sessions will be invited to participate in a CALL research and development network devoted to sharing experience, promoting examples of good practice and advice on particularly important issues such as dissemination opportunities and evaluation models. Selected projects will also be invited to publish an article in The EUROCALL Review . A database to include EU-funded projects presented at EUROCALL conferences will be developed and a searchable website to disseminate EU-funded projects presented at EUROCALL conferences will be set up (see http://camillegroup.upv.es/eurodis).

Website

The President thanked the Webmaster (Fred Riley, Nottingham University – UK) most warmly for all his work on the web-site. The site provides Newsfeeds, and in the restricted members-only area, archived videos and podcasts from the conference Virtual Strand, a Conference photo gallery, and regularly updated information, including a CALL bibliography (maintained by Angela Chambers & Robert O’Dowd), an Events calendar, and a list of Postgraduate CALL courses.

Social networks

Dr Gimeno reported on our presence in social networks. We have the following accounts:

EUROCALL Special Interest Groups

The special interest groups currently operating within EUROCALL are:

  • Natural Language Processing
  • CorpusCALL
  • Computer-Mediated Communication
  • CALL for Teacher Education
  • Virtual Worlds (jointly with CALICO)

Any existing member of EUROCALL can join these groups free of charge. Meetings have been/will be held in Bordeaux. AG encouraged members to join these SIGs and to set up new ones.

EUROCALL SIG Events
There was a Teacher Education SIG workshop from 26th-28th May 2010 at the Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique in Lyon, France, co-ordinated by Mirjam Hauck, The Open University (UK) & Nicolas Guichon, Université de Lyon 2. See http://europe.univ-lyon2.fr/teacher-education-in-CALL/topic/index.html . Slides are available from: http://www.slideshare.net/TeacherEducationSIGLyon .

SIG NINGs

Nings have been set up for the following SIGs:

Forthcoming Conferences

The President reported that next year’s conference would take place at the University of Nottingham, UK, from 31st August to 3rd September and would be led by Oranna Speicher, who would be giving a short presentation at the closing ceremony. She called for bids for the 2012 conference. Bids would be open until 31st October 2010. She also encouraged bids for the following two years.

Links with Other Associations

The President outlined our links with CALICO (North America). Joint-membership entitles EUROCALL/CALICO members to attend annual conferences at a reduced rate. Those with JALTCALL (Japan) membership are entitled to attend EUROCALL conferences at a reduced rate and vice-versa. We also have links with IALLT (International Association for Language Learning Technology (North America) and with WorldCALL whose next conference will be in 2013.

Bordeaux Conference
In closing AG passed on her special thanks to the EUROCALL 2010 organising committee led by Dominique Macaire, to the conference secretary Claudia Boursier to the 64 members of the Programme Committee and to the 40 chair-persons and to all those attending the conference.

Acceptance of the President’s Report was proposed by Thierry Chanier, seconded by Tony Fitzpatrick and passed nem con.

4. Treasurer’s Report
4.1 Treasurer’s Report for the period 1 st July 2009-30 th June 2010
The Treasurer, John Gillespie, presented the report and paid tribute to the help he had received from Angela Chambers and Margaret Gammell in its preparation.

He reported that, despite the recession and the current difficulties, the Association was in a stronger financial position because of substantial increases in income. Income from membership had increased to €29,215 (€24,663), income from the conference to €9,000 (€2765) and significantly, income from Cambridge University Press to €9,448 (€4,327) from profit sharing from sales of the journal. Overall, income over the year rose by €18,589.

On the expenditure side the costs of producing ReCALL rose to €12,489 (€9,133) as did staff costs €22,249 (€17,657), and travel costs €2,999 (€1,343). There was also an exceptional charge for NLRP expenses €2,864, which will be a one off. However audit costs reduced substantially to €790 (€2,934). The staffing costs were high because of payment arrears accumulated over a long period of time at Limerick. Those have now been dealt with. Expenditure had therefore increased by €10, 298 to €44, 522 (€34, 124). However that still left a surplus of €6,209 (against a deficit of €1,982 last year) and meant that we were able to increase our credit balance to €41,062 (€34, 853). Since it is our established policy to have one year’s income as surplus, it is clear that we are currently well placed to return to that position after our recent difficulties.

4.2 Budget for the Period 1 July 2010-30 June 2011

The Treasurer was pleased to report that prospects for the coming financial year, given this year’s good results, were positive. On the income side it was already clear from the early part of the year and the attendance at the conference that there would be an increase in membership fees, and the normal €9000 from the Bordeaux conference would be achieved. It was also considered likely that the increase in the contribution from the profits of ReCALL would be sustained. On the expenditure side, it was likely that, given salary differentials between Ireland and the UK, salary costs would fall, but that, for the next year, the changeover costs between Limerick and Ulster would mask this. All other expenditure would remain flat over the year. This should enable us to show a small surplus of €4,110 for the year.

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by Salomi Papadima Sophocleus, seconded by Oranna Speicher and passed nem con.

Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by Nicolas Guichon, seconded by Marina Canapero, and passed nem con.

 

5. Reports by members of the Executive Committee
Mirjam Hauck 
gave a brief report on the Special Interest Groups (for the list of groups see the President’s report above), which are her particular responsibility, and outlined the meetings that would be taking place during the conference and the forthcoming CMC symposium.

Françoise Blin outlined the importance of the Research Policy Statement to the work of EUROCALL. She stressed the fact that the statement reflects the importance of the Research Agenda of the Association. The importance of publishing in key journals was underscored, particularly since RAE type exercises were becoming more widespread throughout Europe. Another key area was the development of postgraduate research students in CALL. There is a need to develop this aspect of the CALL community and to consider strategic co-tutelle arrangements. It would be a good idea, she felt, to set up a working group on postgraduate studies to consider postgraduate conferences, the Bologna process and other key areas.

6. EUROCALL Headquarters

AG outlined the process by which the Executive had sought for new Headquarters for EUROCALL. She reported on the handover meeting which took place in Limerick on 22 nd and 23 rd August at which she, Angela Chambers, Margaret Gammell, Françoise Blin and John Gillespie were present. The agreement would last from 23 rd Aug. 2010 until 22 nd Aug. 2014. In reiterating her thanks to Angela, Margaret and the University of Limerick for all that they had done for the Association she also thanked John and the University of Ulster for taking on the task and wished him all the best for the four years ahead.

The decision to relocate the Headquarters of EUROCALL to the University of Ulster was ratified, nem con.

7. Any Other Business

There was no other business.

Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Gandía (Valencia, España) 11/09/2009 (inglés)

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting

Friday 11 September 2009
At the EUROCALL 2009 Conference
Gandia, Spain, 9-12 September 2009

Present:

Kent Andersen, Tita Beaven, Françoise Blin (Vice-President), Alex Boulton, Thierry Chanier, Suzanne Cloke, Anna Comas-Quinn, Liliana Cuesta, Graham Davies, Tony Fitzpatrick, Margaret Gammell ( Secretary), Jeannine Gerbault, John Gillespie, Ana Gimeno (President), Brisa Gómez, Nicolas Guichon, Regina Hampel, Mirjam Hauck, Sarah L Heiser, Timo Hulkko, Ton Koenraad, Sake jager, Jesús García Laborda, Bea de Los Arcos, Dominique Macaire, Teresa Morell, Marina Orsini-Jones, Elena Osinsky, Luisa Panichi, Salomi Papadima Sophocleous, Françoise Raby, Fred Riley, Celine Restrepo Zea, Bernd Rueschoff , Thomas Robb, María Sánchez Tornel, Thomas W. Santos, Mathias Schulze, Rafael Seiz Ortiz, Oranna Speicher, Anthony Stenton, Carola Strobl, June Thompson, Stephen L. Thorne, Cecilia Trevino, J. Widmann

Members were invited to cast their vote before the meeting for the one candidate nominated to take up the vacant position on the Executive Committee. The results would be announced at item 7.

1. Minutes

The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Székesfehérvár, 5 September 2008 were accepted and signed as a true record.

Proposed by: Sake Jager, seconded by: Kent Anderson and passed nem con.

2. Matters arising

None.

3. President’s Report

Dr Ana Gimeno-Sanz presented her report which included the following items:

Membership

AG informed the meeting that EUROCALL membership was currently between 200 and 250 members. She was pleased to report the successful initiation of a joint CALICO-EUROCALL membership which saw members of both Associations enjoying mutual benefits. She hoped that those attending the meeting would encourage their institutions to consider taking corporate memberships of the Association as well as library subscriptions to Re CALL . The President notified the meeting that a small increase in the membership fee would be necessary in order to meet rising costs. This would be confirmed at the 2009 AGM and implemented in the calendar year 2010.

Publications: Re CALL Journal and The EUROCALL Review

Re CALL Journal:

Edited by June Thompson and Françoise Blin, with 3 issues per year. Efforts were being made to increase listings in specialised research indices including:

  • ERIC (Education Resources Information Center – an internet-based digital library of education research and information sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.)
  • Thompson Scientific : ISI Web of Knowledge (research platform to find, analyse and manage information in the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities.)
  • European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH)
  • Educational Research Abstracts (ERA)
  • Modern Language Association Database (MLA)

The EUROCALL Review:

Now with a separate peer -reviewed section and 8 member scientific committee, the EUROCALL Review is pleased to publish peer-reviewed articles and conference papers. Regular sections include:

  • Reports on EUROCALL Special Interest Groups: up-to-date information on SIG activities.
  • Projects: reports on on-going CALL or CALL-related R&D projects in which EUROCALL members participate.
  • Recommended websites: reports and reviews of examples of good practice in language learning website development and use.
  • Publications by EUROCALL members: reviews of new books, CALL software, etc. published or edited by members.

Presenters were being invited to submit conference papers/show & tell articles for publication in the EUROCALL Review.

EUROCALL Website:

The website is now being commercially hosted by the firm Titan. AG gave thanks to Fred Riley for his tireless work in maintaining and updating the website which contains the following invaluable resources:

  • Newsfeeds and Events Calendar
  • New restricted area for members
  • Archived videos and podcasts from the conference Virtual Strand.

Angela Chambers was thanked for her work in maintaining the CALL bibliography.

Virtual Strand:

This was the third year of the Virtual Strand, coordinated by Lesley Shield. AG gave thanks to LS and to Peppi Taalas and the local team in Székesfehérvár. This year’s VS consisted of streamed plenary sessions by Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Andrea Kárpáti and Patrik Svensson as well as the Panel discussion on “ CALL: New competences and social spaces” chaired by Phil Hubbard and Trude Heift. AG thanked all involved and reminded members that the VS would be archived and available at the exclusive members area of the EUROCALL website. LS and PT would be making a short presentation re the VS during the meeting.

National/Regional Representatives:

In welcoming the new National Representative for Turkey, Bart Bonhomie, the President highlighted the importance of regional events as a means of supporting and promoting research in CALL and recruiting new members. The NatReps meet during the annual conference and are coordinated by Peppi Taalas.

Awards/Scholarships:

The recipient of the János Kohn Scholarship for 2009, Sylvia Maciaszczyk, was in attendance at S zékesfehérvár . This scholarship provides for one years membership and attendance at the annual conference. The President invited submissions for the annual Research Award. This valuable award includes guaranteed publication in Re CALL , attendance at the annual conference and a year’s membership of EUROCALL. The closing date for submission for both the Research Award and the János Kohn Scholarship for 2010 is 31 January, 2010.

Special Interest Groups:

There were now four special interest groups currently operating within EUROCALL (Natural Language Processing, CorpusCALL, Computer Mediated Communication and the new Sig for Teacher Education), with a further SIG envisaged for Virtual Worlds. Sigs were being co-ordinated by Robert O’Dowd. The President reminded the meeting that any member of EUROCALL was welcome to join these special interest groups and that proposals for new Sigs would be welcomed.

Thanks:

In closing, Ana Gimeno expressed her pleasure at hosting EUROCALL 2010 in her home institution and thanked the local team for all their support. She thanked especially the members of the EUROCALL 2009 Scientific Committee for their invaluable work.

Acceptance of the President’s Report was proposed by Rafael Seiz Ortiz, seconded by Thierry Chanier and passed nem con.

4 . Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer, Angela Chambers, was unable to attend the conference, and the annual accounts of the Association for the period 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009 were presented by the Secretary on her behalf. Income from membership was €24,663 with a further income of €4,327 received from CUP. The Treasurer wished to thank Zsuzsanna Angeli and her team for their work in hosting EUROCALL 2008. It was unfortunate that the large number of CALL conferences during the same period led to a greatly reduced attendance in S zékesfehérvár. This resulted in only €427 profit, which did not in any way reflect the effort and expertise of the conference organisation. Additional income consisted of €1,738, from the 2007 conference, with a further amount of €600 from Robert O’Dowd generated from the CMC workshop in León. The Treasurer was pleased to report that expenditure for the period was generally down. EUROCALL had benefited from a significant drop in the value of Sterling so that the cost of Re CALL publications was only €9,133 and not €14,600 as forecast. Travel was also lower than expected and the Treasurer wished to thank Ana Gimeno who managed to secure sponsorship to cover the mid-year meeting of the Executive Committee in Gandia. She would encourage future conference organisers to do likewise where possible. Auditor’s fees were higher than forecast but this was due to a once-off charge connected with the Association’s application for charitable status in Ireland. The result for the year was a deficit of €1,982. The treasurer was pleased to report that it had been possible to negotiate a reduction in auditor’s fees for the coming year, which would be reflected in the 2009-2010 accounts. She had prepared her budget based on a small increase in membership fees and absolutely no unnecessary expenditure and was predicting a small surplus of €1,394.

The following increases in membership fees were proposed: Corporate: €250; Individual: €90; Online: €55 (to include student, retired and new EU member country colleagues).

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by Oranna Speicher, seconded by Salomi Papadima Sophocleous and and passed nem con .

Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by Marina Orsini Jones, seconded by Mathias Schulze and passed nem con .

Acceptance of the increase in membership fees was proposed by Suzanne Cloke, seconded by Alex Boulton and passed nem con.

5. Reports by members of the EUROCALL Executive Committee

5. 1 Mirjam Hauck, Teacher Education SIG: MH was pleased to report that the newly established Teacher Education SIG had held its first meeting during the conference. A large attendance (47) had voted for a chairperson, Mirjam Hauck, and Secretary, Nicolas Guichon, who would establish a mailing list for ongoing contact. The new SIG was already planning a local event to be held in Lyon, in May 2010.

5.2 Graham Davies, Virtual Worlds SIG: GD advised the attendance that he had been liaising with Randall Sadler, who had set up a new CALICO virtual headquarters next door to the EUROCALL HQ in Second Life. Building on the collaboration that already exists between the two Associations, the CALICO HQ has a Resources centre, accessible by an internal teleport system, which contains a growing collection of free resources. It was proposed to establish a joint EUROCALL/CALICO Virtual Worlds SIG to share resources and to cater for the growing interest in the area of virtual worlds for language learning.

5.3 John Gillespie, Research Policy Statement JG reminded the meeting that EUROCALL’S pioneering Research Policy Statement had been formulated 1999. Given the growing strength and development of Computer Assisted Language Learning research during that period, the EUROCALL Executive Committee decided that it was an appropriate time to revise the policy statement in order to take account of the many changes during the past ten years. JG was currently working on revising the document which would be available to members in due course for consultation and feedback.

6. Conferences

The President was pleased to announce that EUROCALL 2010 would be held in Université de Bordeaux, France from 8-11 September 2010. Conference organiser Dominique Macaire would make a short presentation on the 2010 conference during the closing ceremony. Members were invited to submit proposals to host EUROCALL 2011 and beyond. Further details available from the EUROCALL office. In closing, Ana Gimeno thanked past, present and future conference organisers, mentioning particularly Zsuzsanna Angeli who had organised the 2008 conference. She reminded delegates to complete and return the evaluation form in their conference pack as this was invaluable to future organisers.

7. Voting

7.1 Amendment to Standing Order No. 4 in order to permit electronic (email) ballot in future Executive Committee elections: This was passed by a show of hands.

7.2 Executive Committee Votes had been cast at the start of the meeting for the one vacancy on the Executive Committee. Nicolas Guichon was the only nominee and was duly elected.

Any Other Business

There was no other business.

 Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Székesfehérvár (Hungría) 5/09/2008

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
Friday 5 September 2008
At the EUROCALL 2008 Conference
Székesfehérvár, Hungary 3-6 September 2008

Present:
Antonie Alm, Kent Andersen, Emerita Banados, David Barr, Therese Omberg Berglund, Françoise Blin (Vice-President), Ilse Born-Lechleitner, Linda Bradley, Suzanne Cloke, Frederik Cornillie, Graham Davies, Joseph V. Dias, Melinda Dooley, Margaret Gammell (Secretary), Jesus García Laborda, Robert Gettings, John Gillespie, Ana Gimeno (President), C. Gomic, Lisa Griggio, Nicolas Guichon, Sarah Guth, Mirjam Hauck, Francesca Helm, Rebecca Hincks, Phil Hubbard, Timo Hulkko, Kristi Jauregi, Natalya Kocheturova, Inge-Anna Koleff, Malgoizata Kurek, Florence Le Baron, John Paul Louckey, Dorota Morawska-Walasek, Douglas Moody, Antje Neuhoff, Joan O’Sullivan, James W. Pagel, Luisa Panichi, David Reedy, Celine Restrepo Zea, Randall Sadler, Kazumi Sakai, Almut Schon, Rafael Seiz Ortiz, Steffen Skowronek, Kirsten Sontgens, Oranna Speicher, Leena Subra, Monika Szirmai, Peppi Taalas, June Thompson, Sylvie Thouesny, Sylvi Vigma, C.H. Wan, J. Watson, J. Widmann, P.C. Wong, Anne Zanatta, George Ypsilandis

1. Minutes

The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Coleraine, 7 September 2007 were accepted and signed as a true record.

Proposed by: John Gillespie, seconded by: Kent Anderson and passed nem con.

2. Matters arising

None.

3. President’s Report

Dr Ana Gimeno-Sanz presented her report which included the following items:

Membership
AG informed the meeting that EUROCALL membership was currently between 200 and 250 members. She was pleased to report the successful initiation of a joint CALICO-EUROCALL membership which saw members of both Associations enjoying mutual benefits. She hoped that those attending the meeting would encourage their institutions to consider taking corporate memberships of the Association as well as library subscriptions to Re CALL . The President notified the meeting that a small increase in the membership fee would be necessary in order to meet rising costs. This would be confirmed at the 2009 AGM and implemented in the calendar year 2010.

Publications: Re CALL Journal and The EUROCALL Review

Re CALL Journal:
Edited by June Thompson and Françoise Blin, with 3 issues per year. Efforts were being made to increase listings in specialised research indices including:

  • ERIC (Education Resources Information Center – an internet-based digital library of education research and information sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.)
  • Thompson Scientific: ISI Web of Knowledge (research platform to find, analyse and manage information in the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities.)
  • European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH)
  • Educational Research Abstracts (ERA)
  • Modern Language Association Database (MLA)

The EUROCALL Review:
Now with a separate peer -reviewed section and 8 member scientific committee, the EUROCALL Review is pleased to publish peer-reviewed articles and conference papers. Regular sections include:

  • Reports on EUROCALL Special Interest Groups: up-to-date information on SIG activities. Projects: reports on on-going CALL or CALL-related R&D projects in which EUROCALL members participate. Recommended websites: reports and reviews of examples of good practice in language learning website development and use.
  • Publications by EUROCALL members: reviews of new books, CALL software, etc. published or edited by members.

Presenters were being invited to submit conference papers/show & tell articles for publication in the EUROCALL Review.

EUROCALL Website:
The website is now being commercially hosted by the firm Titan. AG gave thanks to Fred Riley for his tireless work in maintaining and updating the website which contains the following invaluable resources:

  • Newsfeeds and Events Calendar New restricted area for members
  • Archived videos and podcasts from the conference Virtual Strand.

Angela Chambers was thanked for her work in maintaining the CALL bibliography.

Virtual Strand:
This was the third year of the Virtual Strand, coordinated by Lesley Shield. AG gave thanks to LS and to Peppi Taalas and the local team in Székesfehérvár. This year’s VS consisted of streamed plenary sessions by Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Andrea Kárpáti and Patrik Svensson as well as the Panel discussion on “ CALL: New competences and social spaces” chaired by Phil Hubbard and Trude Heift. AG thanked all involved and reminded members that the VS would be archived and available at the exclusive members area of the EUROCALL website. LS and PT would be making a short presentation re the VS during the meeting.

National/Regional Representatives:
In naming the 17 National/Regional Representatives, AG highlighted the important work undertaken by this group which included promoting EUROCALL through their national websites and holding regional workshops. One such workshop, with over 60 participants, was held by the CMC SIG at University of Padova , Italy , in April 2008. A full report would appear in issue No. 14 of The EUROCALL Review, due in Sept. ’08. The NatReps meet during the annual conference and are coordinated by Peppi Taalas.

Awards/Scholarships:
The recipient of the János Kohn Scholarship for 2006, Joanna Jendryczka-Wierszycka from Poznan , Poland was in attendance at S zékesfehérvár . This scholarship provides for one years membership and attendance at the annual conference. The President invited submissions for the annual Research Award. This valuable award includes guaranteed publication in Re CALL , attendance at the annual conference and a year’s membership of EUROCALL. The closing date for submission for both the Research Award and the János Kohn Scholarship for 2009 is 31 January, 2009.

Special Interest Groups:
In addition to the three special interest groups currently operating within EUROCALL (Natural Language Processing, CorpusCALL and Computer Mediated Communication Sigs), it was hoped to establish a new Sig for Teacher Education and CALL during this conference. Sigs were being co-ordinated by Robert O’Dowd. The President reminded the meeting that any member of EUROCALL was welcome to join these special interest groups and that proposals for new Sigs would be welcomed.

Thanks:
In closing, Ana Gimeno expressed her thanks and appreciation to Zsuzsanna Angeli and the team at S zékesfehérvár for their wonderful organisation of EUROCALL 2008, and gave special mention to the 35 members of the EUROCALL 2008 Scientific Committee.

Acceptance of the President’s Report was proposed by Robert Gettings, seconded by Inge-Anna Koleff and passed nem con.

4 . Treasurer’s Report

As the Treasurer, Angela Chambers, was unable to attend the conference, the Secretary General, Margaret Gammell, presented the annual accounts of the Association for the period 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008 on her behalf. Income from membership was €23,210 with a further income of €2,705 received from CUP. The Treasurer wished to thank John Gillespie and confirmed having received €7,262 in conference profit from the 2007 conference. JG had advised the Treasurer that a further amount of €1,738 would be transferred to the EUROCALL account in due course, making a total profit of €9,000. This amount would be included in the budget for 2008-2009. Forecasts from CUP had predicted a surplus to EUROCALL in the region of 5000 pounds sterling for 2009. However, the reduction in membership numbers in 2008 made this unlikely and a sum of €5,000 was allocated in the budget. Expenditure for the period was generally as expected with the exception of travel which at €6,077 was higher than budgeted. This was explained by the expensive travel destinations in 2007 and 2008. EUROCALL 2009 would be held in Gandia , Spain . This was expected to be a low cost destination, and it was therefore envisaged that travel expenses would return to normal rates for 2008-09 and an amount of €4000 was included in the budget . While there was a significant deficit in the year-end accounts due to lower membership numbers the Executive Committee had agreed that EUROCALL should nevertheless continue in its endeavour to encourage and assist conference attendance through the J án os Kohn Scholarship and the Research Award. A sum of €800 had therefore been allocated to each of these. It was also felt that upgrading the website was of vital importance and an amount of €1500 was allocated to this area. The Treasurer had therefore prepared a budget based on what was a relatively tight financial situation and expected to return a small profit in the amount of €483, to be transferred to the reserve at year end.

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by George Ypsilandis, seconded by Mirjam Hauck and passed nem con.

Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by John Gillespie, seconded by Joseph Dias and passed nem con.

5. Reports by members of the EUROCALL Executive Committee

5.1 Françoise Blin, EUROCALL Website: FB reported that EUROCALL was looking at ways of improving the website and would welcome suggestions to be sent to her or the Secretary. In the absence of a Content Management System it was intended to explore the possibilities of JISCmail for storing and accessing files. MG would be reporting to the Executive Committee in due course in this connection.

5.2 Lesley Shield and Peppi Taalas, Virtual Strand: The VS organisers were pleased to report that the VS had 106 registered participants worldwide. The discussion list was very active and the DimDim tool was working well. LS reminded those present that the VS provided an environment for both present and virtual participants and that it was envisaged to have a separate call for online participants for future conferences. LS and PT put out a call for volunteers to work with the VS team

5.3 Graham Davies, Second Life: GD reported on his participation in Second Life the 3-D virtual world where he had set up a EUROCALL headquarters. GD would be investigating the possiblities this virtual world presented to EUROCALL members and invited members to visit Second Life by going to the Edunation section of the Second Life website. A pre-conference workshop (jointly run with Lesley Shield) had offerd training to participants. GD would be seeking feedback from participants and would report his experiences in Second Life through the JISCmail discussion list. GD would welcome members’ comments, feedback and ideas through the list.

6. Conferences

The President was pleased to announce that EUROCALL 2009 would be held in her own institution, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, at their Gandia campus from 9-12 September 2009. There would be a short presentation on the 2009 conference during the closing ceremony. Members were invited to submit proposals to host EUROCALL 2010 and beyond. Further details available from the EUROCALL office. In closing, Ana Gimeno thanked past, present and future conference organisers, mentioning particularly John Gillespie and David Barr who had organised the 2007 conference. Evaluation reports from the Coleraine conference had given excellent feedback. She reminded delegates to complete and return the evaluation form in their conference pack as this was invaluable to future organisers.

7. Voting

Voting took place for the following positions on the Executive Committee: President, Vice-President and three Committee Members. Results would be posted after the count.

Any Other Business

There was no other business.

MG 11/06/09


Addendum

Election Results:

The following members were elected to the EUROCALL Executive Committee:

President: Ana Gimeno Sanz

Vice-President: Françoise Blin 

3 x Committee Members:

Graham Davies

Mirjam Hauck

Peppi Taalas

Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Coleraine (Irlanda del Norte) 7/09/2007

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
held on Friday 7 September 2007
at the EUROCALL 2007 Conference
Coleraine, 5-8 September 2007

Present:

Kent Andersen, Ignacio Altes, Christine Appel, David Barr, Françoise Blin (Vice-President), Dermot Campbell, Angela Chambers (Treasurer), Thierry Chanier, Graham Davies, Anthony Fitzpatrick, Brian Farrington, Margaret Gammell ( Secretary), John Gillespie, Ana Gimeno (President), Regine Hampel, Nicolas Ischi, Alfonso Isla, Sake Jager, Marie-Madeleine Kenning, Inge-Anna Koleff, Toshiko Koyama, CK Jung, Peter Liddell, Jonathon Leakey, Antje Neuhoff, Robert O’Dowd, Breffni O’Rourke, Ide O’ Sullivan, Marina Orsini-Jones, Hans Paulussen, Thomas Robb, José Macario Rocha, Bernd Rüeschoff, Rafael Seiz Ortiz, Lesley Shield, Kirsten Sontgens, Grazyna Studzinska-Cavour, Peppi Taalas, Maija Tammelin, June Thompson, Sylvie Thouesny, Cornelia Tschichold, Monica Ward.

1. Minutes

The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Granada 6 September 2006, were accepted and signed as a true record.

Proposed by: Breffni O’Rourke, seconded by: David Barr and passed nem con.

2. Matters arising

Tony Fitzpatrick asked if a copy of the annual accounts was being distributed along with the Agenda and previous AGM minutes. The Treasurer replied that no copies of the accounts had been copied for distribution but would be displayed along with the budget for 07-08 during the Treasurer’s Report.

3. President’s Report

Dr Ana Gimeno-Sanz presented her report which included the following items:

•  Website

AG gave thanks to Fred Riley who was in the process of restructuring the website to contain a members only area. This area would become home to the resources section, including the bibliography and videos from the Virtual Strand. AG thanked Angela Chambers for her work in maintaining the bibliography and Lesley Shield and Peppi Taalas and the Coleraine team including David Barr and Keith Beckett for a very successful Virtual Strand, which had more than 200 virtual participants this year. Thanks were also expressed to Stuart Gold who supplied the Blobber tool.

•  The EUROCALL Review

Now with a peer -reviewed section. Presenters were being invited to submit conference papers/shoe & tell articles for publication in the EUROCALL Review.

•  National/Regional Representatives

This group is coordinated by Peppi Taalas. Ana Gimeno welcomed newly elected National Representatives:

•  Kent Andersen (Denmark)
•  Françoise Raby (France)
•  Nicolas Ischi (Switzerland)

and reminded the members of the important work carried out by this group, such as hosting local events and workshops, including the recent event held in Valencia .

•  Awards/Scholarships

The recipient of the 2007 Research Award would be announced at the closing ceremony. This valuable award included guaranteed publication in Re CALL , attendance at the annual conference and a year’s membership of EUROCALL. The recipient of the János Kohn Scholarship for 2006, Besa Pupa, from Kosovo, was in attendance at Coleraine. This scholarship provided for one years membership and attendance at the annual conference. AG reminded delegates that the closing date for submission for both the Research Award and the János Kohn Scholarship for 2008 is 31 January, 2008.

•  Special Interest Groups

In addition to the two special interest groups currently operating within EUROCALL (Natural Language Processing Sig and the CorpusCALL Sig), a new sig for those working in Computer Mediated Communication was being set up during this conference. Any member of EUROCALL was welcome to join these special interest groups and proposals for new sigs would be welcomed.

•  Affiliations

In order to develop closer co-operation between the two Associations it had been agreed with CALICO to issue a joint-membership with a reduced rate online membership offered to members of the sister Association. Members would be issued with full details on renewal of their membership from January 2008.

In closing, Ana Gimeno expressed her thanks and appreciation to John Gillespie and the Coleraine team for organizing EUROCALL 2007. She wished Zsuzsanna Angeli every success with her preparations for EUROCALL 2008, which would be held in S zékesfehérvár, Hungary, from 3-6 September 2008. ZA would be making a short presentation on EUROCALL 2008 at the closing ceremony.

Acceptance of the President’s Report was proposed by Thierry Chanier, seconded by Brian Farrington and passed nem con.

4. Treasurer’s Report

4.1 Treasurer’s Report for the period 1 August 2006 to 30 June 2007: Angela Chambers presented the audited accounts of the Association for the period 1 August 2006 to 30 June 2007. She explained that the financial year had been changed to facilitate the early preparation of accounts in time for presentation at the AGM. For this reason, this set of accounts comprised an 11 month period. Receipts from membership for the period were €27,330euros. This was lower than forecast and seemed to be reflective not only of the shorter financial period but an indication of a slowdown in renewals in the Corporate sector. The Treasurer congratulated the organizers of EUROCALL 2006 for their successful conference in Granada and confirmed having received a total of €7,990 from them. In addition, she was pleased to announce receipt of €7,630 from Cambridge University Press. This first return of profit from CUP meant that she would be in a position to transfer €3294 to the reserve. This was almost €3000 more than that forecast, but without which there would have been a sizeable deficit. So, while the reserve, currently standing at €23,248 was now quite reasonable, there was no room for complacency and she would be presenting a cautious budget. The Treasurer gave thanks to Margaret Gammell for her work in preparing the accounts.

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by John Gillespie, seconded by Tony Fitzpatrick and passed nem con.

4.2 Budget for the period 1 July 2007 – 31 June 2008: The Treasurer had adopted a conservative approach to the budget and projected income and expenditure was much in keeping with returns as seen in the previous 11 month period and current membership figures. She forecast an overall profit of €2193 for 2007-08.

Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by David Barr, seconded by Maija Tammelin and passed nem con.

5. Reports by members of the EUROCALL Executive Committee

5.1 Françoise Blin, Co-Chair WorldCALL 2008: FB reported on her involvement as co-chair of the Programme Committee of WorldCall 2008, to be held in Fukuoka , Japan from 5-8 August 2008. The Call For Papers was now available and FB requested that members contact her with suggestions for possible pre-conference workshops. She encouraged members to avail of the proposed joint membership with CALICO when it became available in 2008 and advised them that consultation would be taking place in order to revise the joint policy document. It was hoped that this would be ready in time for presentation at WorldCALL 2008.

5.2 June Thompson, Editor, ReCALL Journal: JT reported on her role as Editor of Re CALL Journal. This included the myriad of tasks involved in bringing the Journal to publication. With three issues of Re CALL published per year, 2007 saw a special issue on Corpora, guest edited by Angela Chambers and a further special issue on MALL was in the pipeline for 2008, with Lesley Shield as guest editor. JT gave thanks to both her guest editors for their work on these special issues. JT advised the meeting that Graham Chesters had recently retired from his role as co-Editor of Re CALL and expressed her thanks to Fran ç oise Blin, who taken up the role. JT also gave thanks to the reviewers who gave their time and fulfilled such a valuable role. In closing, she reminded the meeting of the October 15 deadline for submitting articles for publication in Re CALL Vol. 20, to be issued in May 2008. While this was the absolute deadline, she would appreciate receiving items by September 30, if at all possible.

5.3 Graham Davies, Second Life: GD reported on his very positive experience with participation in Second Life the 3-D virtual world which was attracting many language learning communities. It had been agreed with the EUROCALL Executive Committee that EUROCALL should purchase land and set up a virtual headquarters in Second Life for an initial period of one year. GD would be investigating the possiblities this virtual world presented to EUROCALL members and invited members to visit Second Life by going to the Edunation section of the Second Life website. GD would be reporting his experiences in Second Life through the JISCmail discussion list and would welcome members’ comments, feedback and ideas through the list.

6. Conferences

Members were invited to submit proposals to host EUROCALL 2009 and beyond. The deadline for submission of bids for 2009 was Nov.30, 2007. Further details available from the EUROCALL office. In closing, Ana Gimeno thanked past, present and future conference organisers, mentioning particularly Tony Harris who had organised the 2006 conference and was unavoidably absent from Coleraine. Evaluation reports from the Granada conference had given excellent feedback. She reminded delegates to complete and return the evaluation form in their conference pack as this was invaluable to future organisers.

7. Any Other Business

There was no other business.

MG 11/06/08

Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Granada (España) 6/09/2006

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
Held on Wednesday 6 September 2006 at the EUROCALL 2006 Conference
Granada, 4-7 September 2006

Present:

Lis Auvinen, Anthony Baldry, Paul Bangs, David Barr, Therese Örnberg Berglund, Françoise Blin (Vice-President) , Peter Broeder, Angela Chambers (Treasurer), M. Suzanne Cloke, Beatriz de los Arcos, Piet Desmet, Herve Didio-Cook, Kaija Ervola, Anthony Fitzpatrick, Margaret Gammell ( Secretary), Barbara Geraghty, John Gillespie, Ana Gimeno (President), Carmen Gomez Gonzalez, Sarah Guth, Tony Harris, Mirjam Hauck, Francesca Helm, Timo Hulkko, Sophie Iannou-Georgiou, Sake Jager, Catherrine Jeanneau, Maria Jordano de la Torre, Kaisa Kahonon, Inge-Anna Koleff, Kinichi Kuradate, Marie Noëlle Lamy, Jonathan Leakey, Sebastian L’Haire, Andreas Lund, Maire Makinen, Martina Mollering, Carmen Mortara, Bernard Moro, Kerstin Namuth, Antje Neuhoff, Helle Lykke Nielsen, Hiroyuki Obari, Robert O’Dowd, Stephanie O’Riordan, Rafael Seiz Ortiz, Ide O’ Sullivan, Sue Otto, James Pankhurst, Hans Paulussen, Heli Pekkala, Berit Peltonen, Isabel Perez, Carmen Perez Basenta, Christina Perez Guillot, Stephan Pohlmann, Rosario Reyes Márquez, Fred Riley, Markus Ritter, Thomas Robb, F. Rosell-Aguilar, Kazumi Sakai, LiJing Shi, Lesley Shield, Irina Smoliannikova, Patricia Sneesby, Claude Springer, Lena Subra, Peppi Taalas, Maija Tammelin, June Thompson, Saskia Van Bueren, Bert Wylin.


1. Minutes

The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Cracow 26 August 2005, were accepted and signed as a true record.

Proposed by Françoise Blin, seconded by David Barr and passed nem con.

2. Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

3. President’s Report

Dr Ana Gimeno-Sanz presented her report, the full text of which would appear on the EUROCALL website. (http://www.eurocall-languages.org/about/docs/presreps/presrep2006.html)

In this, her first report as EUROCALL President, she focused on the following items:

  • Membership
    Ana was pleased to inform the members that membership was holding steady with an excess of 300 members and a growth in the corporate sector (from 68 to 75 in the past year). The online payment system using PayPal was proving popular with regular and new members joining via the website.
  • ReCALL Journal
    Edited by June Thompson and currently issued twice a year. This will increase to 3 issues per year (Jan./May/Nov.)from 2007. In addition, there would be increased listings of the Journal in specialised research indices.
  • The EUROCALL Review
    Now with a peer-reviewed section. Presenters were being invited to submit conference papers/show & tell articles for publication in the Review.
  • Virtual Strand
    Coordinated by Lesley Shield. This new innovation would permit participation by people unable to attend the conference and involved videoing of plenary sessions, which would be available during the conference and archived for viewing by members at a later stage. A conference blog would be written by people attending the conference while the use of a blobber tool would make it possible to talk in real time with participants and those attending virtually.
  • EUROCALL Website
    The website was now hosted at University of Limerick and thanks was due to Fred Riley who maintained and updated this valuable resource with regular newsfeeds and events calendar. The website also featured a CALL bibliography, which was updated by Angela Chambers.
  • National/Regional Representatives
    This group is coordinated by Peppi Taalas. Ana welcomed newly elected National Representatives and reminded the members of the important work carried out by this group, including hosting local events and workshops such as the recent ones in Portsmouth and León and another to be held shortly in Valencia.
  • Research Award
    In re-launching the Research Award, Ana invited applications from newcomers to research in CALL for this valuable award, which included guaranteed publication in ReCALL, attendance at the annual conference and a year’s membership of EUROCALL.
  • Special Interest Groups
    Ana reminded members of the two sigs currently operating within EUROCALL: the Natural Language Processing Sig and the CorpusCALL Sig. Any member of EUROCALL was welcome to join these sigs and proposals for new sigs would be welcomed.

In closing, Ana expressed her thanks and appreciation to Tony Harris and the Granada team for organizing EUROCALL 2006. She wished John Gillespie every success with EUROCALL 2007, and reminded members that John would be making a short presentation on EUROCALL 2007 at the closing ceremony.

Acceptance of the President’s Report was proposed by Paul Bangs, seconded by Robert O’Dowd and passed nem con.

4. Treasurer’s Report

Angela Chambers presented the audited accounts of the Association for the period 1 August 2005 to 31 July 2006. The accounts showed a successful year with an increase in membership receipts (30,260euros as opposed to 28,000euros budgeted). She congratulated the organisers of the Cracow conference who returned a surplus of €15,340 (€13,000 income from the conference and €2,340 from workshops). The Treasurer pointed out however, that this income was not the final figure and that there was an amount of €1922 which had been paid in refunds and other costs, from the EUROCALL account in Limerick. A further €1170 was due to workshop presenters and this would be paid in the next financial year and was included in the budget for 06-07. AC advised the meeting that extra income from membership fees and the 2005 conference, along with a reduction in travel costs had resulted in a transfer to the reserve of €7320. It had therefore been agreed by the Executive Committee that €2000 of the conference surplus should be redirected to assist new EU member country colleagues to attend future conferences.

In reply to a point raised by Tony Fitzpatrick the Treasurer agreed that a clearer more comprehensive breakdown of income and outgoings would be presented in future, with a signed auditors balance sheet where possible, although it was difficult to achieve full audited accounts given the short time-frame between the financial year-end (July 31) and the conference. The Treasurer confirmed that the reserve was currently in the region of €22,000. In reply to a suggestion that the Executive Committee meet virtually in order to make savings on travel expenses she stated that much of the Executive business was carried on by means of a closed mailing list and that the majority of Executive Committee members had their expenses covered by their own Institutions, with costs to EUROCALL kept to the minimum.

The Treasurer next announced an increase in the membership fee. This would be necessary to cover the cost of the additional issue of ReCALL Journal expected to come on stream in 2007. The new fee being proposed was as follows:

  • Individual: 85 euros
  • Corporate: 200 euros
  • Student: 50 euros

A feature of the new student rate would be online only access to the ReCALL Journal. The Treasurer pointed out that the new rates were configured in order to maintain current income and explained that student members had for some years been paying below the basic cost of the ReCALL Journal – a situation which could not continue indefinitely. The new online rate was being proposed in order to accommodate this category of member without imposing a large increase in the fee. This low-cost online membership would also be available to new EU member country colleagues, further underpinning EUROCALL’s ongoing commitment to including colleagues from emerging economies. The Treasurer gave thanks to Margaret Gammell for her work in preparing the accounts.

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by John Gillespie, seconded by Tony Fitzpatrick and passed nem con.

Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by Stephan Pohlmann, seconded by Paul Bangs and passed nem con.

Acceptance of the increase in membership fee was proposed by Tony Harris and seconded by Thomas Robb.

5. EUROCALL Conferences

5.1 EUROCALL 2006: The organisers of the Granada conference were commended on their successful organisation of what was the biggest attendance at any EUROCALL conference, and thanks were extended to all involved.

5.2 EUROCALL 2007: Ana Gimeno announced that EUROCALL 2007 would take place at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, from 5-8 September 2007and thanked John Gillespie and his team for their willingness to host the conference and wished them well with their preparations.

5.3 EUROCALL 2008/2009: Members were invited to submit proposals to host EUROCALL 2008 and 2009. The deadline for submission of bids for 2008 was Nov. 30 2006. Further details available from the EUROCALL office.

A discussion then followed with regard to the planning of EUROCALL conferences and the means by which themes and topics were arrived at. The question was raised as to how to provide for a conference theme which would not be perceived as exclusive. Tony Harris reminded the attendance that while the theme for this year’s conference was Integrating CALL into Study Programmes, the Call for Papers also welcomed presentations focusing on any other aspect of CALL research, development and practices, and that this was generally the case with EUROCALL conferences. John Gillespie confirmed that the Call for Papers for EUROCALL 2007 would be similarly welcoming to all sectors. It was agreed that every effort should be made to clearly emphasise that presentations are welcome from all sectors of CALL research and members were encouraged to contribute ideas and suggestions by means of the virtual strand or the members’ discussion list.

6. Voting

The votes cast before the meeting had been counted. Following the call for nominations for the position of (1) member of the Executive Committee, the following nominations had been received by the closing date:

Marie-Noëlle Lamy, The Open University, UK,
nominated by Jim Coleman, seconded by Thierry Chanier.

Robert O’Dowd, University of León, Spain,
nominated by Maija Tammelin, seconded by Berit Peltonen.

The results of the vote were:
Marie-Noëlle Lamy – 17votes; Robert O’Dowd – 55 votes.
Robert O’Dowd was duly elected.

7. Any Other Business

There was no other business.

MG

05/03/07

Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Cracovia (Polonia) 26/08/2005

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
Held on Friday 26 August 2005 at the EUROCALL 2005 Conference
Cracow, 24-27 August 2005

Present:

Anne Aichroth, Kent Andersen, Lis Auvinen, David Barr, Therese Örnberg Berglund, Abolelmajid Bouziane, Françoise Blin , Sabine Braun, Angela Chambers (Treasurer), Thierry Chanier, Graham Davies, Robert Debski, Peter de Groot, Piet Desmet, Kaija Ervola, Brian Farrington, Tony Fitzpatrick, Margaret Gammell ( Secretary), John Gillespie, Ana Gimeno (Vice-President), Marcin Golaszewski, Virginia Gonzalez, Cara Greene, Timothy Gutierrez, Marie-Josée Hamel, Tony Harris, Christine Hoffmann, Timo Hulkko, Sake Jager, Katrina Keogh, Inge-Anna Koleff, Marie Noelle Lamy, Penny MacDonald, François Mangenot, Nina Moreno, Helle Lykke Nielsen, Ana Nino, Blaise Nkwenti-Azeh , Ide O’Sullivan, Hans Paulussen, Heli Pekkala, Berit Peltonen, Kathryn Parker, Christina Perez, Piotr Rosinski, Bernd Rüschoff (President), Kazumi Sakai, Mathias Schulze, Outi Stever, Lesey Shield, Steffen Skowronek, Kirsten Söntgens, Grazyna Studzinska, Peppi Taalas, Maija Tammelin, June Thompson, Anna Vetter, Monica Ward, George Ypsilandis.


1. Minutes

The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Vienna on 3 September 2004, were accepted and signed as a true record.

Proposed by Marie-Josee Hamel, seconded by Lesley Shield and passed nem con.

2. Matters arising

In a change to the agenda voting would take place after Item 3. Counting of votes to be overseen by June Thompson.

Change to the agenda proposed by Paul Bangs, seconded by Tony Harris and passed nem con.

3. President’s Report

Prof Dr Bernd Rüschoff presented his report, the full text of which would appear on the EUROCALL website. (http://www.eurocall-languages.org/about/docs/presreps/presrep2005.html)

In this, his final report as EUROCALL President, he focused on the following items:

  • Regional events
  • Changes in membership
  • The ReCALL Journal
  • The EUROCALL Newsletter (electronic)

Bernd Rüschoff expressed his thanks and appreciation to the members of the executive (past and present) for all their support during his two terms as President of the association. He thanked Klaus Peters for his excellent organisation of EUROCALL 2004 in Vienna and complimented Grazyna Studzinska for her willingness to organise the 2005 conference under still sometimes difficult circumstances in a new member country. Tony Harris and the Granada team were thanked for having offered to host EUROCALL 2006 at Granada.

He advised the attendance that there had been an approach from another CALL organisation, PacCALL, with regard to establishing a relationship with EUROCALL. This was being referred to the WorldCALL organisation, whose website was now being revitalised thanks to Graham Davies and Ana Gimeno. WorldCALL would shortly be placing a call for bids to host WORLDCALL 2008. Finally, Bernd informed the meeting that the Executive Committee is currently looking at ways of giving added benefits to EUROCALL members. This includes member-only access to certain resources on the EUROCALL website and the members’ discussion list.

Acceptance of the President’s Report was proposed by Marie-Josée Hamel, seconded by Mathias Schulze and passed nem con.

4. Treasurer’s Report

Angela Chambers presented the audited accounts of the Association for the period 1 August 2004 to 31 July 2005. These accounts having been audited by Deloitte & Touche, were at the draft stage due to the short timeframe between the financial year-end and the annual conference, and had yet to be finalised. In spite of a successful year with memberships slightly up and a surplus of €10,369 (conference surplus €8,801, workshops €1,568) from the Vienna conference, the accounts showed a deficit of €4,523, slightly higher than the figure forecast of €3,156. This was due mainly to charges from the former EUROCALL headquarters at University of Hull in connection with previous unpaid corporate memberships and additional travel expenses. The Treasurer highlighted the undesirability of a recurring deficit and stated that the budget forecast for 2005/06, based on more realistic membership figures, would show a slight deficit of €213.

She further announced that following discussions at the Executive Committee meeting of 24 August 2005, the budget for 2006/07 would include a small increase in the membership fee, the amount to be decided at the Executive Committee meeting in September 2006 and announced at the AGM. This would be necessary to cover the cost of the additional issue of ReCALL Journal expected to come on stream in 2006.

Questions were invited from the floor and Kent Anderson expressed his concern that attendance at the EUROCALL conference was expensive and thus out of reach of many new member EU country colleagues. Angela in reply stated that the Executive Committee is aware of the financial constraints on new member EU country colleagues and is indeed making every effort to address this problem. One initiative had been the setting up of a fund, which was being administered by the organisers of this current conference. This had permitted 20 such colleagues to attend. In addition, the Jànos Kohn Scholarship was being extended beyond Hungary to cover new EU member countries. She reminded members that the solution to the problem is not within the remit of the small EUROCALL budget, but would require something more, for example including colleagues from new EU member countries in EU funded projects. Graham Davies concurred with this and gave examples from his WORLDCALL experiences where such disparities worldwide are invariably even greater than those in Europe. Bernd Rüschoff invited members to write to EUROCALL headquarters with any comments they may have in this connection.

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by Marie-Noëlle Lamy, seconded by Peppi Taalas and passed nem con.

Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by Thierry Chanier, seconded by Christina Perez and passed nem con.

5. EUROCALL Conferences

5.1 EUROCALL 2005: The organisers of the Cracow conference were thanked by the President for their hard work in bringing a EUROCALL conference to a new EU member country under sometimes difficult circumstances and were commended on their excellent preparations.

5.2 EUROCALL 2006: Bernd Rüschoff announced that EUROCALL 2006 would take place at the University of Granada, Spain from 4-7 September 2006, thanked Tony Harris and his team for their willingness to host the conference and wished them well with their preparations.

5.3 EUROCALL 2007/2008: Members were invited to submit proposals to host EUROCALL 2007 and 2008. It was suggested that EUROCALL 2008 should be held in a venue close to Germany in order to coincide with the AILA world conference. Further details available from the EUROCALL office.

6. Voting

The votes, cast after Item 3 on the agenda, had been counted. Following the call for nominations for the positions of President, Vice-President and three Executive Committee members, the following nominations had been received by the closing date: For the position of President, Ana Gimeno nominated by Christina Perez, seconded by Rafael Seiz. For the position of Vice President, Françoise Blin nominated by Monica Ward, seconded by Katrina Kerogh. For the position of member of the Executive Committee: Graham Davies, nominated by Paul Bangs, seconded by David Barr. Lesley Shield, nominated by Maija Tammelin, seconded by June Thompson. Peppi Taalas, nominated by Berit Peltonen, seconded by Outi Stever.

Ana Gimeno was duly elected to the position of President with 59 votes.

Françoise Blin was elected to the position of Vice-President with 57 votes.

Graham Davies, Lesley Shield and Peppi Taalas were elected with 45 votes, 52 votes and 58 votes respectively.

7. Other Business

Marie-Josée Hamel had requested that the matter of listing the co-authors of papers be raised. Due to a misunderstanding on the part of the conference organisers, only co-presenters were listed in the conference programme. Thus co-authors who were not present at the conference were not credited in the conference programme. The President apologised for this error and confirmed that all co-authors would be recognised publicly and that a list had been prepared and was now available on the conference website.

MG

24.11.05

 Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Viena (Austria) 03/09/2004

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
Held on 3 September 2004 at the EUROCALL 2004 Conference
Vienna, 1-4 September 2004

Present:

Kent Andersen, Tor Magne Andreassen, Dapmar Baker, Paul Bangs, Ylva Berglund, Françoise Blin , Sabine Braun, Angela Chambers (Treasurer), Jean Conacher, Graham Davies, Brian Farrington, Margaret Gammell ( Secretary), Jeannine Gerbault, Cornelia Gick, John Gillespie, Ana Gimeno (Vice-President), Virginia Gonzalez, Marie-Josee Hamel, Russell Hansen, Kristina Hoppner, Eleni Kolethra, Thomas Koller, Marianne G. Hartelius, Dominique Hemard, Philip Hubbard, Trude Heift, Marie-Madeleine Kenning, Marcus Knierim, Inge-Anna Koleff, Lena Kuure, Claire McAvinia, Martina Möllering, Hans Mortensen, Petra Neumeier, Martine Nicollerat, Helle Lykke Nielsen, Blaise Nkwenti-Azeh, Hans Paulussen, Jorge Zarco Pedraza, Cristina Perez-Guillot, Klaus Peters, Lena Petrianidi, Stephan Pohlmann, Szilvia Portorone Mandli, Lis Ramberg Beyer , Fred Riley, Thomas Robb, Christina Rosalia, Klaus-Dieter Rossade, Bernd Rüschoff (President), Mathias Schulze, Rafael Seiz-Ortiz, Lesey Shield, Steffi Skowronek, Kirsten Söntgens, Peppi Taalas, Maija Tammelin, Joanna Teague, June Thompson, Carmen Tomas, Cornelia Tschichold, Cecile Tschirhart, Cristina Tudela, Marli Tyssen, Joachim Wagner, Eva Wilder, Uwe Wilhelm.


1. Minutes
The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at the University of Limerick on 5 September 2003 were accepted and signed as a true record.
Proposed by Peppi Taalas, seconded by Lesley Shield and passed nem con.

2. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.

3. President’s Report
Prof Dr Bernd Rüschoff presented his report, the full text of which would appear on the EUROCALL website. He drew attention to the fact that due to growing concern regarding fluctuating membership figures, new members joining at this year’s conference would enjoy the benefits of immediate membership. This exercise would entail a once-off expense to EUROCALL in additional copies of the ReCALL Journal, however, Dr. Rüschoff expressed the hope that these tangible benefits would encourage new members to renew at the year-end.

4. Treasurer’s Report
Professor Angela Chambers presented the Audited Accounts showing income and expenditure for the year 1 August 2003 to 31 July 2004, together with comparative figures for the agreed Budget for the year in question. The accounts showed a successful year with a transfer to the reserve of €7,451. This positive result came about mainly through a surplus of €15,597 generated by the Limerick conference and a belated payment received from Nijmegen (€1,422) from a previous conference. This total was further enhanced with a refund of €1,376 from ICT4LT. The Treasurer pointed out however that these latter were unusual, once-off receipts, and that the real picture was less optimistic. Although ‘extra’ income generated in 2003/04 amounted to €9000, only €7000 had been transferred to the reserve. Without the extra income there would have been a deficit of €2000. Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by: Paul Bangs, seconded by: Kirsten Söntgens and agreed nem con.
The projected budget for 04/05 showed a deficit of €3,156. This was attributed mainly to increased numbers of ReCALL Journal being distributed to new members joining at this year’s conference.
Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by: Klaus Peters, seconded by Stephan Pohlmann and agreed nem con.

5. EUROCALL Conferences
5.1. EUROCALL 2004: The organisers of the Vienna conference were commended by the President on their excellent preparations and warm Viennese hospitality, all of which went to ensuring a very enjoyable conference, which would be remembered among the highlights of EUROCALL conferences.

5.2. EUROCALL 2005: Dr. Rüschoff announced to the meeting that a proposal had been received from Italy to host EUROCALL 2005. However, with increasing local costs, Venice was proving to be a very expensive destination and it was decided to look for an alternative location. Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Paul Bangs a proposal was received from Poland and this had now been accepted. EUROCALL 2005 would be held in Cracow, Poland, from 24-27August, 2005. Paul Bangs raised the question of accessibility to the conference on the part of Eastern European colleagues, who may be faced with limited funding. It would be most unacceptable should Polish colleagues be unable to attend a EUROCALL conference in Poland due to unavailability of funding. Dr. Rüschoff assured the meeting that this issue was being addressed and that the Executive Committee was looking at ways to solve the problem. These included a two-tier registration fee to accommodate such colleagues as well as efforts being made to identify possible grants/funding. In addition, it was proposed that members should try to identify plenary speakers who may be able to avail of sponsorship to attend the Krakow conference, thus reducing costs to the organisers.

5.3. 2006/2007: Members were invited to submit proposals to host EUROCALL 2006/2007. Further details available from the EUROCALL office.

5.4. 2008: It was suggested that EUROCALL 2008 should be held in a venue close to Germany in order to coincide with the AILA world conference.

6. Other Business
No other business.

MG

24.11.04

Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Limerick (Irlanda) 05/09/2003

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
Held on 5 September 2003 at the EUROCALL 2003 Conference
University of Limerick, Ireland

Present:

Christine Appel, Paul Bangs, David Barr, Lis Ramberg Beyer, Françoise Blin , Thomas Paul Brysch, Dermot F. Campbell, Angela Chambers (Treasurer), Graham Chesters , Steve Cushion, Josef Colpaert, Graham Davies, Richard Donovan – Digital Stream, Nahwat Amin El-Arousy, Brian Farrington, Margaret Gammell (Secretary), Jeannine Gerbault, John Gillespie, Ana Gimeno (Vice-President), Marie-Josee Hamel, Marianne G. Hartelius, Dominique Hemard, Philip Hubbard, Timo Hulkko, Sake Jager, Marie-Madeleine Kenning, Marcus Knierim, Inge-Anna Koleff, Lena Kuure, Sébastien L’haire, Maire Makinen, Martina Möllering, Liam Murray, Martine Nicollerat, Blaise Nkwenti-Azeh , Eamann O’Heigeartaigh, Marina Orsini Jones, Juha Pasanen, Berit Peltonen, Klaus Peters, Stephan Pohlmann, Craig Rice, Fred Riley, Lis Ramberg Beyer, Fernando Rosell-Aguilar, Bernd Rüschoff (President), Kazumi Sakai, Pirkko Sartoneva, Elke Schmölder-Hanson, Mathias Schulze, Rafael Seiz Ortiz, Lesley Shield, Virpi Sirita, Kirsten Söntgens, Donald Smart, Glen Stockwell, Przemyslaw Stencel, Peppi Taalas, Maija Tammelin, June Thompson, Doug Taylor, Oliver Traxel, Cornelia Tschichold, Cristina Tudela, Anne Vandeventer Faltin, Monica Ward.


Prior to votes being cast at the start of the meeting for the vacant positions of Vice-President and three Members of the Executive Committee, the President explained the voting procedure and the rotary system whereby one member of the Executive Committee is elected for three years, with the other two members being elected for two years.

1. Minutes
The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at the University of Jyväskylä on 16 August 2002 were accepted and signed as a true record. Proposed by: Klaus Peters, seconded by: Lis Ramberg Beyer, passed nem con.

2. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.

3. President’s Report
Prof Dr Bernd Rüschoff presented his report, the full text of which would appear on the EUROCALL website. He drew attention to the need to entice new members from Eastern European countries into EUROCALL and the necessity of making it possible for them to stay on board. The Report was accepted and agreed. Proposed by: Paul Bangs, seconded by: Oliver Traxel.

4. Treasurer’s Report
Professor Graham Chesters presented the Audited Accounts showing income and expenditure for the year 1 August 2002 to 31 July 2003, together with comparative figures for the agreed Budget for the year in question. The deficit of €6517/£3910 was disappointing. The main factors influencing the current deficit being, a slight drop in membership figures, an increase in travel expenses and the unresolved deficit from the Nijmegen Conference.

On a positive note, CUP figures forecast a small surplus for the year 2003 indicating a breakeven position in five years and income thereafter. Printing and general office costs were down.

Noting that there were deficits in both this and last year’s Audited Accounts the Treasurer highlighted the requirement that the reserve should always cover at least one year’s expenditure. It was therefore essential to get back to the principle of increasing the reserve each year. The Executive Committee was examining means of increasing membership figures and had agreed that travel expenses should be capped with members being self-funding wherever possible.

Total budgeted receipts for the coming year were set at €41,500. The Treasurer proposed to increase fees of individual members by rounding up the current fee of €68 to €70. All future accounts would be presented in Euro. The 2003/2004 Budget predicted modest increases in expenditure in some areas such as printing and office costs due to the move of Headquarters, however, it aimed at a small surplus.

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by John Gillespie, seconded by Lis Ramberg-Beyer and agreed nem con.

Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by Paul Bangs, seconded by Françoise Blin and agreed nem con.

Acceptance of the new membership fee was proposed by Bernd Rüschoff, seconded by Lesley Shield and agreed nem con.

5. EUROCALL Conferences
5.1 It was noted that, despite earlier uncertainties, the EUROCALL 2000 Conference at the University of Abertay, Dundee, had generated a surplus of 4,000 GBP. Thanks were due to Philippe Delcloque for all his efforts on behalf of EUROCALL.
5.2 The organisers of last year’s Conference in Jyväskylä were congratulated on achieving the projected target.
5.3 With regard to future venues for Conferences it was noted that there should be closer contact between the EUROCALL Executive Committee and local organisers in order to avoid problems of underachievement in profit.
5.4 Klaus Peters was commended and thanked for his organisation for EUROCALL 2004 in Vienna.
5.5 It was reported that there had been an approach from Italy to host EUROCALL 2005 in Venice. A representative from Venice had met(at their expense), with the EUROCALL Executive to discuss the matter and the Executive were awaiting a firm proposal, which would be considered at the next Executive Committee meeting.
5.6 In answer to a suggestion from the floor it was confirmed that the Committee would look at the timing of the Conference. A date other than early September would be considered.
5.7 Members were invited to submit proposals to host EUROCALL 2006/2007. Further details were available from the EUROCALL office.
5.8 It was suggested that EUROCALL 2007 should be held in an Eastern European country and it was agreed to proactively follow up this idea in Vienna. It was further suggested that a venue close to Germany should be considered for 2008 in order to coincide with the AILA World Conference.
5.9 The President congratulated the organisers of the current Conference in Limerick and commended them on the excellent organisation and facilities.
The organisers were confident that the target of €8000 would be met.

6. Voting
The votes cast at the start of the meeting had been counted. Following the call for nominations for the positions of Vice-President and three Executive Committee members, the following nominations had been received by the closing date:

For the position of Vice-President, Ana Gimeno, nominated by Christina Pérez Guillot, seconded by Rafael Seiz Ortiz.

For the position of member of the Executive Committee:

  • Françoise Blin, nominated by Liam Murray, seconded by Christine Appel,
  • John Gillespie, nominated by Angela Chambers, seconded by David Barr,
  • Lesley Shield, nominated by Maija Tammelin, seconded by Uschi Felix,
  • Maija Tammelin, nominated by Berit Peltonen, seconded by Hans-Joachim Schulze.

Ana Gimeno was duly elected to the position of Vice-President with 57 votes.

Françoise Blin, Maija Tammelin and Lesley Shield were elected with votes of 47, 47 and 35 respectively. Françoise and Maija, both tied at 47 votes, it was mutually agreed that Maija would serve for three years. John Gillespie received 19 votes.

7. Other Business
7.1 Graham Davies reported on the WORLDCALL Conference which was successful and congenial but which made a loss due to the SARS scare. Fortunately, it was underwritten. GD emphasised WORLDCALL’S attitude of an ‘invitation to all’ and mentioned specifically the need to outreach to nations presently underserved. He remarked on the high number of papers being rejected and commented that perhaps would-be presenters could gain more experience by attending Conferences such as EUROCALL. He suggested that EUROCALL might consider holding workshops on how to present. The President agreed to look at and update Guidelines for Presenters, and to do whatever possible to get newcomers into the field, including looking at possible sources of funding. GD commented that WORLDCALL must aggressively seek funding in order to aid countries on the fringe of new technology
7.2 The President thanked Mrs. June Thompson who was retiring as Secretary of EUROCALL. He welcomed the new Treasurer, Angela Chambers and Secretary, Margaret Gammell and wished them well in their positions.

Margaret Gammell
Secretary EUROCALL

24.11.03

Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Jyväskylä (Finlandia) 16/08/2002

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
held on 16 August 2002 at the EUROCALL 2002 Conference
Jyväskylä, Finland

Present:

Tom Ammerlaan, Kent Andersen, Paul Bangs, David Barr, Janet Bartle, Lis Ramberg Beyer, Françoise Blin, Sabine Braun, Robert Buckmaster, Angela Chambers, Graham Chesters (Treasurer), Graham Davies, Everhard Ditters, Brian Farrington, Robert Fischer (CALICO), John Gillespie, Ana Gimeno (Vice-President), Timo Hulkko, Sake Jager, Git Jonare, Ulrike Klingemann, Marcus Knierim, Inge-Anna Koleff, Rainer Kussler, Sébastien L’haire, Antje Neuhoff, Petra Neumeier, Martine Nicollerat, M. Victoria Gonzalez Pagani (CALICO), Panayis Panayi, Stephan Pohlmann, Joan-Tomàs Pujolà, Bernd Rüschoff (President), Kazumi Sakai, José Ignacio Sánchez de Villapadierna, Elke Schmölder-Hanson, Mathias Schulze, Sharon Scinicariello (IALLT), Rafael Seiz Ortiz, Kirsten Söntgens, Maija Tammelin, June Thompson (Secretary), Julie Venner, Roel Vismans, Monica Ward, Uwe Wilhelm.


Votes were cast at the start of the meeting for the two vacant positions of President and Member of the Executive Committee. The meeting was chaired by the Vice-President for items 1 to 5.

1. Minutes
The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at the University of Nijmegen on 30 August 2001 were accepted and signed as a true record. Proposer: Françoise Blin, seconder Mathias Schulze, passed nem con.

2. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.

3. President’s Report
Prof Dr Bernd Rüschoff presented his report, the full text of which would appear on the EUROCALL website. He drew attention to the call for proposals to host the EUROCALL office from 2003, which was circulated to the meeting.

4. Treasurer’s Report
4.1 Professor Graham Chesters, Treasurer of EUROCALL, presented the Audited Accounts showing income and expenditure for the year 1 August 2001 to 31 July 2002, together with comparative figures for the agreed Budget for the year in question. The deficit of £807, against a budgeted surplus of £1,142 was disappointing. Acceptance of the audited accounts was proposed by Paul Bangs, seconded by Lis Ramberg-Beyer and agreed nem con.
4.2 The Treasurer reported that membership figures remained static, with approximately one-third of members lost each year, counterbalancing the new members recruited at conferences. The Nijmegen conference had failed to meet the £5K target and efforts were being made to seek compensation from Nijmegen University. The organiser of the current conference in Jyväskylä was confident that the target would be met. Total budgeted receipts for the coming year were £26,400 and the Budget for 2002/2003 aimed at a very small surplus. Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by Roel Vismans, seconded by John Gillespie and agreed nem con.
4.3 The Treasurer gave notice of the intention to increase membership fees from 2004 to £40 / €68 (individual) and £100 / €170 (corporate), with a new rate of £25 / €40 for fulltime students. Acceptance of the new membership fees was proposed by Bernd Rüschoff, seconded by Ana Gimeno and agreed nem con.

5. Voting
The votes cast at the start of the meeting had been counted. Following the call for nominations for the positions of President and one Executive Committee member, two nominations had been received by the closing date: for the position of President, Bernd Rüschoff, nominated by Mathias Schulze, seconded by Kirsten Söntgens; for the position of member of the Executive Committee, Graham Davies, nominated by Cristina Perez, seconded by Luz Gil. Both candidates were duly elected, with 38 and 33 votes respectively.

6. EUROCALL Conferences
6.1 The President acknowledged the achievement of the local team in Jyväskylä, in respect of the current conference.
6.2 It was announced that EUROCALL 2003 would take place at the University of Limerick, Ireland, organised by Angela Chambers. The Call for Papers for this conference was already available.
6.3 Members were invited to submit proposals to host EUROCALL conferences in 2004 and 2005. Further details were available from the EUROCALL office.

7. Other Business
7.1 Graham Davies reminded the meeting that WorldCALL 2003 would take place in Banff, 7-10 May 2003. EUROCALL was well represented on the steering committee. He pointed out that the theme ‘From the Margins’ highlighted in the Call for Papers might give a false impression, and that papers not under this heading would be welcome.
7.2 The President drew attention to a study commissioned by the EC relating to the impact of technology. A survey / questionnaire was available at the conference for completion by participants.
7.3 It was confirmed that a new EUROCALL Newsletter would be provided online, and that one of its functions would be to disseminate project work.

June Thompson
Secretary, EUROCALL

24.10.02

Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Nimega (Holanda) 30/08/2001

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
held on 30 August 2001 at the EUROCALL 2001 Conference
Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Present:

Tom Ammerlaan
Rita Meissner
Paul Bangs
Valere Meus
David Barr
Liam Murray
Janet Bartle
Martine Nicollerat
Wendy Benoit
Jose Noijons
Françoise Blin
Victoria Gonzalez Pagani (CALICO)
Gavin Burnage
Panayis Panayi
Nicole Chenik
Frede Pedersen
Graham Chesters (Treasurer)
Cristina Pérez Guillot
Alejandro Curado
Carmen Pinilla
Graham Davies
Amelia Plasencia
Philippe Delcloque
Stephan Pohlmann
Everhard Ditters
Markus Ritter
John Gillespie
Bernd Rüschoff (President)
Ana Gimeno (Vice-President)
Mathias Schulze
Michael Goethals
Kirsten Söntgens
Robin Goodfellow
Peppi Taalas
Marianne Hartehius
Pius Ten Hacken
Sake Jager
Val Thornber
Inge-Anna Koleff
Cornelia Tschichold
Lis Kornum
Miranda van Rossum
Michel Labour
Annie van Rysbergen
Marie-Noelle Lamy
June Thompson (Secretary)
Sylvia Lobbe
Julie Venner
Jane McKee

1. Minutes
The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at the University of Abertay Dundee on 1st September were accepted and signed as a true record. Proposer: Françoise Blin, seconder Michael Goethals, passed nem con.

2. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.

3. President’s Report
Prof Dr Bernd Rüschoff presented the first annual report of his presidency, the full text of which would appear on the EUROCALL website. The following points were highlighted:

  • an urgent need to boost membership numbers, to ensure the financial stability of the association;
  • a survey of theneeds and wishes of members, to be conducted via the Web;
  • the drafting by Robin Goodfellow of a document providing guidelines for authors of CALL presentations and publications, to be revised by the Executive Committee;
  • the intention to intensify regionalactivities whereby EUROCALL collaborates with other bodies.

Acceptance of the President’s Report was proposed by Jane McKee, seconded by Mathias Schulze and accepted nem con.

4. Executive Committee
The President outlined a proposal to streamline the process of electing members of the Executive Committee, which would be implemented at the 2002 conference. Full details of the arrangements would be posted on the EUROCALL website in advance of the nomination process. In order to avoid a situation where the whole Executive Committee were due to stand for re-election, Bernd Rüschoff and Graham Davies would stand for re-election in 2002, then in 2003 four members would stand down. Of the four candidates elected, those with the third and fourth lowest number of votes would serve for two years only, thus creating a system whereby in the future two members of the committee would stand down each year.

5. Treasurer’s Report
Professor Graham Chesters, Treasurer of EUROCALL, presented the Audited Accounts showing income and expenditure for the year 1 August 2000 to 31 July 2001, together with comparative figures for the agreed Budget for the year in question. He expressed serious concern over the fact that, although a deficit of £600 had been budgeted for, the actual deficit was £8,144, and indicated that if no change were achieved within 3/4 years there was a possibility of insolvency. The Treasurer outlined the reasons for the deficit as follows:

  • To date, no surplus had been received from the 2000 conference at the University of Abertay Dundee. Reassurance had been given by the conference organiser that the surplus would be at least £4,000 and the Executive Committee had empowered the Treasurer to settle the dispute with UAD as early as possible. Repayment of the loan to the Instil SIG was also linked to this issue;
  • Profits from CUP had been forecast at £400, whereas in fact CUP were currently carrying a deficit. Unless library subscriptions were taken up, the future of ReCALL could be in doubt;

The Treasurer drew attention to the level of payments which demonstrated the difficulty of cutting back costs. There was a clear need to increase membership figures which currently stood at around 380 and needed to be 500/600.

The Treasurer then presented the Budget for 2001-2002, indicating that membership fees would not be increased for that year, but that there might well be a need to increase them in 2002-2003.

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by Lis Kornum, seconded by Sylvia Lobbe and passed nem con.

Acceptance of the Budget was proposed by Markus Ritter, seconded by Lis Kornum (with one correction to ReCALL Vol 13 2001), and passed nem con.

In response to a query, it was agreed that the Accounts would be shown in Euros as well as sterling in future.

It was confirmed that the Executive Committee and the National Representatives were taking steps to try to increase membership.

In response to a query about EUROCALL securing discounts for travel to conferences, it was confirmed that this was an issue to be addressed by local organisers.

6. Conferences
It was confirmed that the conference would be held in Jyväskylä, Finland in 2002 and that proposals were requested for 2003/4/5. The President also drew attention to the WorldCALL conference, scheduled to take place in Banff, Canada, in May 2003.

June Thompson
Secretary, EUROCALL

29.10.01

Acta de la Asamblea General de Socios, Dundee (Escocia) 01/09/2000

Minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting
Held on 1 September 2000 at the EUROCALL 2000 Conference, Dundee, Scotland

Members present:

Barr, David                                                                Jager, Sake

Bartle, Janet                                                               Koet, Ton

Bati, L                                                                         Koleff, Inge Anne

Berglund, Raija                                                           Kornum, Lis

Blin, Françoise                                                                       Labour, Michel

Buchholz, Edith                                                           Müntal, Uta

Chanier, Thierry                                                         Nicollerat, Martine

Chénik, Nicole                                                            Norbrook, Hamish

Chesters, Graham                                                       Oliver, Brian

Davies, Sally                                                               Peltonen, Berit

Davies, Graham                                                          Peters, Klaus

Delcloque, Philippe                                                     Razpotnik, Jovo

Ditters Everhard                                                         Reuer, Veit

Farrington, Brian                                                       Riley, Fred

Forsman, Asa                                                             Ritter, Markus

Gabel, Stephan                                                            Rüschoff, Bernd

Germaine Rutherford, Aline                                         Salling Pedersen, Frede

Gillespie, John                                                            Schulze, Mathias

Gimeno, Ana                                                               Solà, Donald F

Girard, Marie Christine                                                          Söntgens, Kirsten

Goethals, Michael                                                       Steuer, Outi

Goodfellow, Robin                                                      Sudhoff, Julian

Hamel, Marie Josée                                                    Tammelin, Maija

Hellman Erja, Laurila                                                 Thompson, June

Hémard, Dominique                                                    Vandeventer, Anne

Hickman, Paul

Higgins, John 

1.         Minutes

The minutes of the EUROCALL Annual General Meeting held on 17 September 1999 at the University of Franche-Comté,Besançon, France, were accepted as a true record.  Proposer: Michael Goethals, seconder Graham Chesters, passed nem con.

2.         Matters arising

It was confirmed that the Research Policy Statement arising out of the Research Colloquium at the University of Essen in May 1999 had been available on the EUROCALL website for some time.

3.         President’s Report

Professor Graham Davies, President of EUROCALL, presented his report in which he looked back over his seven years in office, highlighting the changes which had taken place, and promised to write a history of EUROCALL (subsequently made available at http://www.eurocall.org/history.htm).

Acceptance of the President’s Report was proposed by Bernd Rüschoff, seconded by Brian Farrington and passed unanimously.

4.         Treasurer’s Report

Professor Graham Chesters, Treasurer of EUROCALL, presented the Audited Accounts showing income and expenditure for the year 1 August 1999 to 31 July 2000. He pointed out that membership subscriptions collected via the annual conference were now separately identified in the Accounts. Membership fees overall showed a shortfall of £2,000 on the budgeted figure. Nevertheless, there was a surplus for the year of £6,696. He explained that this figure might be misleading, because the costs of ReCALL Vol 12, for the calendar year 2000, were not included due to the different accounting periods of EUROCALL and Cambridge University Press.

The Treasurer pointed out that 40% of current membership represented new members, and 40% of members from the previous year had not renewed. He therefore urged members to help in the effort to retain members. The conference surplus remained a key factor in balancing EUROCALL’s accounts.

The budget for the year 1 August 2000 to 31 July 2001 thus included a figure for membership fees of £20,000, as a more realistic option, and once the costs of ReCALL were covered, there would be a deficit over the year of £2,600, as predicted at the time of the contract with CUP.

Acceptance of the Audited Accounts was proposed by Françoise Blin, seconded by Mathias Schulze and passed nem con.

Acceptance of the budget was proposed byMichael Goethals, seconded by John Gillespie and passed nem con.

5.         EUROCALL Conferences

The President confirmed that EUROCALL 2001 would be held at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, organised by Everhard Ditters.  Expressions of interest in hosting EUROCALL 2002 were sought, and it was pointed out that a second WorldCALL conference was planned in 2003. In response to a query, it was confirmed that shared interests with other associations were taken into account when scheduling conferences.

6.   Change to the Constitution

Notice had been given to the 1999 conference of a proposed change to improve the operation of the association by formalising arrangements for the EUROCALL office and the appointment of a Secretary and a Treasurer.  Voting took place by show of hands and the amendment of Article 10 and the insertion of a new Article 14 were approved nem con.

7. Elections

Voting took place by secret ballot as follows:

  • President: Bernd Rüschoff was the only nominee for the vacant position of President and was duly elected, with 49 votes.
  • Vice-President: Ana Gimeno-Sanz was the only nominee for the vacant position of Vice-President and was duly elected, with 49 votes.
  • There were six nominees for the four vacant positions on the Executive Committee. The results of the voting were: F Blin 40, N Chénik 28, G Davies 42, R Goodfellow 27, M Schulze 37, M Tammelin 30. Françoise Blin, Graham Davies, Mathias Schulze and Maija Tammelin were duly elected onto the Executive Committee.
  1. The new President, Bernd Rüschoff, thanked members of EUROCALL for electing him to succeed Graham Davies, and the meeting formally expressed its appreciation for the work of Graham Davies during his long period of office. The President also expressed thanks to the Executive Committee, past and present, before declaring the meeting closed.

JT

06.12.00

EUROCALL Annual Report 1998/99

Headquarters and secretariat
EUROCALL continued to operate from the Language Institute at the University of Hull, through the small team working at the CTI Centre for Modern Languages, consisting of June Thompson, Jenny Parsons, Fred Riley and Kylie Baxter. Sadly, Kylie moved to another post at the end of 1998, but we were fortunate to secure Julie Venner in her place to act as EUROCALL membership secretary.

Executive Committee
Members of the Executive Committee for the period in question are listed below. Members of the Committee attend two meetings a year, normally at the expense of their own institution but with assistance from EUROCALL if they have no other source of funding. In between meetings, discussion is carried out through a closed e-mail discussion list. Committee members also serve on the Academic Advisory Panel of EUROCALL’s journal, ReCALL, and on the scientific committee for EUROCALL conferences. EUROCALL does not pay any fees for the services of its committee members.

Ms Francoise Blin
School of Applied Languages (SALIS)
Dublin City University

Mrs Nicole Chenik
UFR Informatique de Gestion
Université Paris IX Dauphine

Dr Thierry Chanier
Laboratoire d’Informatique de Besançon
Université de Franche-Comté

Prof Graham Chesters (Treasurer)
Institute for Learning
University of Hull

Prof Graham Davies (President)
Thames Valley University

Dr Philippe Delcloque
School of Management
University of Abertay Dundee

Dr Ana Gimeno
Departamento de Idiomas
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

Prof. Dr. Michael Goethals
Department of Linguistics & Teacher Training, Faculty of Arts
K.U. Leuven

Mrs Lis Kornum (Vice-President)
Christianshavns Gymnasium
Copenhagen

M. Joseph Rézeau
Département d’anglais
Université de Rennes 2

Prof Dr Bernd Rüschoff
Universität Gesamthochschule Essen

Mrs June Thompson (Secretary)
CTI Centre for Modern Languages
University of Hull

Membership
Total membership of EUROCALL increased over the year from 334 to 442. For the first time, following the introduction of recruitment of members via the annual conference, the UK has been overtaken by Belgium as the country with the highest number of individual members! The table below gives a breakdown of the countries represented. EUROCALL continues to operate a reciprocal arrangement with affiliated associations such as CALICO, so that members of these associations are entitled to certain EUROCALL benefits and vice-versa.

EUROCALL Members by country at 31 July 1999

COUNTRY CORPORATE INDIVIDUAL TOTAL
Australia
1
1
2
Austria
0
4
4
Belgium
10
67
77
Brazil
0
1
1
Canada
3
7
10
Chile
1
0
1
Denmark
1
8
9
Finland
5
8
13
France
8
10
18
Germany
6
32
38
Greece
0
7
7
Ireland
12
10
22
Israel
1
6
7
Italy
5
5
10
Japan
0
13
13
Luxembourg
0
1
1
Malaysia
0
1
1
Netherlands
8
21
29
New Zealand
1
1
2
Norway
2
2
4
Peru
1
0
1
Portugal
2
4
6
Slovenia
0
1
1
South Africa
0
1
1
Spain
2
9
11
Sweden
6
5
11
Switzerland
5
5
10
Turkey
1
1
2
United Kingdom
55
63
118
USA
1
11
12
TOTAL
137
305
442

Publications and information
During this year, members received their two issues of ReCALL as usual, but in addition a Web-only issue was published in association with the WELL project and made available at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall/recall/r_online.htm. Members were also able to access a wide range of relevant resources via the EUROCALL website, including the Online Software Database at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/resources/searchdb.htm and Internet Resources for Language Teachers and Learners at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/langsite.htm and the ReCALL Newsletters at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/pubs/newslet.htm. as well as Software Reviews, a CALL Bibliography and a regularly updated Calendar of Events, all available at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/.

Enquiry service, visitors and discussion list
Over the year, the Hull team dealt with 198 enquiries from EUROCALL members and received 14 visitors who spent time, usually relating to their research, examining software and publications in the dedicated CALL libraries held at Hull.

Approximately 200 members were registered as users of the discussion list. Much of the material posted to the list related to the provision of information, but there were a few interesting threads concerning, for example, the retention of diacritics in e-mail messages. Overall, the discussion list has worked successfully, with very few instances of poor ‘netiquette’.

Regional representatives
During this year, we started to identify EUROCALL members who were prepared to act as contacts in their own particular regions, to stimulate relevant activity locally and to promote membership of EUROCALL. Françoise Blin agreed to act as Co-ordinator for the first year. A discussion list was established for these representatives and documentation was prepared to assist them in carrying out the various duties, such as designing local websites. The representatives will meet annually at the conference to share ideas, and the Co-ordinator of the representatives will be co-opted onto the EUROCALL Executive Committee.

Conference
A highly successful annual conference was held at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, organised by Michael Goethals. The quality of presentations was generally thought to be high, and a selection of these was published in ReCALL volume 11 number 1, May 1999.

Research
Following an initiative by the organiser of EUROCALL 97 in Dublin, where issues relating to the standing of CALL-related research were debated at a special conference session, a decision was taken at the AGM in Leuven to organise a special Research Symposium. This took place at the University of Essen on 1st May 1999, jointly sponsored by EUROCALL and the University of Essen. Invited participants included representatives of CALICO and IALL, and the main outcome of the Symposium was a Joint Policy Statement designed to : (i) establish a clearer understanding for departments, institutions, professional associations and decision-making bodies of the range of activities represented in the field, and (ii) provide an organised and consistent perspective on the rubrics under which these activities should be evaluated. This document is now available to EUROCALL members at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall/research_policy.htm

Special Interest Groups
Despite expressions of interest by various groups, the only SIG that really became established during the year was CAPITAL (later renamed InSTIL), relating to the integration of speech technologies. Full information may be found at the website http://dbs.tay.ac.uk/instil/

János Kohn
It was with deep sadness that we learned of the death of János Kohn in March 1999. János was a highly respected academic, a former member of the EUROCALL Executive Committee and organiser of the memorable and successful EUROCALL 96 conference in Szombathely, Hungary. The Year 2000 conference in Dundee will be dedicated to his memory and EUROCALL will be establishing a special scholarship to commemorate his name.

Finance
Income of £20,000 in membership fees and £8,000 in profits from the last two conferences meant that there was a surplus of £8,413 over the year. This was carried forward to bring the total held in reserve to £27,723. The result of this was that the goal of holding at least one year’s operating costs in reserve had been achieved, so that EUROCALL could plan for modest additional expenditure in the coming year.

EUROCALL: Informe del Presidente 1997-98

President’s Report 1998

EUROCALL Annual General Meeting, Leuven, September 1998

1. Introduction

It gives me great pleasure to present this fifth President’s Report on the activities of EUROCALL over the past year. EUROCALL has now been in existence as a formal professional association for five years.

2. Executive Committee meetings

The Executive Committee met twice in 1998:

March 1998, Leuven, Belgium
September 1998, Leuven, Belgium

There is only one change in the constitution of the Executive Committee: Thierry Chanier replaces Françoise Blin as a co-opted member. This is in accordance with the principle whereby we review co-options annually so that the Committee always contains: (i) the organiser of the current year’s EUROCALL conference, (ii) the organiser of the previous year’s EUROCALL conference, and (iii) the organiser of the forthcoming year’s EUROCALL conference. If the Committee already contains a member who is/was/will be a conference organiser then we have the ability to co-opt another suitable member. Thierry Chanier is welcomed to the EUROCALL Executive Committee as organiser of EUROCALL 99.

Françoise Blin will continue to attend Executive Committee meetings as an observer. This is because she has agreed to take on the role of co-ordinator of national representatives of EUROCALL: see Section 8 of this report.

EUROCALL Members will probably have noticed that we hold our meetings at the venue of the current year’s EUROCALL conference. Holding the Spring meeting at the conference venue enables us to inspect the facilities for the forthcoming conference, identify potential problems and make recommendations. Holding the Autumn meeting at the conference venue just before the conference itself saves travel expenses as we all aim to attend the annual conference in any case.

Full minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee are available from June Thompson, EUROCALL Secretary at the EUROCALL office in Hull.

3. Forthcoming EUROCALL conferences

EUROCALL 99 will take place at Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France.

EUROCALL 2000 will take place at the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland. The organiser is Philippe Delcloque, who is also a member of the EUROCALL Executive Committee.

A venue for EUROCALL 2001 is still being sought. Anyone who is interested in taking on the demanding task of organising our annual conference should contact June Thompson, who will provide detailed information on what is entailed.

There are special implications for EUROCALL 2002, as this is also the year in which the second WorldCALL conference will take place. It has been agreed by the Executive Committee that if WorldCALL 2002 takes place in a European university then we will not hold a separate EUROCALL conference that year but will explore ways of combining the two events. At present, no decision has been made regarding the venue of WorldCALL 2002.

4. EUROCALL workshops

Members are reminded that an informal database of EUROCALL members has been set up – all specialists in different fields of CALL and TELL – with a view to providing expertise in the running of regional EUROCALL workshops. Any institution that wishes to host a regional EUROCALL workshop can call upon this expertise. It is expected that the EUROCALL member will provide his/her expertise free of charge, subject to the payment of travel and subsistence expenses by the local host. During the coming year it is hoped that the database will be established and maintained on a more formal basis.

5. Publications

ReCALL

ReCALL, a fully-refereed academic publication, continues to be published by the CTI Centre for Modern Languages, University of Hull, in association with EUROCALL. The quality of contributions to this publication has improved steadily and it now occupies a respected position among journals devoted to IT and language learning and teaching.

Back numbers of ReCALL are also available and may be ordered via the CTICML website or read in PDF format:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/pubs/ctipubs.htm

Selected papers from EUROCALL 1997 were published in a double issue of ReCALL 10,1 (144 pages). Similar arrangements will be made for the publication of selected papers from EUROCALL 98.

Forthcoming publications will include:

  • An additional Web-only issue of ReCALL, to be edited jointly with William Haworth of the WELL project (http://www.well.ac.uk),
  • a special ReCALL publication on Natural Language Processing, to be edited jointly with Mathias Schulze of UMIST.

ReCALL Newsletter

The ReCALL Newsletter is available at the CTICML website:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/pubs/ctipubs.htm

EUROCALL Directory project

A publication entitled CALL courseware development: a handbook was produced as an outcome of the EUROCALL Directory project, which was funded by DGXXII of the European Commission. 500 copies were printed. Further information is available at EUROCALL’s website:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall/courseware.htm

6. Electronic communications

Website

EUROCALL’s website has been completely revamped by Kylie Baxter, to whom I owe my sincere thanks for the many hours of hard work that this involved. Members are encouraged to keep revisiting our website, which offers a wealth of information and useful links:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall.htm

Discussion list

EUROCALL’s electronic discussion list can be joined by anyone. It is now an open discussion list. If you have access to email facilities you can join the discussion list simply by sending the following single-line message to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk

join eurocall-members yourfirstname yourlastname

For “yourfirstname yourlastname” substitute your own names of course!

Mailbase will then contact you to confirm that your email address can be reached and to check that you really do wish to join the discussion list.

7. Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

The position and role of SIGs are currently under discussion in the Executive Committee. It is planned to issue guidelines on setting up and running SIGs within EUROCALL.

One new SIG has been proposed: Natural Language Processing

CAPITAL

CAPITAL is a joint SIG of EUROCALL and CALICO, devoted to using computers in the domain of pronunciation, speech recognition, etc. To join the group, individuals or institutions must be members of one of the parent organisations, CALICO or EUROCALL.

The European co-ordinators are:

  • Philippe Delcloque, University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland
  • Ton Koet, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Netherlands

For further details see CAPITAL’s website:

http://www.tay.ac.uk/schools/sch_man/div_lang/capital/capital.html

8. National representatives of EUROCALL

When EUROCALL was formally founded in 1993, it was envisaged that each country would have a designated contact who might act as a channel of communication between the central EUROCALL organisation and members (and would-be members) from that country. I am pleased to announce that a number of designated contacts have now come forward and that documents have been drawn up describing their responsibilities.

The list of national representatives and an outline of their roles can be consulted at EUROCALL’s website. Françoise Blin has agreed to act as co-ordinator of the national representatives.

If your country is not already represented on the list of national representatives and you would be prepared to take on the responsibility of acting as the main point of contact in your country, please get in touch with June Thompson, who will provide you with further details.

9. Links with other associations and organisations

EUROCALL maintains close links with a number of professional associations and organisations that promote technology enhanced language learning. We welcome the attendance of representatives at our conferences and participation in our activities, and we endeavour to be represented at their conferences and to collaborate in other ways. These are some of the key associations, organisations, events and projects with which EUROCALL members have been associated during the last year. This list is not intended to be all-inclusive, and I apologise for any omissions.

CALICO

We are pleased to welcome a number of CALICO members to EUROCALL 98, especially Bob Fischer, Executive Director. CALICO is now based at Southwest Texas State University. Co-operation between CALICO and EUROCALL is becoming closer. For example, both associations offer reductions in their conference fees to members of either association.

WorldCALL

EUROCALL was well represented at WorldCALL 98. Several EUROCALL members were on the Steering Committee and I was a member of the Scholarships Committee. Several papers, including my keynote, were presented by EUROCALL members, and EUROCALL members also took part in panel discussions. The Proceedings will be published. It is likely that WorldCALL will be an ongoing activity and that another WorldCALL conference will take place in four years. You can get further information and join a discussion list at:

http://adhocalypse.arts.unimelb.edu.au/~hlc/worldcall/welcome.html

Council of Europe

Two EUROCALL members, Lis Kornum and Bernd Rüschoff, have been involved in the Council of Europe’s activities, particularly those promoting new technologies and language learning.

European Language Council and the Thematic Network Project (Languages)

These two linked projects, both of which are funded under the SOCRATES Programme of the Commission of the European Communities, include sub-groups on New Technologies and Language Learning. Joseph Rézeau and I are members of the ELC’s Policy Group on New Technologies and Language Learning and of the Scientific Committee of the Thematic Network Project’s sub-group on New Technologies and Language Learning. I am also a member of the Board of the European Language Council.

Further information about these projects can be found at:

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~elc

Language Learning and Technology Journal

I am a member of the Editorial Board of this new journal, which is published exclusively on the World Wide Web:

http://polyglot.cal.msu.edu/llt

The Editor is Mark Warschauer, University of Hawaii.

EUROCALL continues to remain in regular contact with:

  • ATELL (Australia)
  • IALL (USA)
  • CALL Austria
  • CCALLNET (Canada)

10. Membership and recruitment

Graham Chesters, EUROCALL Treasurer, is submitting his report, which includes information on current membership and membership fees. The situation looks very healthy at present.

Conferences are now restricted to EUROCALL members. In effect, this means that non-members will pay higher conference fees than members – which has always been the case – but the higher conference fee will now include the annual EUROCALL membership fee. This has the advantage of enabling us to transfer membership fees collected in this way direct to our current account.

Membership subscriptions are our main source of income. As I have indicated in my previous reports, please publicise EUROCALL at seminars, workshops and conferences, among your colleagues at work – in short, wherever you can. Publicity leaflets can be made available to you if you can make use of them, and attractive posters have been printed.

11. Seminar on research in CALL

Following the successful seminar on research in CALL, led by David Little at EUROCALL 97, it has been decided by the EUROCALL Executive Committee that the time has come to take action on one of the proposals put forward in David Little’s report:

Little D. (1998) Report on Seminar on Research in CALL, EUROCALL 97, ReCALL 10, 1: 127-128.

Subject to members’ approval, EUROCALL funds will be released to support the holding of a second seminar on research in CALL at the University of Essen, Germany, in the Spring of 1999. The main aim of the seminar will be to discuss the issues raised by David Little in the above document and to produce an action plan that will aim to raise the status of CALL as an area of research. It is estimated that funds will be available to cover the travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses of a small number of EUROCALL members who have a special interest in research.

The seminar will not be confined to EUROCALL members. Representatives of other associations, e.g. CALICO and IALL, will be invited to attend at their own expense.

EUROCALL Treasurer, Graham Chesters, will provide further details regarding the finances required to support this seminar.

12. Susan Myles: in memoriam

As reported in ReCALL 10, 1, Susan Myles, a EUROCALL member and a contributor to EUROCALL 97, passed away in November 1997 after a long struggle against cancer. She will be sadly missed by all of us who knew her. I wish to record the expression of our sympathy to her family and colleagues.

13. Sponsorship

As I have indicated in my previous reports, EUROCALL desperately needs sponsorship as membership fees alone are insufficient to enable EUROCALL to embark upon exciting ventures. I therefore urge all members to pass on to the Executive Committee the names of companies that might be willing to sponsor EUROCALL. When seeking sponsorship it is important – especially when contacting a large company – that we have the name of an individual contact in the company, preferably someone who is known personally to a EUROCALL member. Once again, I have had no reactions to my appeal last year.

14. Thanks

Many thanks are due once again this year. It is difficult to single out every EUROCALL member who has made a valuable contribution to the success of our association.

My personal thanks are due to the Executive Committee for being diligent and supportive throughout the year.

My special thanks are due to June Thompson and Graham Chesters for handling the increasing burden of administration. June is unfortunately unable to attend this year’s conference and is enjoying a well-deserved holiday. We miss her and look forward to welcoming her back soon.

I wish to offer my personal thanks to Michael Goethals and Luc Pauwels as the main organisers of EUROCALL 98, not forgetting their enormous team of helpers. Thanks are also due to:

  • the Rector of the University of Leuven, Prof. André Oosterlinck for agreeing to host EUROCALL 98 and for constantly supporting the EUROCALL 98 team;
  • the Vice President for Education and Chairman of the University of Leuven’s Teacher Training Institute, Prof. Mark Debrock;
  • the Chairman of LINOV, the University of Leuven’s Postgraduate Training Institute, Prof. Kurt Deketelaere;
  • the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Willy Evenepoel;
  • the Head of the Department of Linguistics, Prof. Nicole Delbecque;
  • ICT and other technical support staff of the faculty;
  • teacher training staff for language teaching.

Graham Davies
President, EUROCALL
September 1998

EUROCALL: Informe del Presidente 1996-97

President’s Report 1997

Annual General Meeting, Dublin (Ireland), September 1997

1. Introduction

It gives me great pleasure to present this fourth President’s Report on the activities of EUROCALL over the past year. EUROCALL has now been in existence as a formal professional association for three years.

2. Executive Committee Meetings

The Executive Committee met twice in 1997:

March 1997, DCU, IRL

September 1997, DCU, IRL

Full minutes of these meetings are available from June Thompson, so I will limit this part of my report to just a few important observations.

3. Publications

The ReCALL Journal, a fully-refereed academic publication, continues to be published by the CTI Centre for Modern Languages, University of Hull, in association with EUROCALL. The quality of contributions to this publication has improved steadily and it now occupies a respected position among journals devoted to IT and language learning and teaching.

The ReCALL Newsletter is available on the Web:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/pubs/newslet.htm

Back numbers of the ReCALL Journal are also available on the Web in PDF format:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall/recall/r_online.htm

The EUROCALL 1996 Proceedings, edited by János Kohn, Bernd Rüschoff and Dieter Wolff, have been published and distributed.

Selected papers from the EUROCALL 1997 conference will be published in a double issue of the ReCALL Journal 10 (1).

4. EUROCALL Workshops

Members are reminded that a database of EUROCALL members has been set up – all specialists in different fields of CALL and TELL – with a view to providing expertise in the running of regional EUROCALL workshops. Any institution that wishes to host a regional EUROCALL workshop can call upon this expertise. It is expected that the EUROCALL member will provide his/her expertise free of charge, subject to the payment of travel and subsistence expenses by the local host.

Only one regional workshop took place during the last year: at the University of Timisoara, Romania, 13 March 1997. Special thanks are due to Stephan Pohlmann for his help in setting up this workshop and to János Kohn and Mária Balaskó for their valuable contributions.

 5. Electronic communications

EUROCALL’s WWW site is fully operational and can be accessed at:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall.htm

EUROCALL’s electronic discussion list can be joined by any EUROCALL member. If you have access to email facilities you can join the discussion list simply by sending the following message to:

mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk

join eurocall-members yourfirstname yourlastname

(For “yourfirstname” etc., of course, substitute your own!)

6. Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Information on EUROCALL’s Special Interest Groups can be obtained from the EUROCALL website:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall/about.htm

The position and role of SIGs are currently under discussion in the Executive Committee. It is planned to issue guidelines on setting up and running SIGs within EUROCALL.

CAPITAL

CAPITAL is a joint SIG of EUROCALL and CALICO, devoted to using computers in the domain of pronunciation in the widest sense of the word. To join the group, individuals or institutions must be members of one of the parent organisations, CALICO or EUROCALL.

The European co-ordinators are:

Philippe Delcloque, University of Abertay Dundee

Ton Koet, Hogeschool van Amsterdam

WELL

A proposal was made to set up a EUROCALL SIG devoted to Web Enhanced Language Learning (WELL). This proposal has now been dropped, as a Web Enhanced Language Learning project has now been awarded funding by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) under the FDTL programme. EUROCALL does not wish to compete with this project but to offer its help and collaboration. WELL aims to provide access to high-quality Web resources in 12 languages, selected and described by subject experts, plus information and examples on how to use them for teaching and learning. Its activities will be of interest to all teachers and students of languages regardless of sector and location.
The WELL web site is now accessible at:

http://www.well.ac.uk/

7. Links with other associations and organisations

EUROCALL maintains close links with a number of professional associations and organisations that promote technology enhanced language learning. We welcome the attendance of representatives at our conferences and participation in our activities, and we endeavour to be represented at their conferences and to collaborate in other ways. These are some of the key associations, organisations, events and projects with which EUROCALL members have been associated during the last year. This list is not intended to be all-inclusive, and I apologise for any omissions.

CALICO

We are pleased to welcome a number of CALICO members to EUROCALL 97. Cooperation between CALICO and EUROCALL is becoming closer. Both associations offer reductions in their conference fees to members of either association. EUROCALL members Philippe Delcloque, Matthew Fox and Jenny Parsons attended the CALICO 97 conference at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. A report on CALICO 97 was published in the ReCALL Journal 9, 2.

IALL & FLEAT III

We are pleased to welcome Nina Garrett, President of IALL, as our opening Keynote Speaker at EUROCALL 97. I was delighted to be able to attend the FLEAT III Conference, University of Victoria, Canada, in August 1997. This was organised jointly by IALL and LLA (Language Laboratory Association of Japan). June Thompson and Jo Porritt managed a stand promoting EUROCALL, and June Thompson and I gave a joint paper on “National and international co-operation”. I was also invited to take part in a panel discussion entitled “Futurewatch: language learning and technology in a global context”. A report on FLEAT III was published in the ReCALL Journal 9, 2.

WorldCALL 98

Close contact has been maintained with ATELL, Australia. The University of Melbourne will host WorldCALL 98, 13-17 July 1998, under the auspices of ATELL, the Australian Association for Technology Enhanced Language Learning.

The WorldCALL organiser is June Gassin, who is also present at EUROCALL 97. We extend our warm welcome to her.

Graham Chesters, June Thompson and I represent EUROCALL on the WorldCALL 98 Steering Committee, and I am also a member of the WorldCALL 98 Scholarships Committee. I am delighted to have been invited to give a keynote paper at WorldCALL 98 and to participate in a plenary panel event. I know that several EUROCALL members are planning to attend WorldCALL 98, so we will be well-represented.

Further information available about WorldCALL can be found at:

http://www.hlc.unimelb.edu.au/worldcall/welcome.html

Council of Europe

Several EUROCALL members have recently been involved in the Council of Europe’s activities, particularly those promoting new technologies and language learning. Bernd Rüschoff is one of the joint editors of a recent Council of Europe publication: Korsvold A-K. & Rüschoff B. (1997) (eds.) New technologies in language learning and teaching, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France. Bernd Rüschoff, Lis Kornum and I have also been involved as “animateurs” in the Council of Europe’s series of “New Style Workshops”: Workshops 7A, 7B, 9A, 9B. Lis Kornum attended the Council of Europe Conference in Graz, April 1997.

European Language Council and the Thematic Network Project (Languages)

These two linked projects, both of which are funded under the SOCRATES Programme of the Commission of the European Communities, include sub-groups on New Technologies and Language Learning. Joseph Rézeau and I are members of the Policy Group of the European Language Council’s Policy Group on New Technologies and Language Learning and of the Scientific Committee of the Thematic Network Project’s sub-group on New Technologies and Language Learning. I am also a member of the Board of the European Language Council.

Further information about these projects can be found at:

http://www.fu-berlin.de/elc/

Language Learning and Technology Journal

I am a member of the Editorial Board of this new journal, which is published exclusively on the World Wide Web:

http://polyglot.cal.msu.edu/llt/

The Editor is Mark Warschauer, University of Hawaii.

8. Membership and recruitment

Graham Chesters, EUROCALL Treasurer, is submitting his report, which includes information on current membership and membership fees.

Conferences will in future be restricted to EUROCALL members. In effect, this means that non-members will pay higher conference fees than non-members – which has always been the case – but the higher conference fee will now include the annual EUROCALL membership fee. This has the advantage of enabling us to transfer membership fees collected in this way direct to our current account.

Membership figures show a net increase of 20 over last year’s figures, but we must not be complacent. Membership subscriptions are our main source of income. As I have indicated in my previous reports, please publicise EUROCALL at seminars, workshops and conferences, among your colleagues at work – in short, wherever you can. Publicity leaflets can be made available to you if you can make use of them, and attractive posters have been printed.

9. Sponsorship

As I have indicated in my previous reports, EUROCALL desperately needs sponsorship as membership fees alone are insufficient to enable EUROCALL to embark upon exciting ventures. I therefore urge all members to pass on to the Executive Committee the names of local firms that might be willing to sponsor EUROCALL. When seeking sponsorship it is important – especially when contacting a large company – that we have the name of an individual contact in the company, preferably someone who is known personally to a EUROCALL member. Once again, I have had no reactions to my appeal last year.

10. Thanks

Many thanks are due once again this year. It is difficult to single out every EUROCALL member who has made a valuable contribution to the success of our association, but my special thanks are due to the Executive Committee for being diligent and supportive throughout the year, especially June Thompson and Graham Chesters for handling the increasing burden of administration.

I wish to offer my personal thanks to Françoise Blin and Jane Fahy as the main organisers of EUROCALL 97, not forgetting their enormous team of helpers. I also wish to thank Dr Daniel O’Hare, President of DCU, for offering to host EUROCALL 97 and providing such a friendly environment.

Graham Davies
President, EUROCALL
September 1997