Date: March 26, 2022
Time: 2:00–3:15
Venue: ZOOM

(Akita Chapter members have been sent a ZOOM link. Those wishing to join should email a request to akita (@) jalt.org. Please state your FULL NAME and affiliation if applicable.

Unlike our usual meetings when chapter members and guest speakers have an opportunity to share their research or new approaches to education, this month’s chapter meeting will be a chance for me to report on the state of our chapter. Although this might sound like a dry topic, I cannot emphasize enough how important the information that I will be sharing with you is, particularly in regards to maintaining our healthy status as a successful JALT chapter.

I will be addressing both what we are doing locally to benefit our members as well as how we are performing nationally, within the broader JALT community. In terms of “the local,” I will be eager to hear opinions about whether we should go back to face-to-face meetings, as well as how to increase (if necessary) members’ over all involvement. In terms of “the national,” I will be discussing how our chapter performed on JALT headquarters’ chapter/SIG evaluation. Just this past February, 8 SIGs were under threat of losing some of their JALT privileges because they were perceived as under-performing. Thus the goal of this meeting will be to assure that we, as a chapter, are meeting the standards of a professional academic organization.

Speaker’s BIO: Ben Grafström has been living in Akita for 10 years (Japan for 13) and is a lecturer at Akita University. Before becoming chapter president in 2020, he was the membership chair for 3 years.