Operating Paper

Contents

1. Mission of the Organization
2. Duties of the Officers
3. Membership
4. Policy and Governance

Mission of the Organization

• Gathering information with respect to a broad ranges of issues, from equipment, supplies and vendors, to operating policies and procedures, to trends and research
• Assisting and encouraging individuals in the 12-state area, particularly those who are new to the directing of language labs
• Sponsoring joint activities and projects, including influencing the national learning lab group (IALLT), through representation of the views of the regional membership 

 

Duties of the Officers

There are the following elected officers: Administrative Officer and Newsletter Editor. There is also a Conference Coordinator and Membership Coordinator(s), appointed at the discretion of the Administrative Officer.

Travel support for meetings is not provided by MWALLT.

 

Administrative Officer 

Term: 2 years

Duties: Maintain treasury, coordinate publicity for newsletter, assist conference host in deciding the theme and agenda for the meeting, preside at business meetings, designate someone to take minutes of the business meetings, request IALLT membership monies, serve on IALLT Council and attend IALLT Summer Leadership Meetings, represent and report to MWALLT membership on pertinent issues

Requirements for candidacy: must be an IALLT member, must have been active in MWALLT for at least one year before being elected

 

Newsletter Editor

Term: 2 years

Duties: collect information from membership on a variety of issues of general interest, publish and distribute newsletter to membership twice a year (after the Fall meeting and once in the Spring, after Spring meeting, if there is one)

 

Conference Coordinator

Term: Host of next annual meeting (volunteer)

Duties: Prepare pre-conference publicity, including Call for Participation; organize and host meeting; agenda and registration materials; prepare post-conference minutes for newsletter

Responsibilities: Provide meeting space and refreshments at conference, provide an accounting of monies taken in and spent, turn over membership monies collected to the Administrative Officer 

 

Membership Coordinator 

Term: volunteer, unspecified

Duties: Maintain data base, prepare and distribute membership renewal notices, prepare labels or email list for mailings, coordinate state-level membership activities

 

 

Membership Issues

1. Dues: $15.00 annually, fall-fall (Collected from participants at Fall Conference, others receive mail reminder)

2. One person-one payment, no institutional dues

3. Members receive: the newsletter, conference announcements

 

 

Policy and Governance

Conferences

1. Registration fee should be nominal and should be charged only to cover conference expenses beyond postage and publicity. In general, arranging honoraria for speakers is discouraged. One of the goals of MWALLT is to share its own expertise.
2. Commercial participation should be peripheral (i.e., discourage vendor sessions in favor of exhibits), encourage exhibits, avoid preferential treatment, solicit ideas from members about important vendor contributions
3. There will not be a spring meeting the years of IALLT national meetings.
4. The standard conference schedule will be Friday-Saturday, or Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Proposed changes in this schedule should be discussed with the officers in advance.

 

Treasury

1. The treasury is held by the Administrative Officer in the form of a checking account.

   Detailed records in the form of a ledger (and bank statements) should be kept of:

   a. All deposits, including date monies were received, source of monies and date monies were deposited

   b. All expenditures, including date expense was incurred, name of person incurring expense, and date paid

2. Monies in the treasury are used for the following:

   a. Conferences (postage and publicity)

   b. Costs for the newsletter (copying and postage)

   c. Costs for membership renewals

   d. Outside speakers for conferences

3. All requests for money from the Treasury must be approved by the officers.

 

Outreach 

MWALLT has on-going interests in the following projects:

1. MWALLT database
2. Video Sourcebook
3. "Experts" list
4. Salary standards for lab directors
5. Identifying high school lab people
6. Establish guidelines for conference hosts
7. Software database
8. Professional standards for lab directors