​Canadian Association of Language Assessment AGM 2016
May 30, 2016, University of Calgary, Biological Sciences Building, room 561 3:45 p.m.- 4:30 p.m.

Present: Beverly Baker, Khaled Barkaoui, Maria-Lourdes Lira-Gonzales (CALA executive board members); Paula Kristmanson, Liying Cheng, Yongfei Wu, Joseph Dicks, Zhi Li, Alex Volkov, Josée Le Bouthillier, Yi Mei, Karla Culligan, Mitra Janatifar (via Skype)

1) Approval of the agenda: Motioned by Liying Cheng, seconded by Paula Kristmanson
2) Approval of the Minutes of AGM 2015: Motioned by Beverly Baker, seconded by Yongfei Wu
3) Executive Committee Report (financial report, activities, members)

Financial Report 2015-2016 (As of May 25, 2016)

Starting balance(June 1, 2015): $162
Revenues:

  • Memberships: $1,365
  • Sponsorship: $1,500

Total Revenues: $3,027
Expenses:

  • Annual Filing with Industry Canada: $20
  • Website (+domain registration): $180
  • Bank Fees: $71
  • Student Award: $1,000
  • Winter Event: $380
  • Symposium: $1,000
  • Total Expenses: $2,692

Current balance: $335

Membership (as of May 2016): Professors 23; Government 4; Teachers 4; Students 27; other 10.
Members subscribed to list serve: 68. There has been an increase in student members. Having the CALA conference joined to another conference such as ACLA allows us to keep students’ registration free. It is not financially feasible for an organisation this size to join Congress separately.

 Activities 2015-2016: 

  • Winter Event at York U, Toronto, Feb. 2016: Nice venue, interesting presentation; the small group format was appreciated by the participants.
  • French translation of the ILTA Code of Ethics is now online, thanks to CALA members Sara Trottier and Monique Bournot-Trites.
  • We were able to secure sponsorship from Paragon Testing Enterprises for a student travel award to support student presenters and to support the CALA 2016 symposium.


Website: More information is needed on research profiles as well as more material that allow visibility of the members  and the association’s work (Beverly Baker)

Term limits for executive members: The following issues and possible solutions regarding the term limits for executive members were presented (Khaled Barkaoui):
Issues

  • No staggering of executive positions;
  • No continuity with a completely new executive every 2 years.
  • Some have served more than one executive position, because not all executive positions are currently being filled (no Communications Officer or Member-at-Large).

Possible solutions:

  • Have some positions for an additional year.
  • Create position of past-president in an advisory role.
  • Move President to new existing positions (e.g., Communications Officer; Member at Large)

Changing member descriptions is much easier to do (by a vote of the AGM to adjust the by-laws. Therefore, the following motion was proposed and adopted unanimously: 
The description of the vice president is changed so that the vice president moves into the president position beginning with the election of the sub-sequent executive in 2017.

 Motioned by Joe Dicks, seconded by Paula Kristmanson.

 Next activities:

  • Next symposium: Where and when? Same city as Congress (Toronto) coinciding with ACLA, but one day before ACLA at York University, so that members would not have the competition of ACLA during our symposium (which affected attendance at both the symposium and the AGM this year). This formula worked well in Ottawa last year. Every year we will reconsider our options.
  • Next winter event: French assessment at the University of Ottawa (Beverly Baker). This will be sponsored by the Language Assessment research Group at uOttawa, and will take place in January or February.
  • Activity with TESOL Canada: Paula Kristmanson, who is in the Board of TESL Canada, will mention to them that CALA is interested in organizing an activity together, such as a practitioner oriented symposium at the next TESL Canada Conference in the spring of 2017 in Niagara Falls


Motion to adjourn by Paula Kristmanson.


​AGM / AGA 2015
May 29, 2015, University of Ottawa, Arts 509
12:30-3pm

  • Present: Beverly Baker, Heike Neumann (CALA executive board members), Jennifer Macdonald, Poonam Anand, Janna Fox, Nwara Abdulhamid, Jia Ma, Christian Colby-Kelly, May Tan, Jake Stone, Maryam Wagner, Angel Arias, Valerie Kolesova, Yongfei Wu.


  • Approval of the agenda: Motioned by May Tan, seconded by Jake Stone

Approval of the Minutes of AGM 2014 : Motioned by Maryam Wagner, seconded by Jia Ma

  • Executive Committee Report (financial report, activities, members)
  • Financial Report (May 15, 2015)

Revenues: Memberships 1140.00

Expenses
Annual Filing with Industry Canada 20.00
Website (+domain registration) 85.00
Maple leaf candies (LTRC 2015) 100.00
CALA ACEL Banner 280.00
Lunch AGM 2015 425.00
Total Expenses 910.00
Current balance 230.00

We discussed other sources of income: Corporate/institutional membership: For example, 4-5 people at Paragon would participate as representatives if Paragon was an institutional member. CALA can perform a referral and relationship function for companies such as Paragon Testing (Jake Stone). Another benefit for members could be visibility for corporation on website (May) ILTA used to charge $150/year for institutional membership when regular members paid $50 (Janna Fox). CALA could probably charge up to $400/year corporate memberships. (Jake Stone)


CALA would not have to limit itself to Canadian institutions per se. For example, ETS or even Cambridge English might be interested (Jake Stone, Beverly Baker, May Tan)
CALA would not have to limit itself to institutions dedicated to language testing but include others that work in language assessment, such as the Public Service Commission, Heritage Canada, Citizenship and Immigration. (Jennifer Macdonald). CALA should formalize a registry of experts that institutional members can have access to, similar to a registry of experts at a university for the media (Jake Stone). A research assistant could prepare the information and check with members if the compiled information is accurate (Beverly Baker). Such a registry would legitimize CALA and offer benefit for (institutional) members.

Other ways to use money: Suggestions by Executive Board: Support for more student members to attend the symposium
Other outreach work: Support for members to attend other conferences Ideas from members: Funding student research.

  •  Membership:

Regular Members: 41 (Professor 21; Government 7; Teacher 2; Other 11)
Student Members: 27
Members subscribed to list serve: 24
Check membership list against membership on list serve in order to contact CALA members who are not subscribed to the listserve with instructions on how to subscribe (Heike Neumann). It would a good idea to spread the list serve more widely (beyond members) so that item writers, for example, could join even though they are not members (Jake Stone).

  • Website:

Help is needed with developing and revising the French portion of the site. So far, calls to francophone members of the site have gone unanswered. More information is needed on research profiles. It would be a good opportunity for graduate students to spread information about their research. (Beverly Baker)
Streamline the process of communicating this information to CALA by providing a form to be filled in and giving guidance on what kind of projects could be listed.
Compile a list of Canadian MA/PhD project titles and abstracts in language assessment (Janna Fox). Best way to compile that information is by contacting supervisors to get abstracts of defended PhDs/MAs (Beverly Baker). Look at CASLT website for ideas on how to improve the CALA website (Christian Colby-Kelly).

  • Elections

We have a full slate of candidates for the all the positions on the next CALA executive board. Further information on the elections will be provided to members by email. (Beverly Baker)

  • Translation request (ILTA)

ILTA has spent the last few years providing translations of its Code of Ethics. So far, there is no French version. At the ILTA AGM, Beverly Baker offered that CALA would take care of providing the French version of the Code of Ethics. Angel Arias and Beverly Baker will collaborate on producing a first draft, which will then need to be reviewed by 2 reviewers. Angel suggested his fellow graduate students at the Université de Montréal.


  • Next symposium

Where and when?
One possibility: Same place as Congress coinciding with ACLA and CSSE (University of Calgary, May 28 to June 3, 2016)? When CALA symposium coincides with ACLA, ACLA attendees can attend and interested CALA members can go to ACLA.
Another possibility: Could be hosted in a “language testing hotspot” (e.g., Ottawa, Toronto, or Vancouver). For example, Paragon Testing could host the symposium.
No final decision was made.
Motion to adjourn by Jake Stone, seconded by May Tan.Minutes from Annual General Meeting / Procès-verbaux des assemblées générales annuelles



AGM 2014 / AGA 2014


Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 15:35 – 16:35, Pond Inlet, Mezzanine, Brock University Campus

Present: Christine Doe, Heike Neumann (CALA executive board members),  Eunice Jang, Jia Ma, Maggie Dunlop, Maryam Wagner, Scott Douglas, Shahrzad Saif

1. Approval of Agenda

Motioned by Wagner, seconded by Douglas

2. Approval of the Minutes

Motioned by Saif, seconded by Douglas

3. Update from the Founding Executive

- Process of writing constitution: The CALA/ACEL constitution was drafted following Industry Canada guidelines, namely the Not-for-profit Corporations Act, and the Industry Canada bylaw builder. This was to ensure the constitution contained all the required bylaws and the appropriate wording.
- Registration of CALA/ACEL with the Federal Government: The association has now been officially registered with the government and the process of opening a bank account for the association is almost complete.
- Approval of constitution by members: The constitution now has to be approved by members. This will be done through an online voting system. 

4. Membership renewal
- The new membership will be based on calendar years.       
- It was moved and seconded (Dunlop/Wagner) that membership should be paid for regular members ($20-40) and free for students. All in favour. Two options were suggested for 2014 memberships: pro-rated membership rate or a discount on 2015 membership if paid early (i.e., a rebate on a two year membership if members register now for 2014 and 2015).
- A question was raised about the number of members CALA/ACEL has. The current number of members is 189.

5. LTRC 2015 in Toronto
- LTRC will take place  in the Eaton Chelsea Hotel, Toronto, Canada on March 18-20, 2015 with pre-conference workshops March 16-17
- It was discussed what level was appropriate for the pre-conference workshops. The consensus was that it would depend on the topic. Jang recommended using “big names” in order to attract participants. The topic of computer-based item development was suggested. Jang recommended careful consideration of the honorarium for workshop presenters. With the flat fee authorized for workshop participants the LTRC in Korea, there was not much money left top pay workshop participants after expenses had been covered. In other words, travel expenses are an important consideration when choosing workshop presenters. 
- The LTRC 2015 survey will be distributed widely after LTRC 2014 has taken place
- The integration of French into LTRC 2015 was discussed. The following ideas were suggested: workshop in French, invited symposium on French, simultaneous translation for some French talks/papers. It was also discussed that the assessment of aboriginal languages – not just in Canada – should be present in some form at LTRC 2015.
- The call for papers will be posted in June, with the deadline for submission on August 31. Notifications will be sent out by the end of November
Hart House at the University of Toronto has been chosen as a location for the banquet.

6. Other business
- Information on TESL Canada Conference 2015: It will take place in the fall 2015 at the Chateau Lake Louis. A-TESL will organize the conference and Douglas suggested that CALA/ACEL should  contact them for pre-symposium.

7. Motioned and seconded to adjourn (Jang/Wagner)

Canadian Association of Language Assessment / Association canadienne pour l'évaluation des langues