At this year’s Annual General Meeting, TESL Toronto said good-bye to four valued Board Members, and welcomed four promising new ones.
Outgoing members included some long-standing TESL Toronto Executive volunteers who have contributed enormous amounts of time, energy, and dedication over the years to our Board – and to Toronto’s TESL community.
- Joanne Hincks and Anne McGregor-O’Neill have both served on the TESL Toronto Board since 2004, and between them have held almost every position on the board. Joanne has been a Member at Large, Recording Secretary, Affiliate Director, and Membership Secretary; while Anne has served as Member at Large, Conference Co-chair, and Treasurer. Both have also contributed to a number of committees, and together have been instrumental in spearheading and maintaining the TESL Toronto bursary, which allows members to receive financial assistance to attend local conferences.
- Ken Lackman has been contributing tirelessly since 2005 to help plan and run conferences and, more recently as Recording Secretary, to bring order to the chaos of our Executive meetings. Ken is also a very popular presenter at our conferences, and we look forward to his next workshop.
- We say good-bye also to Dianne Roberti, Member at Large, thank her for her contributions and wish her luck in her many endeavours.
The Board also welcome four new Members at Large, who bring an impressive array of talent and experience:
- Joan Bartel is, among other things, a specialist in soft skills and immigrants’ communication needs for employment, and has published textbooks in that field.
- Jennifer Freudenthal has worked with both adults and children, and currently teaches ESL and French in the Toronto District School Board.
- Jennifer Harris, from the University of Toronto’s Continuing Education Department, has a wide range of experience in teaching, teacher training, curriculum development and administration.
- Nao Yamamoto brings both student perspective and marketing savvy to the Board: he studied ESL at Cornerstone Academic College in Toronto, where he now holds the position of Marketing Director.
Welcome aboard!