Recent news and updates from our Chapter President,
Mr. Bernie López:
Dear Member and Colleague,
1. The deadline for the Commemorative Coin Competition is
Monday, December 3, 2018. Please note, we have expanded the competition to include high school students. See the Coin tab on our website for more information. The deadline for the Chapter Poster Contest and the Website Competition is
Monday, January 8, 2019. Please remember that teachers who enter students in competitions must be members of the AATSP. See the attached Contest and Website tabs for more information.
2. Have you voted yet for our AATSP Metro NY Chapter Elections? If you haven't, please see the attached files below to begin the process. Deadline is Friday, November 30th.
Attached you will find two attachments:
- The Biographical sheet of the nominated officers and directors for this election period.
- The ballot for voting.
Kindly return the ballot by email or snail mail to Francisco García-Quezada. The directions are on the ballot.
3. The AATSP offers many opportunities to its members and their students. Here is an unexpected scholarship opportunity for teachers of Spanish.
From the AATSP National Office:
Dear AATSP Chapter Presidents/President-Elects,
Greetings from the National Office. Please look at the message below from Chris Shirley, Georgetown University. The US Youth Ambassadors Program includes a 3-week language/culture immersion in South America, fully funded by the US State Department. They still have slots available for adult Spanish teachers! The deadline to apply is approaching fast. If you know of someone who could take advantage of this great opportunity, please forward them this email. The program’s website is: https://www.worldlearning.org/program/youth-ambassadors-program/
4. Nearly 800 members attended the National Conference in Salamanca. We were recognized as the Chapter of the Year. I accepted the award on behalf of the chapter; I indicated to the audience that winning the award this year was very special for us. Special as we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the association and at the fact that our chapter was the first chapter established in 1917. Our chapter was well represented at the conference.
Congratulations to Myrza Méndez-Torres who won a scholarship for attending the conference for the first time.
Besides being the chapter president, I am the chapter historian. As I went through the archives, I found our chapter constitution; it had been last amended in October 1972. I thought it might be time to update it. It did need to bring us more in line with national guidelines. A committee composed of Francisco Garcia Quezada, Mary Leptak, Louie Oliveira and headed by Erin DiGiuseppe worked on updating the constitution. I thank them for their work on this document. Attached below you will find the final product.
5. Attached below you will also find our first newsletter of the year with much information regarding this year's events.
As always, if there are any questions, please send them to me.
BLopez.aatspmetny@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Bernie López
