INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR

LANGUAGE EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES (INLEPS)

BY-LAWS

 

I.  Name

 

The organization shall be known as the International Network For Language Education Policy Studies (INLEPS)

 

II.  Affiliation and Purpose

 

A.  All members of Associations in Applied Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, English Language Teaching, TESOL, English as a Lingua Franca, Language Policy, Education Policy, and Foreign Language Education concerned with the role of language education policies are urged to affiliate with INLEPS. INLEPS is an Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Organization, and a not-for-profit scientific and educational association.

 

B.  The purpose of INLEPS is as follows:

 

INLEPS will bring together discipline specialists, applied linguists, educational theorists, curriculum developers, educational researchers, classroom experts, and policy makers concerned with the role of language education policy, and will encourage multidisciplinary sessions at INLEPS Seminars and Conferences. INLEPS will provide a forum for 1) integration of theoretical and empirical studies on language education policy, 2) discussion of investigations conducted in education settings,  3) exploration of innovative methodologies, including micro-analyses and met-analyses, and d) implications of research for language education policy at local, state, national and international levels.

 

III.  Governments, Officers, and Officers' Responsibility

 

A.  INLEPS will be governed by an Executive Committee consisting of all of the officers of the organization. In addition, INLEPS will have liaisons to other organizations concerned with related educational issues, such as language policy, language studies, applied linguistics, second language acquisition, TESOL, and foreign language education.  There is no restriction on the number of liaisons that INLEPS can have. Liaisons will be non-voting members of the Executive Committee.

 

B.  The INLEPS officers and their responsibilities are summarized as follows:

 

1.  Immediate Past President: Assist the president and president-elect in their activities, chair the nominations committee for new officers and liaisons, and explore possibilities of holding a special INLEPS meeting either as a self-standing Seminar or Conference, or in conjunction with another appropriate meeting. A prior past president can be elected as president if no other member of the Executive Board is willing to take this responsibility.

 

2.  President:

Prior member of the INLEPS Executive Board in a non-presidential role. The President function is held for three years and is non-renewable, unless exception mentioned in Point 1, after a period as past president. Responsibilities: Coordinate approval from the INLEPS Executive Board and get by-laws established and implemented. Maintain responsibilities for all activities of INLEPS and provide leadership in all aspects of INLEPS activity.

 

3.  Program Chairs (2 per year):

Responsibilities: Chair selection of the INLEPS program for one biannual Seminar or Conference. Organize the host facilities for the meeting and look for funding to cover meeting expenses. Maintain responsibilities for all activities of INLEPS and provide leadership in all aspects of INLEPS activities related to the specific meeting being organized. Coordinate the review of paper proposals with other members of the Executive Board. Prepare the Seminar or Conference program. The Program Chair also assumes the responsibilities of a local Secretary-Treasurer: Maintain bank account, collect meeting dues, inform participants about the way of paying dues, keep records. Each Program Chair is responsible for making sure all expenses for the meeting that he or she organizes have been paid and covered.

 

4.  Treasurer:

INLEPS is an international and informal network of shared interests, it does not have currently a financial structure and there is no need to centralize financial information around a treasurer. INLEPS members do not have to pay annual fees. Registration fees for confeces and meetings are managed by the local Program Chair (see Point 3).

 

5.  Newsletter Chair:

Responsibilities: Put out at least one newsletter a year, announcing each meeting, Seminar or Conference. Every third year, the Spring Newsletter should announce elections to the Executive Board.

 

6.  Vice Presidents:

INLEPS has Vice Presidents for every continent.  Additional Vice Presidents may be elected for specific purposes, such as looking for funding for specific INLEPS purposes or projects.

 

7. Executive Board:

The INLEPS officers described in points 1 to 6 are members of the INLEPS Executive Board. The Executive Board serves as a nominations and elections committee.

 

IV.  INLEPS Committees

 

A.  INLEPS will have a program committee. The immediate past chair will chair the nominations committee. The nominations committee will consist of the past chair and two other individuals that have previously been voting members of the SIG-A&L executive committee. Ideally, these two individuals will be the prior two past chairs of the organization.

 

B.  The Executive Board consists of the immediate past chair, the chair, the program chairs, the vice presidents, and the newsletter chair. The liaisons to other organizations are non-voting members of the Executive Board. The Executive Board sets the dues for the organization, can unanimously propose amendments to the by-laws, and approves the biannual meetings programs. In addition, the Executive Board is charged with jointly pursuing the purpose of INLEPS.

 

C.  The Program Committee will be chaired by the Program Chair who may become INLEPS president-elect (for a total of eight potential president-elects after three years). The program chair will draft the Call for Proposals for the biannual meeting with the president, and the executive committee will approve. The program chair will recruit program committee members. The program committee will review proposals submitted to the biannual meeting. The chair of the program committee will be responsible for synthesizing proposal reviews and finalizing the program for the biannual meeting. The immediate past chair, chair, and president-elect will jointly review the program for the biannual meeting before submitting it and disseminating it to members.

 

 

V.  Activities, Meetings, and Newsletters

 

A.  Activities of INLEPS will be initiated by members of the Executive Board and liaisons to other organizations. Any activities consistent with the purpose of INLEPS will be supported by INLEPS. Activities involving expenditure of funds must be supported by the Program Chair of a biannual meeting or by a vice president specifically appointed to that task by the President or elected by the Executive Board.

 

B.  The INLEPS Executive Board will meet at the biannual meetings. The Executive Committee will maintain communication through paper mail and email throughout the year.

 

C.  INLEPS will publish at least two newsletters a year that will be disseminated through the INLEPS website or through electronic mail. The newsletters will serve to build a community of scholars interested in language education policy studies.

 

VI.  Finance, Elections, Ratification, and Amendments

 

A.  The INLEPS Program Chairs will charge dues appropriate to cover the costs of the meeting expenses and other miscellaneous expenses such as website costs. The Program Chairs will be responsible to keep accounts of the event they organize under the seat of their university institution. The level of dues will be set by the Executive Board after discussion with the Program. The Program Chairs will provide their financial reports to the Executive Board at the following annual meeting.

 

B.  Officers will be elected by approval of the membership. Every three years, the nominating committee will propose nominees for each open office by January 18. The nominated officers will be announced in the Spring newsletter, which should be mailed to the membership following the annual meeting.

 

C.  Officers can be elected in two ways. The officers can be elected at the annual meeting by a majority vote, or an email ballot can be carried out. Officers will be elected by tabulating the results of the returned ballots. No matter which system is used, officers for the subsequent year will be announced before the next biannual meeting.

 

D.  The first president will serve a multiple-year term from January 2017, and no president elect will be chosen before January of 2020. Then from January of 2020 INLEPS Officers will serve two-year terms. The president-elect will serve for two years as president-elect, two years as president, and two years as past chair. Thus, a president-elect will be elected every other year, and, then, that person will be involved in INLEPS for the next six years in one of these three roles.

 

E.  Amendments to these by-laws may be proposed in one of two ways. The Executive Board can unanimously propose an amendment to the by-laws. Alternatively, a petition from 20% of the Conference dues paying members of the organization may be used to propose an amendment. Amendments will be discussed and voted upon at one of the biannual meetings. Approval by a majority of those attending the annual meeting session will be required to pass an amendment. Alternatively, proposed amendments may be emailed to the membership for approval.  A majority of those voting will be required for approval of an amendment.

 

F. Proposed members of the Executive Board for the years 2020-2022

 

President: Francois Victor Tochon, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Program Chair, Spring 2014: Yuangshan Chuang, Tajen University, Taiwan, China

Program Chair, Fall 2015: Shirley O’Neill, University of South Queensland, Australia

Program Chairs, Spring 2015:  Jianlin Chen, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China, and Chen Li,  Southeast University, Nanjing.

Program Chair, Fall 2016: Francois Victor Tochon, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Program Chairs, Spring 2017: Kristine M. Harrison, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras; Catherine Mendonca Dias, University of Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle

Program Chairs, Oct. 2019: Francois Victor Tochon, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA; Jun Wang, University of Soochow (to be confirmed)

Program Chair, Dec.-Jan. 2019: Shivaji Sargar, University of Mumbai

Newsletter chairs: Inseok Kim, Dongduk Women's University, South Korea, and Qi Shen, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China

Vice President for East Asia: Jianlin Chen, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China

Vice President for South America: Jaime Alonso Usma Wilches, Antioquia University, Medellin, Colombia

Vice President for Europe: Manuel Fernandez Cruz, University of Granada, Spain, Europe

Vice President for Middle East: Muhammet Demirbilek, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey 

Vice-President for Central Eurasia: Umeda Gadaybaeva, Khujand, Tajikistan

Vice President for Australia: Shirley O’Neill, University of South Queensland

Vice Presidents for North America: Timothy Reagan, University of Maine in Orono, and Kristine M. Harrison, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras

Vice President for South Asia: Shivaji Sargar, University of Mumbai

 

Liaisons to other Associations

ISLS – Timothy Reagan, University of Maine in Orono

APAMALL and KAMALL – Inseok Kim, Dongduk Women's University, South Korea

IASS and SSA –  Francois Victor Tochon, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

IsPal – Shirley O’Neill, University of South Queensland, Australia

ROCMELIA  – Yuangshan Chuang, Tajen University, Taiwan, China

AILA – forthcoming

AAAL – forthcoming

LP  – forthcoming