Organizational Meeting of the

North American Systemic Functional Linguistics Association

7:30 p.m., April 8, 2002

Smoke House Room, Sheraton City Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. 

 

Convening:  During a convention of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, a group of systemic functional linguists gathered to form a new regional group.  It would be the seventh regional group, after Europe, Japan, China, Australia, France, and Nigeria.  Nan Fries had e-mailed notices of this intention to a list of more than 200 North Americans who had expressed an interest in Systemic Functional Linguistics.  She instructed them to let her know if they did not want to be considered members of the proposed organization, but none of them did so. 

Those signing the register as present included the following:

 

Acton, Bill

Beckett,  Gulbahar

Chapelle,  Carol

Conrad,  Susan

Cortes,  Viviana

Crawford,  Mary Ann

Fang,  Zhihui

Forest,  Richard

Fries, Nan

Fries, Peter

Hartnett, Carolyn

Hazelrigg,  Cecilia

Jones,  Alan

Kobayashi,  Emi

Kobayashi,  Masaki

Liang,  Xiaoping

Luo,  Lynn Yu

Miller,  Tom

Mohan, Bernie

Queniart,  Jacqueline

Sueyoshi,  Akiyo

Takasa,  Maiko

Yang,  Luxin

Youmans,  Madeleine

 

 

Peter and Nan Fries and Bernie Mohan posted an agenda and led discussion. 

 

1. Possible Projects

a.  Individual bibliographies from members’ classes to be posted on a NASFLA web site.  (Eventually these might be annotated.)

            b. SFL course for distance learning

            c.  Colloquia at various conferences

 

2. Constitution

            After a draft was posted, discussed, and revised, Peter Fries moved to adopt it, and Bernie Mohan seconded the motion.  It received unanimous approval and is appended to these minutes. 

 

3. Election of officers

      Volunteers were requested and names of  nominees were posted:

      President:      Bernie Mohan (Past Chair, ISFC)

      Vice President:      Nan Fries (Membership Secretary, ISFC)

      Secretary:      Carolyn Hartnett (Acting Recording Secretary, ISFC)

      Web Site Coordinator:            Michael Cummings (North American Representative, ISFC)  <mcummings@glendon.yourku.ca>

      Newsletter Editor: (None named for now, but a volunteer was requested.)

      Other Volunteers:             As needed and available

Peter Fries moved the election of the list, Madeline Youmans seconded the motion, and approval was unanimous. 

 

4.  Other Business

     Where to meet:  Possibilities include during meetings of the ISFLA, American Association of Applied Linguistics, National Council of Teachers of English, and Conference on College Composition and Communication.  Also suggested were the World Englishes Conference in October at the University of Illinois and one three-day weekend during the Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, which will be held at Michigan State University in 2003. 

 

     Further suggestions included these:

            Meetings of the board can take place via e-mail. 

            Minutes should be posted on e-mail list and on web site. 

            Terms of officers will be staggered after we get under way. 

            Everyone should be thinking of projects the organization can undertake. 

            Bibliographies and news of publications should be sent to Michael Cummings immediately for posting on a web site <mcummings@glendon.yourku.ca>

 

     Further discussion:

ISFLA will be meeting in Liverpool in July and in Brazil in 2006.

The new Continuum book catalog has been published; it includes a new ten-volume edition of works by Michael Halliday. 

Reservations had been made for members to have dinner together in the hotel immediately after the close of this meeting. 

 

Participants introduced themselves, and Bernie Mohan adjourned the meeting. 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Hartnett, Secretary, NASFLA

 

 

 

Constitution

 

Name of organization:   

           North American Systemic Functional Linguistics Association

 

Goals:

           To bring together Systemic Functional Linguists in North America through activities such as organizing meetings, maintaining a web site, circulating a newsletter, and socializing;

           To encourage the development of Systemic Functional Linguistics;

           To strengthen contacts with linguists in other parts of the world, such as South America

 

Officers:

           President, Vice President, Secretary, Web Site Coordinator, and Newsletter Chair

 

Terms of office:

           Officers will be elected for two years. 

 

Meetings of the organization:

           Once a year, the times and locations to be decided by the officers. 

   Members will be notified by e-mail.

 

Membership: 

           Membership will consist of people who have expressed an interest in Systemic Functional Linguistics in North America.