The American Association of Teachers of Persian
AATP Business Meeting at AIS 2024 Conference
Monday, August 12, 2024 at 15:00-17:00
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Room: Sala Eusebio Dávalos
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AATP Inaugural Webinar
Wednesday - August 10, 2020
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Online Teaching​
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Meeting Notes - 2019 Annual Meeting
November 14, 2019
MESA Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA
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Executive Board present: Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, Michelle Quay, Marjan Seirafi-Pour
Members present: Alyeh Mehin, Mohammad Esmaili-Sardari, Farima Mostoufi, Latifeh Hagigi, Farkhondeh Shayesteh, Anousha Shahsavari, Jaleh Pirnazar, Peyman Nojoumian, Pardis Minuchehr
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President's Report, Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
a) 2019 AATP Workshop​​​
i) 20 members attended the workshop, which was held at University of Maryland, August 5-7, 2019.
ii) Plan is to hold annual workshops with rotating locations on east coast, west coast and center of America. University of Oklahoma is a possible site for summer 2020. Workshop 2020 would have to take place in June or July due to the Association for Iranian Studies Conference taking place in August 2020.
iii) Donors and supports are needed to make these workshops possible; members are encouraged to ask their institutions and donor for their financial support. The workshop helped to increase our membership.
b) AATP Bulletin: Members are encouraged to send in news and updates related to their publications, job openings, and significant institution news in the field of Persian language.
c) Election updates: Elections for President and Treasurer will take place in January 2020. Nominations are needed by the end of December 2019.
i) Michelle Quay was nominated as a candidate for President by Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
ii) Alyeh Mehin was nominated as a candidate for Treasurer by Marjan Seirafi-Pour
d) AATP’s non-profit status has been updated
e) Membership growth since 2018
i) Institutional Membership has grown 150%, from two institutional members to five
ii) Individual Membership has grown 41%, from 29 individual members to 41
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2. Treasurer Report, Michelle Quay
a) Membership
i) Individual membership is at 41.
ii) If the next workshop is to be held in June 2020, the organization needs to start in March.
iii) Individual membership fees to increase from $40/year to $50/year, Student membership to increase from $25/year to $30/year, and Institutional Membership to increase from $200/year to $250/year. These changes were approved unanimously by members present.
b) Financial Report: Verbal financial report was given at the meeting by the treasurer based on the Income-Expense report.
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3. Executive Secretary Report, Marjan Seirafi-Pour
a) New Logo, New website:
i) New AATP logo is designed by an Iranian student at the University of Oklahoma. The logo was
approved by the Executive Advisory Board and the Executive Board.
ii) The new website was designed by Bluering Design, LLC of Norman, Oklahoma at a deep discount, costing $500. Members have to register with the new website to be able to use it at the maximum capacity.
iii) Marjan Seirafi-Pour will be taking training sessions at Bluering Design, LLC to learn updating and management of the website.
b) Social Media: Facebook page has been updated with the new logo and banner to match the website. New Instagram account has been created, @aatpersian.
c) Persian Language Programs in the US and Canada: Data collection is ongoing; members are encouraged to answer their email and fill out the survey form ASAP.
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4. Conference Updates (President)
a) MESA 2019 Roundtable on Teaching Material for Persian Language, Friday Nov. 15, 2019, 10:15 am- 12:15 pm
b) The 2nd International Conference on Teaching Persian Language & Literature, University of Cambridge, 12-13 December 2019
c) AIS August 25-28, 2020 Salamanca
i) Three panels on teaching and learning Persian language and literature
(1) Persian Second Language Acquisition
(2) Teaching Persian to speakers of other languages: from theory to practice
(3) Sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of teaching and learning Persian
ii) Roundtables
(1) AATP Roundtable I: Poetry, Culture and Technology in the Persian Language Classroom
(2) AATP Roundtable II: Learner-Centered Persian Language Instruction
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5. Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
a) 2019, Professor John Perry
b) 2020, Professor M.R. Ghanoonparvar
c) 2021, Jaleh Pirnazar
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6. Members Comments
a) General meeting at MESA
b) General meeting at every AIS
c) Panels and roundtables at ACTFL​​
i) AATP participation in ACTFL Conferences is essential
d) The new website is great. Easy to navigate, fresh and clean.
e) The new logo is great representation of AATP
f) Increase member benefits to attract more members.
i) Publishers for discounts for members
ii) Webinars
iii) More workshops
g) Teacher Appreciation Certificate: AATP should recognize one teacher a year based on excellence in teaching skills.
h) Accreditation entity for language programs: Accreditation Commission for Schools Western Association of Schools and Colleges, www.acswasc.org
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The AATP Executive Board
Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
Michelle Quay
Marjan Seirafi-Pour
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Meeting Notes – 2018 Annual Meeting
Meeting Notes – AGM – August 14, 2018
The American Association of Teachers of Persian Meeting Agenda
August 14, 2018 AIS Conference Irvine, CA
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New Executive Board (Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, Michelle Quay, and Parvaneh Hosseini)
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Attendees: Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, Michelle Quay, Parvaneh Hosseini, Marjan Seirafi-Pour, Elahe Amiri, Mehrzad Mohit, Fahime Guran, Alyeh Mehin, Michael Hillmann, Ramin Sarraf, Azita Mokhtari, Mehrak Kamali, Peyman Nojoumian, Soheila Kian, Aida Melika (future member), Behzad Namazi, Mana Tabataba’i, Paxima Mojavezi, Anousha Sedighi, Farima Mostowfi, Latifeh Hagigi, Sahba Shayani, Shervin Emami, Haideh Sahim,
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New Executive Board – Transferring Bank Account BoA
Decided to remove names of previous executive board from the BoA bank account and add the names of the new executive board. -
Reinstating the Non-Profit Status of the AATP
Forms submitted to DCRA
Fees paid for reinstatement -
AATP Office Locations
Voted to change the AATP address to Farima Mostowfi – Passed with Quorum + 4
Famira Mostowfi accepted, the registered institution has changed from George Washington University to Georgetown University -
AATP Website Update
AATP Website updated by Peyman Nojoumian on a voluntary basis
Added a section for recent publications by members, from 2010 on
Another section will be added for articles by members, encourage members to send their publication information
Found someone to redo the graphic design of the website as a volunteer
Peyman is fine to continue doing normal updating etc. for free – THANKS PEYMAN!
We are considering allocating a budget for a security SSL – annual renewal in order to secure the database, $50 – 200 per year -
Report on Membership
20 individual members, 2 institutions
Encourage everyone to approach their institutions about this
Discussion: Members from Iran? – Should we allow members from Iran to join for free?
People expressed hesitation at making them full members – worried about sanctions / also the fact of not paying. Suggest instead calling them Friends of the Association or Members at Large and charging no fee
No clear conclusion here, we’ll discuss further and/or consult a lawyer before making any moves -
Plan for next year’s meeting
MESA + ACTFL – Alternate the conference panels
AATP 2019 – MESA (New Orleans, LA – November 14-17, 2019)
AATP 2020 – ACTFL (San Antonio, TX – November 19-22, 2020)
Members came to a consensus regarding alternating the conference between MESA and ACTFL in upcoming years when the AIS Conference is not the United States
If budget allows we will become annual members of both MESA and ACTFL -
Report on Financial
$1100 raised since May 2018
$340 is allocated for recovering the tax status
$1408 in bank rolled over from previous board’s tenure -
Next Year’s Lifetime Achievement Award – John Perry (2019) and Dr. Ghanoonparvar (2020) – already nominated from prior years
$300 will be allocated for covering a portion of travel -
Fundraising
Approach Roshan, MS. Bita Daryabari, STARTALK, Farzaneh family -
List host / Email List and Finances
Members of the list host who do not pay fees will be cut from the list host after a specified deadline -
Facebook page
Update page, have a dedicated member whose job is to post and keep it active
Suggestions from Peyman Nojoumian:
Special Interest Groups – World Standards for Language ACTFL – Getting Standard for Persian Language – Requires 60 ACTFL members
Charge money for advertisements
Revive annual newsletter
Respectfully Submitted,
AATP Executive Board
Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
Michelle Quay
Parvaneh Hosseini
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