Saturday, June 24th 2006, as day was drawing to a close, in the woods we met. Who was « we » ? No, we were not part of the Shakespearian crowd at the court of Theseus but ex-presidents of Tesol France and former active members of the association. Michael Ashworth, the current president, had had the remarkable idea of organizing an evening at his place to celebrate 25 years of Tesol France (Yes ! A quarter of a century ! Feels longer when you say it that way). His house is not actually located in the woods but perched on the top of a wooded hill somewhere in the greener part of the Parisian suburb. While we talked about anything and everything, Michael and his companion treated us to delicious food and wine. As a few of us stayed on, late in the night, we ended up in the music room, listening to old tunes or singing them with piano accompaniment.  A cat would show up from time to time just to check out what was going on in his place. As I left the party, I recalled some of the gratifying experiences I’ve enjoyed with the association, and some of the more difficult ones I felt I had to endure.

I was only president for a year (2001-2002), after working for two years as a publishers’ liaison, and occasionally giving a helping hand after that. Perhaps like most people who join an association or an organisation, I initially did not suspect the role I would eventually take on. Let’s start with what I experienced as most difficult. My main objective when I became president was to rebuild our membership base and restore publishers’ confidence in our ability to put together events that would be well-attended again (a spring day event, an annual colloquium in lively cooperation with language professionals at Expolangues, creating an e-list service…). From the start I committed myself to achieving that goal. How far did I succeed ? In some respects, I did not succeed because I did not want to go through the experience for another year.  Why was that ? I found it difficult to reconcile the differences that exist between the publishers/editors and the teachers who make up the heart of the association. In this give-and-take relationship, I felt that if we wanted to retain their support, the association – the volunteer teachers that represented it - had to come level with the publishers in a commitment to make things happen (deal with the logistical problems of organizing events that are well attended, for example). And I regularly found myself in a position where I felt I was racing ahead with few people by my side. This was an impression of mine, of course, and one of the causes and/or consequences was that I did not delegate enough work to the other members of the team. My fault in many ways.

As for the good points, I enjoyed negotiating with the publishers, making some progress here and there, taking pleasure in finding out that our membership had substantially recovered its lost ground from a year or so later. I also enjoyed meeting teachers from every sector and from every part of France… and feeling that I was recognised for my efforts as president. One more thing - Attending the Tesol Inc. annual convention in 2001 in Saint Louis (USA) was a most enlightening experience. It was my return to the USA after a long absence with a real opportunity to do something useful for an organisation that had helped my professional development.