President's Report 2002/3

In accordance with the EUROCALL constitution, I would like to report on the executive's activities during the past year as well as important matters concerning EUROCALL in that year.  In addition to my own activities on behalf of our association, this report reflects the activities of members of the EUROCALL Executive as well as the EUROCALL office at Hull and our new offices at Limerick University.

As far as EUROCALL is concerned, I think we can all look at the year 2003 with satisfaction and fond memories.  A number of challenges had to be met, particularly regarding the move of our headquarters from Hull to Limerick. After long years of dedicated service to our association June Thompson and Graham Chesters took a well deserved step back from their posts, and we published a bid inviting suitable institutions to apply to become our new headquarters. A very strong bid was submitted by Limerick, and the executive unanimously accepted this bid. The subsequent negotiations with the University of Limerick went smoothly, and our headquarters have now been successfully transferred to Limerick. In addition, the switch into the Euro-zone went quite well, and Angela Chambers, our new treasurer, has now got full and competent control of our finances. I think it is only appropriate to express our gratitude to Angela for her willingness to take on this task in such difficult economic times. Furthermore, we were able to recruit a very competent new EUROCALL secretary, and I would personally like to thank Margaret Gammell for joining us and for her contribution to making the transition from Hull to Limerick so easy for EUROCALL. June Thompson and Fred Riley deserve special thanks also for their help in the transfer of EUROCALL's voluminous records, both in paper and electronic form.

Obviously, words are not enough to express our gratitude to June Thompson and Graham Chesters for their long years of service to EUROCALL. Most of you will remember that they were part of the team which actually took the initiative to set up our organisation in the early 90's, and - thankfully - both will continue to serve EUROCALL, e.g. with June continuing to take care of our ReCALL Journal. We had a public ceremony at EUROCALL 2003 to express our thanks, and I think the standing ovation given to both at that occasion expressed all our feelings better than a thousand words. Thank you!!!

This brings me to our conferences and other events. EUROCALL 2003 was a great conference, as was confirmed by the results of the evaluation and many, many personal comments received from delegates. Again, my thanks to the Limerick team, which took on this challenge in addition to setting up our headquarters at Limerick. The success of the conference speaks for itself and for the appropriateness of having chosen the University of Limerick as our headquarters. Those of you, who would like to look back at Limerick (or get a feel for EUROCALL conferences while considering to attend a future conference) will find some food for thought at the post-conference website. Thanks again, Limerick!

Another important issue that was discussed by the executive at its Limerick meeting in March 2003 was the question of future venues for EUROCALL conferences. Vienna had submitted a bid for 2004, and this bid was discussed in March and a unanimous decision was taken to invite the Austrian CALL-team to host EUROCALL 2004. It was felt that Vienna will provide EUROCALL with the opportunity to take a first step towards welcoming colleagues from those countries joining the European Union in 2004 and beyond to our academic community. We shall plan the next conferences in such a way that this process can continue beyond 2004, and the executive is already discussing this matter with Venice (2005) and other venues to be able to decide on a longer term strategy for the coming years.

WORLDCALL 2003 was another important matter which a number of EUROCALL executives were involved in. The conference was a success despite the SARS scare during the weeks preceeding the conference, and - most importantly - the foundations were laid for a WORLDCALL umbrella organisation as a body coordinating the activities and cooperation between CALL-related associations around the world. Among other executive members, Graham Davies liases these activities on behalf of EUROCALL.

Appropriately, a word of thanks is due at this stage in my report, a word of thanks to all those who serve our association, particularly the EUROCALL executive. Without their competent support the presidency would be a hassle - and they all make it a pleasure for me, and I consider it a privilege to have the good fortune of working with them and the EUROCALL community as a whole. A particularly welcome recent development is the EUROCALL Newsletter, edited by Ana Gimeno. Please make full use of this very valuable resource to disseminate information about your activities in the area of CALL.

Thanks also to our partners around the world, such as ATELL, CALICO, CALL Austria, CCALLNET, and IALLT. Our affiliations with these organisations are a solid base for valid research and academic debate of technology-related issues in the field of language learning & acquisition and applied linguistics in general. The success of WORLDCALL 2003 - another 2003 highlight - shows, how important such a network is, and I would like to thank our Canadian colleagues and all others involved from around the world for having organised such a great conference in such difficult times.

Bernd Rüschoff