AATI executive council meeting.

Orlando

21-23 November, 2008

The meeting was called to order by the president at 12:05 p.m.

Present: Anthony Tamburri, Antonio Vitti, Maria Rosaria Vitti-Alexander, Paolo Giordano, Andrea Ciccarelli, Salvatore Bancheri, Elissa Tognozzi, Lucrezia Lindia, Laura Salsini, Giuseppe Faustini, Mark Pietralunga, Giuseppe Faustini, Bruna Boyle, Madison Sowell, Roberto Dolci, Gabriella Colussi Arthur.

1) President's Report:

Prof. Anthony Tamburri opened the meeting with a presentation on the AP Symposium to be held in New York City with the co-sponsorization of IACE and the Consolato Italiano. Tamburri brought up the need to have the Italian Government become aware of the pressing need for financial assistant for our AP language program, a usual practice with other language associations, such as the AATG, the AATE and the AATS. He mentioned that some of the government representatives have already been contacted, among these, Talo, the Italian Consul of New York, the Ambassador of the Embassy of New York. The report found that it is pressing and crucial to reach a conversation with these governmental organizations at the national level.

Prof. Andrea Ciccarelli brought up the fact that in past years there were several scholarships available to Italian teachers as well as students of Italian. These scholarships had been established by Gov. Mario Cuomo, Dolores Mita. Funds would originally come from New York and then be matched in Italy by Universities who would host our candidates, for example the University of Siena (Prof. Vedovelli) and Perugia (Rettore Giannina). The program carried the name of Due case una tradizione.

Prof. Roberto Dolci offered that he will do his best to reestablish a cooperation with the Universita di Perugia.

Prof. Tamburri Brought up the possibility of creating a system of matching funds to restore some programs along these lines. He also raised the possibility of utilizing assistants who are presently working with the Calandra Institute.

Prof. Antonio Vitti suggested the possibility of choosing two DML students at Middlebury College and offering them the opportunity for a summer study in Perugia while accepting two students from Perugia to study at Middlebury (without payment of tuition).

Prof. Dolci Responded positively, suggesting the possibility of offering a study period in Perugia, but without room and board.

Prof. Tamburri brought up the need for a re-organization of the regional AATI chapters. All the members of the regional AATI chapters must also be members of the National AATI. He also pointed out that although the largest regional chapters are the NY, NJ and CT, the others need to be sustained but also need to be more involved in the National AATI's events.

Prof. Antonio Vitti intervened by saying it is essential to clarify the relationship between the regional chapters and the national AATI since many regional chapters are asking the National to subsidize their programs.

2) Treasurer's Report. Prof. Maria Rosaria Vitti-Alexander presented the financial report and pointed out that the association is financially sound. She suggested the need to plan the organization of the annual AATI Executive Council Meeting earlier in order to reduce the cost of flights. The final reports will be published in the Spring issue of Italica.

3) Italica. Prof. Andrea Ciccarelli suggested that it would be important to have the journal Italica in both forms, on paper and on line, although the former remains a fundamental component of research institutions in humanities. He brought up the need to research a new publishing house to lower the cost of the publication. Ciccarelli suggested the possibility of doing away with special issues on the subject of pedagogy and simply incorporate pedagogical and linguistic articles with the others. This would give equal importance to the pedagogical essays and would also cut down on time.

4) Newsletter. Prof. Elissa Tognozzi reported on the publication on line of the Ncwsletter and added that the regional news is sparse and often arrives too late for the newsletter. She also reminded everyone that if there are requests for a paper copy of the Newsletter, Calandra Institute will have funds to print and mail them.

5) AATI Web-page. Prof. Salvatore Bancheri reported that there is a lot of interest in the on-line publicity of events, addresses, and other information. He pointed out that in the near future everything that regards the Association and the various schools around the country that teach Italian will be on line.

6) High School contest. Bruna Boyle reported that this year the high school national contest was very successful, more than 4,000 participated with 13 states in the USA and 2/3 schools in Canada.

7) Societa onoraria italica. Prof. Tamburri brought up the fact that Carlo Scalfani, who has been the President of the high school Societa onoraria italica is retiring, thus the need to find someone to replace him. A small committe was created to find a new President for Societa onoraria italica, the members are: Carlo Scalfari, Anthony Tamburri, Lucrezia Lindia, Bruna Boyle and Giuseppe Faustini.

8) Prof. Tamburri proposed a review of the Constitution /Bylaws of the AATI. Thus, in the next few months an effort should be made to rework parts of the document to have it ready to present at our next association meeting in November 2009. He also raised the need to professionalize the association and to have a P.O Box address for the AATI, as a permanent address.

9) Conferences. Prof. Tamburri notified the Executive Committee that the NIAF cannot host the AATI next October in Washington DC. The hotel where the annual NIAF conference is held is under restoration. It was proposed that in 2009 the AATI will combine with ACTFL at the conference in San Diego. We need to have 40 sessions to allow the participation of all our presenters.

The meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by

Maria Rosaria Vitti-Alexander

Secretary Treasurer