2026 AGM

Held asynchronously online, Thursday 29 October 12:00 CET – Thursday 5 November 12:00 CET

Private ballot circulated among members via our email list. Per BAAL rules, only those who were also BAAL members were eligible to vote.

BAAL rules stipulate quoracy at 8 votes. That level was met this year, and so all votes below are binding.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORTS FOR MEMBER APPROVAL

Co-convenors’ report (Leanne and Dave)

During the last year, we co-convenors have led the coordination of the Language Policy Forum in Madrid in conjunction with the local organising committee, and moved the LPF schedule to annual instead of every other year; we have worked with all EC members on their tasks, in particular with the Treasurer on financial matters. We have overseen updates to the website, chaired all EC meetings, created and coordinated AGMs and interim member votes, and contributed to inter-SIG dialogue in periodical convenors’ meetings.

We recently initiated plans for a possible annual training school. Within the EC this is currently being led by Ordinary Member Oluwafisayo Atanda and Treasurer Hao Zhang. We will report further to members on this in due course.

In addition, we hereby update members on a previous resolution to pursue the status of Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) for our SIG, approved by members in April 2025. A principal reason for this was a seemingly intractable issue with banking structures for SIGs; but our Treasurer Hao Zhang has now remedied this issue and we can continue with our current constitutional structure. We will poll members again if there are new reasons to pursue CIO status.

➡️ Vote: approved

Treasurer’s report (Hao)

The SIG's finances remain healthy. The opening balance on 1 June 2025 was £6,441.25. Income of £3,998.28 was received during the year, largely from event registrations, while expenditure totalled £2,652.58, resulting in a surplus of £1,345.70. The closing balance on 31 May 2026 was £7,786.95.

Following payment of the £25 BAAL annual affiliation fee (accountancy services) after the year end, the current balance stands at £7,761.95. 

As the convenors note in their report, previous banking issues have been fully resolved. The SIG now operates an active HSBC account with a functioning debit card, which was successfully used for transactions for the Language Policy Forum in Madrid. Members noted that the SIG is in a strong financial position going into the 2026-27 year.

➡️ Vote: approved

Membership Secretary’s report (Vasilica)

As a membership secretary, I’ve participated in the organizing committee of the 2026 Language Policy Forum, which included several meetings prior to the event, revising abstract submission and on-site work. I have also coordinated the election of the treasurer for the new mandate. Our members are counted as those subscribed to our email list, and vice versa. That number currently stands at 517.

➡️ Vote: approved

Conference Secretary’s report (Tetyana)

As a Conference secretary, I took part in reviewing abstracts submitted for Conference 2025, drafted the Conference Programme and then worked on amending it in accordance with the actual delegates’ registrations. I set up a Pretix account for LP SIG and spent some time negotiating the payment method with the Pretix managers finally resolving the issue. I set up and monitored the Conference Registration Page on Pretix and then kept track of the participants who registered and paid the conference fee. I worked in close collaboration with the Treasurer to answer the delegates’ queries about paying the Conference fee.

➡️ Vote: approved

External Liaison Secretary’s report (Michele)

My work focuses on the links between the SIG and external organisations. As a result of my efforts, the Language Policy Forum in Madrid has received (i) financial support and sponsorship from the publisher John Benjamins, which publishes, amongst others, the journal *Language Problems and Language Planning*, and (ii) general endorsement from the journal *Language Policy*.  I also worked with other members of the group to draw up the LPF programme, including the selection of speakers for the round table. I attended the BAAL annual conference at Aston University as a representative of the SIG, chairing the language policy track on 3 September and promoting the LPF on that occasion.

➡️ Vote: approved

Communications secretary’s report (Abhi)

The Communications aspect of EC involved publicising the SIG’s work that included, among others, communicating to the Language Policy mailing list and other mailing lists such as the Linguist List about the Language Policy Forum 2026. A major change with respect to communications is that LinkedIn has become the preferred social media platform for SIG and is now used for informing LP scholars and those interested in our work about our events. In addition to the communications and organisational aspect of the SIG, the Communications Secretary also prepared a brief report for BAAL News on LPF2026 that is available through this link (p. 22). The 2026 Forum was especially productive for the expansion of our mailing list, as several new subscribers joined the mailing list after the Forum, and last but not the least, the BAAL LP Group’s mailing remains, as always, a place for all to share news about language policy around the world, including research, emerging policy developments, job opportunities, conferences, etc.

➡️ Vote: approved

ELECTION OF NEW EVENTS SECRETARY

The portfolio for the Events Secretary is as follows: "The Events Secretary facilitates and supports the co-ordination of the LP SIG’s portfolio of different events, and the dialogue and mutual relevance between them, in collaboration with the Conference Secretary and the wider EC."

The election attracted three candidates, who each provided an expression of interest to the position. They were asked to consent to their names and expressions of interest being circulated among members, but not to be publicly displayed here. We report only the result that Alia Amir is duly elected Events Secretary, to serve 2026-2029.

MOTIONS FOR MEMBER APPROVAL

The following motions would each result in an amendment to the SIG constitution; they each therefore require a 'simple two-thirds majority', i.e. two-thirds of all those participating in the vote -- a common procedure among associations, governments, etc.

Motion to increase the Executive Committee tenure period in the SIG constitution from two to three years

Section 6 of our SIG constitution states “EC posts are voted on every two years”. However, BAAL’s latest rules (updated December 2023) state “A SIG should aim to hold a formal election for all its committee posts at least once every three years.”

Members are asked to vote on changing the period of tenure in section 6 of our constitution from two to three years. This would still leave the option for EC members to step down if they needed to, triggering an early election.

Votes in favour: 16 (94%)

Votes against: 1 (6%)

➡️ Motion carried

Motion to join an international boycott of Russian institutions

During 2026, the SIG EC discussed a growing international boycott of Russian institutions, going beyond more limited measures such as public statements of concern. Boycotts have been enacted by e.g. the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_1544) and research bodies within it such as COST (https://cost.eu/about/strategy/international-collaboration/), as well as the European Universities Association (https://www.eua.eu/news/eua-news/eua-suspends-membership-of-12-russian-universities-following-statement-by-university-leaders.html), and national higher education networks in e.g. The Netherlands (https://dub.uu.nl/en/news/netherlands-about-end-academic-collaboration-russia), Germany (https://dub.uu.nl/en/news/german-scientific-community-puts-collaboration-russia-hold) and Denmark (https://sciencebusiness.net/news/denmark-tells-universities-suspend-all-cooperation-russia).

In August 2026, the BAAL EC formally permitted our SIG to put this to a vote of our members, and enact it if members approve. This would affect only our SIG, not BAAL or other SIGs.

Members are asked whether our SIG should join this international boycott. This would be a full national boycott, not of selected institutions.

What the boycott would look like:

- A note added to section 3 of the SIG constitution, 'Membership', stating that the SIG has joined this international boycott after a vote among members, and therefore anyone whose primary affiliation is at a Russian institution may join as a member but will not be eligible to host or participate in our events.

- A short corresponding statement on any call for papers.

- Anyone attempting to submit an abstract or otherwise register for the event would be individually notified, most likely within the online form itself, that their country of affiliation is currently subject to a boycott as above, so they do not proceed – in order to respect their time.

- Such a notice would come with a short rationale – citing the international organisations above – and an acknowledgement that this does not assert that the individual in question personally supports the actions that led to the boycott.

- This would apply to BAAL members and non-members.

- Russian citizens whose primary affiliation is outside Russia would be unaffected.

- There would be no other restrictions on our activities, for example citing and discussing Russian scholarship.

Votes in favour: 10 (59%)

Votes against: 7 (41%)

➡️ Motion not carried (did not secure a two-thirds majority)

Motion to join an international boycott of Israeli institutions

During 2026, the SIG EC discussed a growing international boycott of Israeli institutions, going beyond more limited measures such as public statements of concern. Boycotts have been enacted by e.g. the American Anthropological Association (https://americananthro.org/news/aaa-membership-endorses-academic-boycott-resolution/), the European Association of Social Anthropologists (https://easaonline.org/vote/motion-concerning-collaborations-with-israeli-academic-institutions/), and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (https://bdsmovement.net/academic-boycott).

In August 2026, the BAAL EC formally permitted our SIG to put this to a vote of our members, and enact it if members approve. This would affect only our SIG, not BAAL or other SIGs.

Members may have heard that the University and College Union in the UK tried to adopt a boycott of Israeli organisations but discovered this may be unlawful, under its statutory duties as a trade union. However, this does not apply to professional associations like ours.

Members are asked whether our SIG should join this international boycott. This would be a full national boycott, not of selected institutions.

What the boycott would look like:

- A note added to section 3 of the SIG constitution, 'Membership', stating that the SIG has joined this international boycott after a vote among members, and therefore anyone whose primary affiliation is at an Israeli institution may join as a member but will not be eligible to host or participate in our events.

- A short corresponding statement on any call for papers.

- Anyone attempting to submit an abstract or otherwise register for the event would be individually notified, most likely within the online form itself, that their country of affiliation is currently subject to a boycott as above, so they do not proceed – in order to respect their time.

- Such a notice would come with a short rationale – citing the international organisations above – and an acknowledgement that this does not assert that the individual in question personally supports the actions that led to the boycott.

- This would apply to BAAL members and non-members.

- Israeli citizens whose primary affiliation is outside Israel would be unaffected.

- There would be no other restrictions on our activities, for example citing and discussing Israeli scholarship.

Votes in favour: 12 (71%)

Votes against: 5 (29%)

➡️ Motion carried (secured a two-thirds majority)