2019 AGM

AGM MINUTES

Language Policy BAAL SIG AGM

Date: Thursday 29th August 2019

Location: Manchester University

Chair: Elisabeth Barakos

Apologies received from: Florence Bonacina-Pugh, Dave Sayers, Rachel O’Neill, Yongcan Liu, Diana Camps, Iker Erdocia

Attendees: Peter de Costa

Minutes taken by: Elisabeth Barakos

Conveners’ report (co-convened by Dr. Florence Bonacina-Pugh & Dr. Elisabeth Barakos)

      1. Committee:

Co-Founders and Co-Convenors: Elisabeth Barakos (Aston University) Florence Bonacina-Pugh (The University of Edinburgh)

Membership secretary: 2017-2019 Tae-Hee Choi (The Education University of Hong-Kong); 2019 - present Diana Camps (University of Stirling)

Treasurer: 2017-2019 Yongcan Liu (University of Cambridge) – 2019 - present Iker Erdocia (Dublin City University)

Events secretary: Rachel O’Neill (The University of Edinburgh) & Communications secretary: Dave Sayers (University of Jyväskylä)


  1. Thanks go out to former committee members:

Membership secretary Tae-Hee Choi (The Education University of Hong-Kong)

Treasurer Yoncgan Liu (University of Cambridge)

Both served for two years in our SIG committee and fulfilled their roles in the most diligent and proactive way. They also contributed to many other numerous tasks as part of the day-to-day running of the SIG and were involved in conference organisations. Thanks to you both!


  1. Our activities

Language Policy Forum held annually

Track of presentations at the BAAL annual conference (tomorrow Friday, from 10am, chaired by Robert Higgins, in room 1.66) – see BAAL programme

Discussion list, www.langpol.ac.uk, Twitter @langpolicy


  1. Recent activities of the LP SIG

Organisation and hosting of the Second Language Policy Forum 2019

Organisation of the Third Language Policy Forum 2020 at the University of Cambridge, 7-8 May 2020

Representation at the inaugural event of the new BAAL SIG Multilingualism in London July 2019

Development of Code of Conduct (see website www.langpol.ac.uk)

E-election of new Treasurer (Iker Erdocia) and Membership Secretary (Diana Camps) in Spring 2019 (for another three-year period)


  1. Membership secretary’s report: Diana Camps

Membership is free in our SIG; sign-up via mailing list

Current members: 438 (as of 14 August, 2019), and numbers keep growing, making the Language Policy group one of the biggest SIGs of BAAL

The SIG members represent more than 44 countries worldwide.


  1. Treasurer’s report: Iker Erdocia

The general financial situation of the Language Policy SIG is healthy.

Previous financial year (1 June 2018 to 31 May 2019):

Surplus obtained from the first Language Policy Forum held at Sheffield Hallam University 2018 was £3072. The last statement date (28 May) was £3,375.70 (including a £200 sponsorship for LPF2019).

Looking ahead, our finance is expected to be strong with surplus generated from the Language Policy Forum 2019

The final report of the conference is being processed and will be included in next year’s SIG financial report in due course. We expect a profit of £1158, which is similar to the target of surplus set in our original financial plan.

The committee intends to gradually increase the financial reserve to £4,500 over a period of three years to enable the SIG to build capacity and strengthen its reputation through funding activities such as postgraduate training, talks, workshops and policy forums. We believe that we are on course to meeting this goal.


  1. Events secretary’s report: Rachel O'Neill

Successful Second Language Policy Forum 2019 at The University of Edinburgh (30-31 May 2019)

Highlights: Over 90 international delegates from Europe, N and S America, Africa and Asia; Two Plenaries, Editors’ panel, Rapid Networking Session and Book Raffle

Further events planned: Third Language Policy Forum Cambridge 2020

Making our events inclusive, affordable, accessible, diverse, accommodating to needs of scholars across all career stages and with different needs and caring responsibilities


  1. Communications secretary’s report: Dave Sayers

Maintenance of website: www.langpol.ac.uk; mailing list: https://jiscmail.ac.uk/LANGPOL (join, it’s for free)

our own committee mailing list

Presence in social media through Twitter @langpolicy

Future plans...

Increase our social media presence on Twitter @langpolicy

Launch a competition for the creation of our own BAAL SIG logo


  1. Future events

Third Language Policy Forum, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education

Date: 7-8 May 2020

Conference theme: Language Policy and Global Human Movement,

Local Organising Committee:

Yongcan Liu (local chair), Karen Forbes and Linda Fisher