The nominating committee for the ‘99 Board of Directors election was formed in February. It included Baozhang He, Jane Yang and Audrey Li (Chair). On February 14, a request was sent to all current Board members, soliciting nominations for four members of the Board of Directors (nominees had to be current CLTA members), and a Vice President (VP; the nominee had to be a sitting Board member). By the March 2 deadline, eleven people were nominated for the Board and two people were nominated for the VP position. The Nominating Committee then deliberated on whether it should reduce the slate to a more manageable number of candidates. Before it had reached a decision, one of the VP nominees, Neil Kubler, resigned from the Board for personal reasons. Subsequently one of the eleven Board nominees declined to run. Another request was sent out to the Board immediately for more VP nominations. After assessing the responses received, the Nominating Committee and the Board agreed to place two more names on the ballot for the VP election. The Nominating Committee, with the agreement of the Board, also decided to place all ten remaining names on the ballot for the Board of Directors. These candidates represented a comprehensive range of institutional and geographic variation.

The ballots were then sent to all members in May by the Executive Director, and the deadline to return the ballots was June 30. Because Nominating Committee members were not able to meet to tally the ballots, a CLTA member, Bingfu Lu, was invited to count the ballots with Audrey Li at USC on July 9. The results of the election were then sent to the Board on the same day. The total number of returned ballots, all valid, was 131, a very good increase over the number last year--an indication of a very exciting election.

We are deeply indebted to all Board members, the Executive Director, the VP, President and Immediate Past President for their help with the election. We are extremely thankful for all candidates who were willing to participate in a very competitive election. Above all, we are most grateful for all members who completed and returned the ballots. We hope to see more members exercise their right to vote in future elections. It is also possible for CLTA members to nominate their own candidates. According to the CLTA by-laws, Section 4.03, "If five percent of the Members propose the name of any Member for nomination to the Board of Directors, that person’s name shall be included on the ballot." Don’t let your membership privileges sleep!

Last but absolutely not least, we would like to congratulate and welcome the following of our colleagues to the CLTA Board. We expect that they will bring fresh ideas, energy and excitement to the Association as it enters the new millennium

VP: Marjorie Chan (Ohio State University)

Board Members:
Hung-nin Samuel Cheung (HK University of Science and Technology, U.C. Berkeley)
Chih-Ping Chou (Princeton University)
James Erwin Dew (Program Consultant, Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua University)
Claudia Ross (College of the Holy Cross)

Respectfully submitted by