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Article Excerpt
The Annual Business Meeting of the AATI was convened on Saturday, November 22 at 6:00 p.m. at the Marriott Hotel in Philadelphia.
President's Report
President Christopher Kleinhenz welcomed those members in attendance at the Business Meeting and expressed his thanks to the officers and regional representatives, to the Editor of Italica, Albert N. Mancini, and to the Editor of the Newsletter, Jacqueline Samperi-Mangan, for their excellent work and unfailingly good counsel. Special thanks were given to Vice President Piem Baldini and to the members of the Program Committee for their superb organization of this year's annual meeting. Special recognition was given to several organizations for their general support of the meeting and for their initiative in arranging for the wonderful series of booths comprising "La Piazza Italiana" in the exhibit hall: the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia, the Italian Trade Commission, and Order Sons of Italy in America, together with the local chapter of AATI, Alma Edizioni, Babilonia School (Taormina), Societa Dante Alighieri (Siena), Italiaidea, Casalini Libri, America-Italy Society, Editalia, Italian Language Preservation Fund, The Language Center, the Universitat Ca' Foscari Venezia, and the Universita per Stranieri di Perugia. Warm thanks go in particular to Nicoletta Marini-Maio (Cultural Affairs Officer, Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia) for her organization of the reception that was held at the International House, to Prof. Paola Bianchi De Vecchi and her associates of the Universita per Stranieri di Perugia, and to Elena Phillips of the Italian Trade Commission.
Roberta Croll, Outreach Specialist of the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange, announced and encouraged applications to a special seminar on contemporary Italy for full-time high school teachers of Italian language. It will take place at the University of Venice, July 5-31,2004.
Graziana Morini of the Italian Embassy in Washington announced that the Italian Cultural Society in Washington DC has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support a four-week national Summer Institute on "The Art of Teaching Italian through Italian Art" (July 5-30, 2004) to be held at Georgetown University in Washington.
As a member of the national Task Force for AP Italian, Ida Wilder spoke about their first meeting and the project in general. The Task Force is charged with creating an outline for the course and drafting the exam specifications. The College Board approved development of the AP Italian course/exam in June, 2003. Teachers interested in receiving formal announcements of all professional development opportunities should send their contact information to apitalian@collegeboard.org. The first AP Italian courses will be offered in US high schools in the fall of 2005, followed by the first exam in May of 2006.
The President also thanked the two plenary speakers for their much appreciated contributions to the conference: Fausto Fontecedro (Presidente Editalia, Gruppo Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato), "Cento libri per mille anni," and Paolo Balboni (Universita di Venezia, Ca' Foscari), "Cosa succede in Europa nel settore delle Lingue?"
The President announced the following items:
1. The Executive Council proposes an amendment to the AATI Constitution and Bylaws by which the offices of Secretary and Treasurer would be recombined into one. This will be distributed to the membership for a vote via the AATI Newsletter.
2. AATI will hold two conferences in 2004, one in conjunction with ACTFL in Chicago (November 19-21) and one in Tempe (October 14-16), hosted by Arizona State University. The calls for papers for these conferences will be distributed to the entire membership in early February via the AATI Newsletter. The special theme for the AATI meeting in conjunction with ACTFL will be "Teaching Italian Language, Literature and Culture: Expanding the Boundaries." The meeting in Tempe will cover all areas of language, linguistics, literature, culture, and cinema.
3. The new AATI web site has been created by David Kelly at Dickinson College. The address is: http://www.aati-online.org/. Special thanks go to Tullio Pagano for his good work on this project.
4. The new Editor of Italica for a five-year term (2004-2008) is Andrea Ciccarelli (Indiana University). The members of the selection committee were Piero Baldini, Anthony Mollica, and Laura Salsini. Sincere thanks and congratulations were offered to Albert N. Mancini (The Ohio State University), who has served both AATI and the larger scholarly community for ten distinguished years as Editor of Italica. His expertise and knowledge, his deft editorial skills, and his ever conscientious manner, and dedication have assured the continuing excellence of...
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