With the upcoming national election (the results of which would already have been announced by the time of publication), alongside the previously mentioned shift in the focus of this article, now seems like an opportune time to look under the bonnet, so to speak, of the innerworkings of the JALT organisational structure. For the average JALT member who attends meetings at their local chapter in their area, I imagine that there is a large part of the organisation that probably remains unclear, unknown, or of mystery to them.
Naturally, they will also probably be aware of the many and varied SIGs (as described previously in this column) operating nationwide that are available for members to join (either as a free option with a JALT membership or for a cost to join additional SIGs). Each of these groups represents the yin-yang of what is visible to regular attendees and participants at meetings and conferences. However, for those like me, there is a realisation that JALT is more than a simple sum of these visible parts, and like an iceberg, there is a lot more of the structure that remains hidden from a normal member’s perspective.
Keen observers of this column will note my recent and frequent idiosyncratic use of the phrase keen observers along with an appreciation of how this column has recently begun endeavouring to shine a somewhat brighter light on those who work tirelessly behind the JALT scenes. The first movement here was in the preceding column (issue 48.3), where I had the pleasure to work on a piece with the CRL: the national officer in charge of liaising with the presidents of JALT’s chapters and the counterpart to the SRL who liaises with the SIGs.
Rather than forge ahead and simply begin a switch to interviewing chapter presidents for this column or revisit SIG coordinators (now also referred to as presidents), it seems reasonable at this stage to step back a bit further, instead. Figure 1 represents that perspective, as a noteworthy representation of the complex nature of the JALT organisational tree. It was authored, as I understand it, by the current (yet outgoing) auditor, Robert Chartrand, and recently updated by other directors. Current JALT officers may have already noted this chart as one of the useful resources available on the officers’ website.
Diving into the structure from the top, there is the national Board of Directors (https://jalt.org/main/directors), previously a group of eight but recently expanded to nine elected officials—with the newest to join being the Director of Conference—as a dividing of the former Director of Program’s responsibilities (of overseeing both program officers and organising the annual international conference). Of note, the recent election (https://jalt.org/main/2024-election-announcement) would have seen a change in a few of these faces (i.e., particularly in treasury and auditor–officers I hope to approach for future articles) and, along with that, the direct transitioning out of several decades of valuable JALT knowhow and experience.
Directly underneath the BoD are the nine liaisons who collectively form the Liaison Officer Group (https://jalt.org/groups/specialty-groups/liaison-officer-group). As a former treasury liaison myself, I am quite familiar with all the work they do supporting their BoD member and those local officers who fall under that director’s care. The majority of these positions are relatively new, having only been created about two years ago, but all now add a welcome additional level of support for officers and a mentoring space for potential future BoD aspirants. Importantly, there are also four other chairs and the business manager here.
To the centre left is the JALT Central Office, which is now physically located in Marunouchi in central Tokyo (https://jalt.org/contact). The staff at the JCO include the diligent membership and accounting secretaries, who work alongside officers to ensure that membership information, payments, and monies held by chapSIGs (among other NPO functions and responsibilities) are taken care of. The diagram also indicates the associate membership liaison here, who works to interact with JALT’s long list of AMs (https://jalt.org/main/associate-members) who provide educational goods and services and who often sponsor events and advertise in JALT publications.
In the bottom third of the figure are the 30 or so committees, subcommittees, and working groups (https://jalt.org/all/committees) that round out the broad range of functions and activities that JALT undertakes. As shown in the image, each group falls under the supervision of one director. They are also diverse, ranging from more formal planning and mediation committees to more informal networking and professional development groups such as the monthly ZPD (https://jalt.org/groups/specialty-groups/zpd).
All in all, as you can see, JALT is a complex and diverse environment within which a well-rounded group of committed and hardworking volunteers (https://jalt.org/main/elected-and-appointed-officers) act to ensure the successful running of the JALT engine. Naturally, if you are looking for a chance to get more involved (https://jalt.org/main/getting-involved-jalt), I won’t pass up this opportunity to invite you to do so. Looking forward to seeing you there.
