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IBPFT
History…Future
By Mary Romney and Tamara Rollie
When the first meeting of International Black Professional and Friends in TESOL (IBPFT) was held at the 1992 TESOL convention in Vancouver, BC, Canada. IBPFT was founded by Connie Perdreau of Ohio University, who served as Chair from 1992 to 1995. John Leech, of the University of Connecticut was Chair from 1995-1997, next was Osmund Duffis of Broward Community College from 1999-2001, then Tamara Thorpe of San Diego State University from 2001-2003, and until 2005 Dr. Shondel Nero and Khadar Bashir Ali share the role as Co-Chairs. Current Chair-elect Marinus Stephan will take over at the 2005 Annual Convention.
In 1992, at the time of its founding, Caucuses did not yet exist as a membership entity in TESOL at that time, so IBPFT started as an informal group of members with specific professional concerns, as did several other groups which later became Caucuses. Among the concerns was to ensure that TESOL considered and reflected the full diversity of its members. These are still among IBPFT's concerns.
Mary Romney
For the four years
from 1992 to 1996 IBPFT continued to meet at the conventions, attempting
to increase membership and make alliances with other groups in TESOL.
At the 1996 convention in Chicago, Mary Romney became Chair-elect, and
at the 1997 convention in Orlando, when she assumed the position of Chair,
she decided to try to bring IBPFT to the next level. Assisted by Patrick
Axel Henry, who was Co-Chair, she conducted a campaign at the convention
to gather the 200 signatures required at that time for the application
for Caucus status. Mary and Patrick received an enormous amount of support
from two other Caucuses - Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Friends (LGBF) (now
LGBTF) and Christian Educators in TESOL Caucus (CETC).
The IBPFT application for Caucus status was approved by the TESOL Board at its October 1997 meeting. Mary Romney was the first Chair of IBPFT as an official membership entity in TESOL. She had one year in this capacity - 1998 to 1999 -- and she spent it trying to build membership because the task of converting petition signatories to official Caucus members still remained.
Later Mary was encouraged to run for the TESOL Board of Directors by Dr. Shelley Wong, who was IBPFT's Board Liaison (BL) while Mary was Chair. In 1999 Mary Romney was the first African-American to be elected to TESOL's Board of Directors in its 33-year history, and the first Caucus leader ever to be elected. Since then, another Caucus Chair, Jun Liu, has been elected to the Board who served as the IBPFT's Board Liaison from 2001-2003. The current IBPFT Board Liaison is Lía D. Kamhi-Stein of Cal State University, Los Angeles.
We are so grateful for the path that has been carved for us by our predecessors. The current Caucus leaders are looking to the future of the IBPFT Caucus and TESOL professionals of color. Although the IBPFT remains the smallest Caucus, there is confidence that in conjunction with other caucuses that the voice of diversity will be increased by the existence and contribution of TESOL professionals of color.
Since 2002 the IBPFT's goal to create a larger voice and increase diversity awareness within the TESOL profession has been successful with an increasing number of members presenting at the convention, including Spotlight Sessions, Open Plenary and Featured Speakers. Additionally, the IBPFT has been successful collaborating with TESOL to host events association wide that impact teachers of color. Everyone has something to offer and the IBPFT is working to create as many opportunities and forums for the concerns of professionals of color. You can be part of it by doing one or more of the following:
1. Join the IBPFT Caucus at any time of year. Don't wait until you renew your TESOL membership, JOIN NOW!
2. Write an article for the IBPFT Newsletter (an Official TESOL publication), and share the newsletter with colleagues.
3. Recruit a colleague to be a caucus member, we must maintain a minimum membership of 100.
4. Volunteer to be a Caucus leader and be active in TESOL.
5. Participate in List Serve discussions (must be a caucus member).
6. Submit a proposal to present at a TESOL
Convention. For help with writing a proposal see Projects.
7. Attend the Caucus Colloquium and Open meeting at the annual convention.
8. Send us an email and let us know what you think about our website.ibpft_tesol@yahoo.com
9. Educate your colleagues on issues relevant to Black Professionals and other teachers of color in TESOL.
10. Contact
the current Chair to ask how you can get involved!