At the 2011 NACTA Conference, Jeannette Moore, NC State University, became the 2011 - 2012 NACTA President. Her message to the membership follows.
We had a wonderful conference at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and I hope everyone will be able to attend the 2012 conference June 26 - 29 at the University of Wisconsin River Falls (just 45 minutes from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport [http://www.uwrf.edu/CAFES/NACTA_2012.cfm]). Please continue to be active in NACTA throughout the year and continue to make a difference in the lives of students.
I encourage Graduate Student members of NACTA to renew their memberships and to become involved in one or more NACTA committees. Many of the current faculty members of NACTA began with a graduate student membership. Please encourage other graduate students who have an interest in teaching to join NACTA (http://www.nactateachers.org/membership-application.html) and to attend the conference.
Faculty, there are many ways you can be involved with NACTA. If you have a graduate program on your campus, please continue to help interested graduate students get teaching experience, and please work with their mentors to help facilitate nominations of deserving individuals for the NACTA Outstanding Graduate Student Award.
Look around to see if there are teaching faculty who are deserving of a NACTA award (http://www.nactateachers.org/awards.html), and please help facilitate the nomination by helping their director or department head with the nomination materials. These deserving individuals might be outside your department or even outside of your institution.
Continue to read and contribute to the NACTA Journal (http://www.nactateachers.org/images/NACTA/Instructions_for_Authors_Dec_10.pdf), which is a very well respected peer-reviewed journal. If you are not on the Journal Committee and Editorial Board, consider volunteering for this opportunity of reviewing manuscripts for publication. There are other committees to consider for service and professional development, so please think about being active in them (http://www.nactateachers.org/organization.html}.
As members of NACTA go up for promotion and tenure, know that officers of NACTA welcome the opportunity to serve as external reviewers and write letters for faculty who have a high percentage teaching appointment.
As you look toward the future, continue to be dedicated to teaching, advising, and scholarly activity associated with education. Continue to have a good attitude toward academics, and above all, continue to interact with other members of NACTA as life-long colleagues and friends.
Thank you.
Jeannette A. Moore
North Carolina State University
NACTA President 2011-2012