The Spring Meeting was held at the Texas Language Technology Center of the University of Texas at Austin and at La Madeleine on May 17, 2008.

Following coffee and croissants, Karen Kelton and Carl Blyth of the TLTC gave us a stimulating and wide-ranging presentation, beginning with an overview of the open education movement, covering the on line resources of the UT French program, including Le Français Interactif and Tex's French Grammar, and exploring other internet resources that can be used for language instruction, such as fr.youtube.com. For an overview of the Language Technology Center and its projects in French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, visit the TLTC Web Site.

After our visit, we moved to La Madeleine on North Lamar for lunch and our business meeting. Heather Alonso presented the minutes of the November meeting and the treasurer's report. Rita McKee gave her report on the Grand Concours, indicating a slight drop in enrollment but an increase in national winners from our chapter! There was a discussion of how to best recruit a new administrator for the Grand Concours, as Rita is stepping down after a number of years of dedicated service. (see the National French Contest section below.) We also discussed plans for a members' survey and for providing certificates for continuing education units to members attending this and future meetings.

The election of officers was held next. Janet Lumley was re-elected as president and Helen Guillory was elected vice-president, replacing Andrea McCullough. There was some discussion about staggering officers' terms and we will review the bylaws at the fall meeting.

Following the election, we had two interesting presentations by members. Mary Nichols spoke of her efforts at "Using only French in the classroom," and this led to a lively exchange of ideas. Dr. Aaron Prévôts, recipient of an AATF small grant, gave us an update of his "French with songs in the classroom" web project and led us in some of his new compositions.

The day concluded with the presentation of a plaque to Joel Mayer in recognition of his service to the chapter in developing this web site. A number of generous anonymous admirers also got together to present Joel with a gift certificate for a technology store where one always finds the best buys. Merci beaucoup, mes amis!