We invite you to read the endorsements below from participants at previous seminars.

"I found this seminar to be particularly good on generating discussion that helped people solve problems. I enjoyed finding out how other people deal with similar problems and the solutions they developed."
Malcolm Compitello, Univ. of Arizona (2006)

"[The seminar] gave me direction, ideas and affirmation… I can’t begin to tell you how many ways this meeting has helped me."
Michael Long, Baylor Univ. (2006)

"I take back some useful tips and much good advice about how to take care of myself in this job... I’m so glad I came!"
Barbara Altmann, Univ. of Oregon (2006)

"The most valuable thing was hearing about what other chairs experience and what they do about various issues. It is a confidence booster to hear that others, even at larger institutions, sometimes have the same problems and try many of the same strategies that I do to deal with them."
Mary Ellen Kohn-Buday, Mount Mary Coll. (2006)

"I feel prepared to provide better (more and more effective) service to my department, university and community. Again, my thanks."
Eric Kartchner, Colorado State Univ., Pueblo (2006)

"The sessions on study abroad, assessment, and service learning brought me up to speed quickly and well on these important issues. It was great to get so much sage advice and meet so many wonderful colleagues."
Ann Marie Rasmussen, Duke Univ. (2006)

"The ADFL seminars are extremely useful for experienced as well as novice chairs. I derived a great deal from attending my first summer seminar in 2005 after years of chairing a department."
Carlos Alonso, Columbia University

"You really do gain a whole new set of colleagues through participating!"
Gwendolyn Barnes-Karol , Saint Olaf College

"I loved the concrete advice on the one hand and the chance to connect across vast geographic and disciplinary distance on the other…."
Carolin Hahnemann, Kenyon College

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for providing this essential service…. I am re-energized and ready to tackle things that will inevitably come my way."
Elizabeth Locey, Emporia State University

"It will take time to reflect on the many issues that were introduced – but they allowed me to contextualize the experiences that I have had in my first year as head. …The sharing of information and how-to’s and networking that occurred in such a short period of time will have long-lasting results for me."
Victor Arizpe, Texas A & M University

"It would take a year of experience to achieve the same level of awareness of the issues involved in chairing that I got in three days."

"Thanks for the experienced leaders who willingly shared their knowledge and the chance to establish a network of new colleagues nation-wide."

"I feel more confident about taking over the position of chair because of what I have learned. I also feel more optimistic and happy to take on the position, which I had initially accepted only reluctantly."

"It was all very good . . . . I valued particularly those sessions bearing most directly on practice and judgement. There was an excellent balance of the practical and the reflective and the theoretical . . . . I left feeling both humble and more confident than before, having heard first hand from successful presenters how a language department can do well. Just being in the presence of others in my shoes and sharing thoughts and being assured that there's a network out there, all this was confidence building."

"As always, I enjoyed interacting with colleagues in my discipline. The seminar is an opportunity for me to take the pulse of the state of department chairing. The informal exchanges are just as valuable as the presentations."

"Unlike many other academic conferences, this one invariably engages real concerns and genuine desire to improve what can be improved and to save what should not be lost without a fight. [The seminar] has, as always, provided several practical ways to ameliorate administrative and curricular pressures that affect our programs."

"This was the best professional meeting I've ever been to. Every session was useful . . . . I am far more aware of positive character traits needed to chair effectively. I came away with a sense of mission and responsibility which, I think, will be central to my chairing and also affect my teaching . . . . Much of the learning came from informal exchange--and that was well integrated into the program. Pre-conference new chairs' meetings were exceptional."