Milton Alan Turner, Saint Ignatius High School, OFLA Executive Treasurer

At a cost of less than $4 a month, OFLA membership is a great bargain! Being a member of OFLA allows you to keep informed about changes in our profession in several different ways: the OFLA web site, the OFLA Listserv, the resource rich SLO Weebly website, and our excellent electronic newsletter The Cardinal. In addition, your dues allow OFLA to provide you with high quality professional development opportunities on relevant topics such as SLOs, IPAs, comprehensible input, staying in the target language, and technology integration, at the lowest cost possible. Your OFLA membership also supports our public relations and advocacy efforts on social media via our Facebook and Twitter feeds as well as ensuring that your voice is heard at the local, state and national level in government and organizations on issues relevant to world language education.  Your dues allow us to provide grants to teachers and institutions to pursue projects that enrich our students’ learning and promote our profession. Your OFLA membership also supports Camp OFLA, which for ten years has taught and inspired the future generation of language learners and educators.

Your OFLA membership allows you to attend the OFLA Annual Conference at a significant discount.  The conference features top quality workshops and speakers at ½ or even ¼ of the cost of other regional and national conferences. Your membership also provides for OFLA scholarships to beginning teachers and university students/teacher candidates, permitting them to attend the conference and experience first hand the value of these professional development opportunities.  It also allows OFLA to recognize the best in our field through our annual awards program.

However, I believe that the most valuable aspect of OFLA membership is the networking opportunities it provides.  I can personally attest that OFLA has provided me with not just valuable support and information on National Board Certification, AP opportunities, and insights on best practices in the field, but it has also allowed me to make valuable friendships which will last a lifetime. If you have not yet renewed your membership, please consider doing so as soon as possible to maintain the numerous benefits OFLA has to offer.  If you have already renewed your membership, thank you for supporting one of the country’s premier professional organizations and consider encouraging a colleague to join.