From the President of Asocopi

HOW Volume 30, Number 2, pages 11-12 https://doi.org/10.19183/how.30.2.801 From the President of ASOCOPI From the President of Asocopi Claudia María Uribe Hoyos As an undergraduate student, I learned of ASOCOPI, the Colombian Association of Teachers of English. I saw this association as something big and full of learning possibilities. I also saw it as a community of practice that should be cherished, nurtured, and deeply valued as a treasure. Some years ago, I got actively involved in ASOCOPI, thinking about how relevant it would be for me to be part of this community and show all the English language teachers in Colombia and the world that together, we can do important actions for the education of our communities. The English language is an excuse to get together and share our dreams of a more equitable world. Those dreams, this English language teacher has, are part of a task that ASOCOPI can endure, although such a task can be difficult. Today, when I am writing this letter, I want to invite our readers, teachers, educators, and researchers to become actively involved in an association that is going to be 60 years old in 2025; an association that needs the strength, efforts, and synergy of all generations of the English language community who believe and work for ASOCOPI. Dear colleagues, ASOCOPI is more than our annual conference, journal HOW, Board of Directors, legal team, and administrative manager. An association also offers monthly webinars and diploma courses where scholars share their insights and lessons on designing teaching practices. ASOCOPI is a community that works together every day of the year, looking for other possibilities to improve and raise local voices. This is my kind invitation to assume this association as a personal asset that constantly needs to be revitalized. This has been a fantastic but challenging year. We worked on organizing every single detail of our 58th Annual and 4th International ASOCOPI Conference in a beautiful city such as Manizales with a great team of professionals at Universidad de Caldas. This event reminds us of the reasons to work for our association. We always want to guarantee spaces to share with our colleagues, build networks, and take knowledge and learned lessons to the different scenarios where there is an ASOCOPI member. I want to express my gratitude to every teacher who has ever attended our conferences in different roles because they are the essence of our gatherings. This is the way we make a difference in education. To our international plenary speakers, Dr. Gabriela Veronelli, Dr. Juliana Zeggio Martínez, and Dr. Juan Rios, my most profound appreciation for having accepted to be part of our conference and for contributing your ideas, experience, and constructions in such HOW Vol 30, No. 2, July/December 2023–ISSN 0120-5927. Bogotá, Colombia. Pages: 11-12 11 Claudia María Uribe Hoyos a natural and enriching way. You are ASOCOPI! To our local plenary speakers, Dr. Clara Onatra, Dr. Claudia Diaz, Dr. Carlo Granados, and Mag. Yimmy Alexander Hoyos, please continue strengthening our roots with your perspectives and transformations. To my friends and colleagues who are part of the association’s board of directors: Kaithie Ramirez, Adriana Sánchez, Eliana Alarcon, Marlon Vanegas, Clara Lozano, and to our Administrative Manager, Myriam Vera, thank you! Your dedication, critical perspectives, punctuality, and respectful opinions have contributed to an exercise where all voices are heard. We can work synergically to give the association more strength and possibilities for the rest of our period as BoD. To Edgar Lucero (HOW Editor) and José David Largo (HOW Assistant Editor), I truly hope you continue an exercise that excels in quality in the academic world. Altogether, ensure that ASOCOPI accomplishes its vision of quality teaching and social responsibility wherever someone follows the association or reads the journal. I want to finish by telling you that ASOCOPI always works by looking for better activities to be shared with our communities. We permanently look for ideas that fulfill our mission of contributing to improving ELT and offering quality to the association’s members. ASOCOPI always needs your constant support for the accomplishment of its goals. I want you to prepare to participate actively in the 59th National and 5th International Conference of ASOCOPI and 4th LAALTA (Latin American Language Testing Association) in Barranquilla, Colombia, in October 2024. We are willing to see you there to keep learning together. 12 HOW