An executive was elected and asked to formulate a Statement of Purpose, and to create a Membership Registry.  Committee members are: Kitima Indrambarya (Kasetsart University), Mathias Jenny (University of Zurich), and Paul Sidwell (Australian National University and CRCL).

   Interested persons are invited to add their names to the registry.  Please e-mail Paul Sidwell <paulsidwell@yahoo.com>, indicating endorsement of the Statement of Purpose, and providing your full name, professional affiliation, and e-mail address. Registered members will be consulted on the drafting of a constitution for discussion at the next SEALS Business Meeting (anticipated for early June 2012).

2) The members of the Society advocate the documentation, study, analysis, teaching and maintenance of Southeast Asian Languages.

3) To these ends, the Society undertakes:

  a) to hold international meetings, normally annually, and in a manner that provides reasonable opportunity for scholars and students from Southeast Asia to participate

  b) to publish a journal, and such other publications and communications as deemed appropriate, in order to provide opportunity for the presentation of scholarly research and documentation on Southeast Asian Languages

  c) to maintain a website as a point of contact and information

  d) to maintain appropriate academic standards in meetings and publications, principally by means of peer review of papers and abstracts

4) The Society accepts as members those persons who, in good faith, make a declaration of endorsement of this statement of purpose.

    The SEALS conference regularly circumnavigates the globe, and has met in Southeast Asia, the United States, and Australia.  SEALS XIX will be held in Vietnam in 2009, and our first European meeting is in the planning stages.

    SEALS features papers on the languages of Southeast Asia, including Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Hmong-Mien, Tibeto-Burman and Tai-Kadai.  Topics have included descriptive, theoretical, or historical linguistics, linguistic anthropology (ethnolinguistics, language attitudes and ideology, discourse and conversational analysis, language and gender, language and politics), language planning, literacy and bilingual education.