In February 1979, a relatively small group of applied linguists from several countries, with varied backgrounds and perspectives, met in a single hotel room for two days in Boston, Massachusetts, in order to participate in a discussion of the issues and problems of language testing. For many who were at that first colloquium, it was both surprising and gratifying to find that there were others who shared their interest in this obtruse and relatively unpopular enterprise. Equally amazing was the discovery that not only did we share common professional interests, but we were in many other ways "kindred spirits." As Palmer, Groot and Trosper (1981) observed in their forward to the volume of papers that came out of that first colloquium, "the colloquium has enabled people with a common narrowly-defined interest to get to know each other and to develop the closeness and the lines of communication that allow each to profit more fully from the work of others."

That observation is as true today as it was then. Indeed, it is this spirit of camaraderie, of personal closeness, based on mutual respect, that has nourished the spirited annual debates of professional issues and year-round communication among colleagues who are also friends that have become the hallmarks of the Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC). ILTA formally began in 1992 at LTRC in Vancouver. As Charlie Stansfield and John de Jong announced in the Spring 1992 issue of Language Testing Update, "At a public meeting on February 28, 1992, the International Language Testing Association (ILTA) was born." A public meeting, because until the constitution was approved, there could be no official business meeting. Some 25 language testers were present, representing seven countries. They approved the Constitution and ILTA became a reality.

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