The Mid-Atlantic Association of Language Laboratory Directors was originally an informal assemblage in the early 80's of language laboratory directors in the region who met once or twice a year to provide moral and professional support to each other during a time when many of their institutions were expanding in this area. They took turns meeting from time to time at each of the institutions they represented, reviewing proposals for new centers and equipment, touring new facilities, and reviewing staff problems and administrative conflicts. Then they would go out to dinner for the joy of socializing. According to Jackie Tanner, who is currently Director of Academic Computing at Colby College, "I would have to say that this group had a very positive impact on my activities and professional growth. We probably met for almost four years before others joined us on a regular basis." Donald Clark, one of the early members of the group, reminisces, "I do recall that [Jackie] had baptized our local group as B-WILD (Baltimore-Washington Instructional Lab Directors) just prior to [her] departure for South Carolina in the early nineties. We still use the term B-WILD for our local group as B-WILD for our FIPSE grant consortium!"

He continues: "When the technology in the 1980s was still predominantly defined as innovative utilization of AV equipment and tape, some of us who were directors of language resource centers and labs of major universities in the Baltimore-Washington area initiated a series of informal meetings in order to explore the impact that the then emerging computer technology would have upon our facilities and operations. The exchange of ideas among our members would ultimately contribute to the subsequent choices involved in the electronics upgrade that our respective facilities would undergo in the early part of this decade. All of our centers are now fully transformed entities capable of running digital media and, more importantly, each having the means to test that medium for its usefulness in language acquisition. Although our facilities are diversely managed according to the needs and finances of our institutions, their existence bears the stamp of our collaboration and of the shared ideas each of us contributed during the initial stages of planning and renovation."

Among the first participants in the group that was to become MAALLD were Brigitte Charlotteaux of George Washington University, Bill Caldwell of American University and Jackie, who was at the University of Virginia at that time. After several years of informal get-togethers, they invited others to join them and the group grew as various long-time IALL members and founders moved into the region, including Nina Garrett, Katie Sprang, Christopher Higgins, and Ed Dixon. Gradually, others came once or twice a year along with the growth of the International Association of Language Learning Technologies (IALL) until the need for a real regional group developed. Wynne Stuart, at the University of Virginia, hosted the first official MAALLD meeting in 1990 and Tom Ward from Loyola College in Baltimore became the first editor of the MAALLD newsletter. That meeting had been called by the then lab director at the University of the South, Sharon Zachau.

In this way, MAALLD reflected IALL's growth and its energetic esprit de corps . Jackie Tanner relates that one of her earliest memories was the amount of MAALLD participation at the Baltimore CALICO meeting and driving back in a snowstorm for dinner at her DC home with various Canadians who had come down for the event. A number of other events that were hosted by MAALLD members included Victor Aulestia hosting one of the first Tandberg Open House events at UMBC with his new circular lab. There was a Georgetown University bicentennial celebration which, according to Jackie "was a wonderful feast and continuous party in 1989 for lab techies." MAALLD people provided all kinds of local support at the event.

Brigitte Charlotteaux hosted one of the early SCOLA conferences at GWU. Don Clark held a "consulting event" at JHU where the four MAALLD members did some brainstorming over his new space. According to Jackie, Bill Caldwell always led the way with new technical information and staff organization and training at American University. At another time, Katie Sprang and Nina Garrett showed off both GMU and the new government center, CALL, and Kathy James organized an impressive FSI center event. Although too far away to attend often, Dick Kuettner from Washington & Lee and Wynne Stuart from the University of Virginia made a few appearances over the years.

In the mid-nineties, MAALLD had taken a bit of a downturn, as its core members dispersed to various different regions of the country. Dick Kuettner resurrected it in 1996 by hosting a meeting in conjunction with the Charles A. Culpeper Foundation funded conference on foreign language technology and teaching at his institution. It was there that Samantha Earp, then of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and Chris Higgins, of the University of Maryland in College Park, took the helm to resuscitate the organization. Since then, there has been an uninterrupted series of yearly meetings: at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 2004, we returned to Sewanee for a joint conference with SEALLT, a success which we plan to repeat in 2006 at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC.

Because of these efforts, MAALLD, now MAALLT , is thriving again, with a membership of around 50.