Prologue.
When Claire Oldmeadow, the founder, mentor, and almost single-handed manager of The Language Network passed away on November 16th, 2023, the association was dealt a heavy blow, and members were left wondering about its future.
However, if one principle preoccupation reigned in that sad and troubling period, it was that The Language Network should live on, and continue to be active, in honour and memory of Claire’s unique vision, and her untiring work on behalf of all of us members.
That was nearly two years ago, and today the impetus remains. The grassroots activities – principally the online meetings that became channelled into the “Watchdogs” group, then in addition the Qualiopi Mutual Support group – have continued to this day, with monthly meetings attracting a regular group of active members throughout this period.
Behind the scenes, Mark Bayhurst continued in his role of President, working hand-in-hand with Greg Williams and with Claire’s husband, Olivier, who has been a constant source of support and mentorship, through his valuable insights into the administrative and financial structure of the Language Network.
That structure was, to say the least, highly complex. Claire’s enthusiasm for helping to improve the lot of the independent language trainers she was supporting, combined with her thirst for new projects, meant that over a couple of decades, The Language Network had spawned many activities, including several ongoing language training courses, the BEST certification (in conjunction with the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce), as well as the in-person and online activities dedicated to independent language trainers.
At that time, The Language Network, or “TLN” as it was commonly known, was subdivided into two entities:
- The TLNS (‘S’ for ‘Services’) included the BEST certification and most (but not all) of the for-profit training courses.
- The TLNE (‘E’ for… anyone know? Maybe ‘Everything Else’!) also included some for-profit training courses, but principally covered the direct support and collaboration activities with the independent language trainers themselves.
To help run this complex organisation, Claire hired the help of a salaried employee, Samantha Watson, and also hired some part-time help from Lucy Davis.
In addition to these two branches of The Language Network, Claire came up with a new initiative in response to the increasingly severe administrative demands of the French government on training organisations. Her idea sowed the seeds of ‘Training People’: a separate organisation in the form of a company driving a professional language training offer, with the aim of providing work opportunities for Language Network members within a framework seeking to mutualise the ever-increasing burden of administrative tasks.
Claire also had new projects on the communications front, and in her last summer, she sought to materialise her will to see the online ‘Blog’ of The Language Network matured into a full-on website, albeit simple and straightforward, that would be a showcase for the activities of The Language Network, but also a tool to foster communications between its members.
For this project, she asked Ian Bailey to propose a website development within a limited budget, and the result is where you are reading this article today.
Re-organisation.
This is the legacy that Mark, our President, was bestowed and, despite the complexity of the mission, he was determined to help revitalise The Language Network.
That has been an ongoing, behind-the-scenes task of rather ungratifying administrative procedures, and Greg Williams came forward to help by taking on the helm of the BEST certification test, to satisfy the ongoing demand, while at the same time coordinating with Olivier, on behalf of both branches of The Language Network: ‘TLNS’ and ‘TLNE’.
It became clear that these two entities needed to be rationalised, with the ‘TLNS’ becoming responsible for all the for-profit activities, such as the BEST certification tests and the remaining training courses, leaving the ‘TLNE’ as the Language Network, a not-for-profit association providing opportunities for independent trainers to come together – on- and off-line – to share ideas, news, and views.
So it was that in the summer of this year, Mark needed to convene an official meeting to ratify this position and rapidly appoint a couple of members to help him in the administrative tasks behind the running of these entities. Greg and Ian were obvious choices in the current context, and the meeting was held on the 24th June, 2025, online.
As a result, Mark continues as President, while Greg took on the tasks of Treasurer, aided and abetted by Olivier, who continues to support us, not only as a paid-up member of the Language Network, but particularly in his precious mentorship for all things administrative.
Ian agreed to take on the role of ‘General Secretary’, to assist the two principal officers: President and Treasurer, compulsory for any “Association loi 1901”.
During this meeting, it was also required to ratify the statutes of the Association, which were reviewed and updated to reflect current realities:
- Removal of exam-related passages (now the domain of the BEST organisation)
- Opening membership beyond English language teachers to all independent language professionals including teachers of other languages, language coaches, and administrators.
- Simplifying member categories and membership expiration rules.
- Clarifying governance structures to the minimal required roles (President and Treasurer), with one-year terms for elected officers.
This official restructuration ensures that Claire’s legacy continues with three separate, but interdependent, and mutually-supporting organisations:
- the Language Network: a not-for-profit association providing online and in-person opportunities for independent trainers of languages, language coaches, and other independent language professionals to share ideas, news, and views, as well as opportunities for personal and professional development.
- the BEST organisation: an association governing and conducting the BEST certification tests, in conjunction with the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce, and still currently overseeing the remaining language training courses under the aegis of the ‘TLNS’. This association clearly needs to maintain its profit-based activity.
- Training People: from the outset, an independent company (SAS), born out of Claire’s original initiative, and offering opportunities for Language Network members to undertake professional language training missions.
The Way Forward.
1. Our first “Big Meeting”
This brings us right up to the present day, and the first ‘Big Meeting’ of the Language Network since the restructuration, to be held online (Zoom) on Saturday 11th October 2025, from 9am to midday.
This meeting is not an AGM in the strict sense, as the President and Treasurer were nominated back in June, along with the General Secretary, for a term of one year, constituting the ‘Conseil d’Administration’ of the association, as to be published in the ‘Journal Officiel’.
However, this doesn’t in any way block any prospective officers from coming forward now and offering their services and candidature for these three posts, to be considered and voted in a near future.
Probably even more interesting for many of you is the need for a wider ‘Bureau’ of members, willing and wishing to engage in the day-to-day (or more appropriately, ‘week-by-week’) activities of the Language Network.
2. Membership
We now have a membership data-base installed on ‘Airtable’, which allows for a single, common, source of information, replacing various and varied Excel tables, often with conflicting or outdated information.
We can now take membership subscriptions online via the ‘Stripe’ secure payments system, and a ‘Fillout’ form sends subscribers’ data directly to our ‘Airtable’, where automations will one day (hopefully soon) allow membership certificates and renewal reminders to be sent out with much less time spent on administration.
Currently, Ian is trying to do all this single-handedly, but it would be really great if people would like to come forward to help as ‘membership secretary’, for example, and/or if anyone could offer some support with their knowledge (however basic) of Airtable or automations, that would be a huge help.
3. Language Network online community
We now have our very own Language Network online community, modelled on the likes of Facebook – but without the demon billionaires behind it, stealing your data – and where you can post, comment, and ‘like’ contributions without having to go through anyone else.
Even if you don’t volunteer for an official or helping role in the Language Network, you can contribute by… literally that: contributing your posts and articles.
It’s as simple as that!
If you’d like to become even more active on the online community, why not take on a ‘community manager’ role, as the administration is very user-friendly and it’s easy to share admin roles.
Even though we no longer need social media to communicate online between us members of the Language Network, there’s no denying that these can nevertheless be a valuable source of new members.
We could do with some ‘social media managers’ to coordinate a Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn page for the Language Network.
Claire did start to initiate these in the past, but they were subject to various issues that saw them abandoned. Any takers?
These are just a few examples of how the Language Network needs you to help us. Currently just a few people are giving up their time to keep things running as best we can, but we all have other, very busy jobs too and the more of us there are, the better.
4. And to finish…
Just to be quite clear, the Language Network is a not-for-profit organisation and, since the restructuration, we no longer benefit from any other sources of revenue than our members’ subscriptions.
As a non-profit organisation, none of our ‘officers’ receive any remuneration for the work they do, and that’s why we need to share the work as much as possible between volunteers.
Please let us know what you’d like to do to help – however little it may seem.
Now, that’s a very long article. Sorry!
However, we thought it was the best way to get over all this information about all that’s been happening to The Language Network over the last two years since Claire’s passing.
We hope you’ll feel that you would very much like to be a part of the new momentum…
Subscribe now!
Contribute your posts on the Language Network online community!
Think about what services or help you’d like to offer!
Come to the Big Meeting on Saturday! (We’d like these to become quarterly)
Long live the Language Network!
