converging regional confs

[Mark Shadle <mshadle@eou.edu>]

carol and others,

let me piggyback on larry's post. as i may have forgotten to say to you in
pullman, carol, i think it's important that the regional conferences (at
least in nearby regions) don't conflict in terms of dates. this has
happened several times with the rocky mt. and pacific coast center
conferences, and this forces a choice for those of us who usually attend
both.  so you might want to check, carol, with jane nelson or others on the
list who are doing the rocky mt. conference next year.

during the next few years, i hope to occasionally be able to visit those
regional writing center conferences at the other end of the country. but
i'd also like us to consider linking several regional writing center
conferences with the national peer tutoring or nwca conference. penny bird,
clint gardener and others did this nicely when nwca was in utah. i think,
for example, the rocky mt. and pacific coast groups could certainly do this
in the west in the future. such occasional linkages create a larger crowd,
more money for keynotes and possibly a greater lure for those outside
writing centers in english-writing and across the disciplines. of course
many of us in writing centers know, in e.f. schumacher's words, that, even
for our conferences, "small is [or can be] beauitiful."

mark shadle
eastern oregon university

>Carol,
>
>Your questions remind me of when our center hosted the conference in 1995.
>I called the person who had hosted the conference for the previous year to
>find out who the regional officers were and was basically told that as the
>convener of the conference I had become the regional association. That is
>to say, for our region the only structure we have is that provided by the
>people who host the conference each year.
>
>So, with the above as a given, you can decide the date, get the mailing
>list from the previous host school, and also get any money they may have
>had left over from putting the conference. As for NWCA, we did not really
>communicate with them at all. I don't know what others have done since we
>did the conference, but we simply contacted Writing Lab Newsletter to
>announce the conference there.
>
>As for the dates you propose, this year's conference was earlier than it
>has been at least since 1994; usually it takes place sometime in October.
>For us as for other schools on the quarter system, your proposed dates are
>just fine and certainly much better than in September; our participation
>was limited this year because the conference took place at the end of our
>first week of school.
>
>So, I hope this helps your thinking. I also hope others who have hosted
>the conference in the last few years will respond to you as well. I look
>forward to taking part in next year's conference and am excited to have
>you host it.
>
>Larry Nichols
>Director of the Writing Center
>Seattle University
>
>On Mon, 12 Oct 1998, Carol Haviland wrote:
>
>> A question about regional conf protocols.  After the PacCoast WCA in
>> Pullman, several of us agreed to host next year's conf at Cal State San
>> Bernardino.  We are excited about the conf, for Jackie Jones Royster has
>> agreed to speak, and we think that we can draw a number of local
>> participants along with our regional members and can involve a number of the
>> CSU and other campuses in our area.  What we are unsure about is the
>> procedures for setting a date, interacting with NWCA, etc.  For example, the
>> conf often is held the last week in Sept, which is impossible for  us whose
>> classes begin that week.  So, we'd like to advance the date at least until
>> Oct 16 but possibly Nov 6, which would be better for Jackie.  What are the
>> parameters we ought to observe?  Advice on dates?  Thanks.  Carol Haviland
>>
>>