Our regional conferences

[Paula.Gillespie@marquette.edu]

I've just attended the Midwest Writing Centers Association conference here
in Milwaukee, and I have two thoughts about it that I'd like to share with
you. 

I was part of the local team, and seeing all the planning and all the
organization that these local conferences require gives me a new respect
for the people who run them.  They are a huge amount of work for the
organizers, and I want to thank the MWCA board, Shireen Carroll, Brad
Hughes, Susan Callaway, Stevn Rand, Allison Witz, and Lea Hecht for
putting together such a fine conference.  

My second thought is that our profession is moving ahead in promising
ways.  I was awed at times by the papers and presentations given, not only
by full-time writing center professionals, but by our tutors, both the
graduate and the undergraduate tutors who presented at this conference. 
They were engaged, informed, interested, and very savvy.  I think that
these regional conferences have come a long way, and I really look forward
to our national conference this spring as a place where we - and our
tutors, I hope, can consolidate some of these gains.  I also envy the
people who can attend the national conference on peer tutoring. 

Paula Gillespie