Roberta, thanks for your concise summary of the conference.
On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 1:00 PM, Roberta Lee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Anthony, I believe you got the wrong impression of Inkshed 2008 and the
> central message that came out of that event. Although the turnout was lower
> than usual, for a variety of reasons (including, perhaps the location), it
> was a vibrant, positive, and interesting conference. Our wonderful leaders,
> Russ and Anne Hunt, were flexible, and ably adjusted the conference to the
> numbers.
> One of the issues we talked about at the end of the conference was
> future Inksheds. We discussed location, and the limited funds people were
> alloted for conferences. A suggestion was made to see if Inkshed could be
> held before or after the Learneds and at the same location to save travel
> money. Thus people could attend both, and the location would be more
> convenient for most people.
That's how I remember things, but I had to leave early on Sunday morning so
I missed the business meeting.
I have to confess, this whole "Inkshed is dying" theme is confusing,
frustrating, and, frankly, angering. Attendance has been lower than usual
over the past several years, but what does it really mean? I'm not sure
that it means that people are drastically dissatisified with the conference;
this question has been proposed several times and in several venues and it
just never grows legs. If there were significant complaints, wouldn't
people be voicing them?
Besides, there are enough confounding factors to make it impossible (right
now) to say why attendance has gone. Maybe it's due to factors outside of
our control.
In the meantime, it behoove us to control the factors that we *can*
control. Which is why it's particularly distressing to realize that the
people who agreed to plan next year's conference thought they were planning
a one-day meeting (I am tempted to say "funeral"), not a three-day event;
therefore, we don't have anything approaching a Call for Papers, or a venue
or anything - and it's already late September. I don't remember the
specifics of the CADW call that precipitated this thread, but I *do*
remember that they mentioned September 30 as some sort of SSHRC deadline . .
. It seems to me that organizations that want to stay alive pay attention to
such things, and coordinate their deadlines to make it possible for people
to get funding.
Marcy
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