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I have been lurking as well.
 
I have attended one Inkshed, it was great, but I teach in China and will be for the foreseeable future.  So, my summer starts in late June - early July depending on the lunar - modified solar calender.
 
I recently studied conferences (Ĉosta Rica, USA, Canada) using a participatory action approach and Ron Scollons nexus analysis as the methodological frame.  I concluded that some conferences are completely supported by outside agencies with a specific goal in mind.  ^IMO^ TESOL, IATEFL, MLA and certain others, receive both financial and other resources to ensure they will be there to support government agendas.  This is made clear in the UK and USA.  There need not be anything especially nasty in these agendas, as it is often as rudimentary as the spread of English, and as teachers, instructors, professors they leverage the students through you.  However, Inkshed is as far away from this, or any other, unseen guiding hand as I have found.  This means to me, that all resources are either found inside, or obliquely through granting bodies.  I like it that way.  I like the independence.  I detest structure for the sake of structure, which is why
 I spent thirty years in the federal government.
 
Attending Inkshed was very helpful to me.  The critiques assisted me in focusing my work.  Most written feedback was insightful and clarified my foggy bottoms.  Others, taught me to carry on, they were never going to allow for participatory action research in this universe.  
 
I hope to join in a future conference.  The fact I am not there was - is entirely a matter of logistics.  I also feel I owe it to some present or future researcher to share the benefit of my insight, however limited.
 
Michael J. Ryan
 
PS  My students in China benefit greatly from the inkshedding approach.
PPS The closest group organizationally to CASLL I know of is the IAWE.

--- On Tue, 9/23/08, Halliday, Christina <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Halliday, Christina <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Inkshed 2009
To: [log in to unmask]
Received: Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 5:21 PM

Hi there

I've been a 'lurker' to this email discussion but after
Miriam's input,
I think I might give my input too.

I'm a person who has attended Inkshed only a few times in the past six
years (four, maybe). To corroborate Miriam's sense from others, I too
have felt that the Inkshed community was insular--but not self-absorbed
and certainly not insular because Inkshedders didn't make the effort to
welcome me.  I was always warmly welcomed.  It was just always clear
that the Inkshedders going to meetings had a long, friendly history with
each other that I wasn't part of, and that made me feel less part of the
community.  Added to this is the fact that you can't really 'come and
go' at Inkshed, so if you're already feeling socially uncomfortable,
the
'isolation' of the conference (location, lack of freedom) didn't
help
that.  

How to mitigate these issues?  Make the conference more like a regular
conference where the community is always infused with 'new blood' and
the location is not 'isolated' (although, I've been to beautiful
Inkshed
conference locations ;-).

I also feel that the Inksheds I went to lacked the kind of intellectual
rigour that I have experienced at other conferences but that's been both
a positive and negative experience for me.  And, I must admit, I've
supported a less rigorous kind of conference by treating the conference,
myself, as a kind of workshop for ideas in process.  And here is where I
think the conference has been so GREAT for me.  I always felt that I
could bring germinating thoughts on projects, and when I did, I got
these incredible Inksheds that I could use to develop my work and
thinking.  Perhaps the conference could still be this fantastic place
for idea germination, with inkshedding built in, but the process for
vetting submissions could be more stringent.  Maybe the conferences need
to be more focused, thematically, and the call for papers aimed at
getting very high quality in-process work.  Maybe Inkshed, as a
conference for percolating and developing ideas, can be a kind of
'workshop' conference that precedes CASDW (a day long or day and a half
event?).

I also think that an Inkshed conference that is about trying to rethink
what Inkshed should be is a 'downer' and such a conference is also only
for those people who have a history to the organization.  No new blood
there. 

Hope this helps, Christina


Christina Halliday, PhD 
Director, Writing & Learning Centre/
Assistant Professor, Liberal Studies  
 
T 416.977.6000 x239  
F 416.977.6006  
E [log in to unmask]  
 
ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN  
100 McCaul Street, Toronto, Canada  M5T 1W1  
www.ocad.ca  

-----Original Message-----
From: CASLL/Inkshed [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Horne,
Miriam
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Inkshed 2009

 
Good question Marcy, but not so easy to answer.  Like many Inkshedders,
Inkshed has had significant impacts in both my professional and personal
life and it's not easy to hear things that may come across as being
critical.  I tried to address some of these things in the upcoming
newsletter, but here's an immediate impression.  I think that people who
don't share the same positive experience that I have had at Inkshed
simply don't come back.  My impression from many of these people who I
spoke with during the course of my research is that they find the
community insular and self-absorbed.  They also feel that it lacks the
intellectual rigour and intensity that it once had or that other
conferences have and that it's the same thing year after year.

I am not suggesting that the entire Inkshed culture needs to be
revisited and reinvented.  I am suggesting, however, that instead of
letting these participants disappear, we need to examine their
frustrations.  
Miriam


Miriam E. Horne, PhD
Faculty, Core Division
Champlain College
Burlington, VT
05401
802-383-6694

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  To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
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For the list archives and information about the organization,
    its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
              http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
                 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

                -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
  To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
  [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
         write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]

For the list archives and information about the organization,
    its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
              http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
                 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-