Roger, this would be fine for me. Are we talking about June 1st or May
31st? Theresa.
Roger Graves wrote:
> While registering for the CASDW conference the other day I started to
> think about booking airfare, and that made me consider dates for my
> return flight. We had talked on this list about an Inkshed conference
> this year (see Brock MacDonald's message below) and perhaps drawing
> upon shurli macmillan's ideas (1-4) for the program:
>
> 1. a space to share drafts with other writers working to get an
> article publication-ready
> 2. an opportunity to meet with others working with a particular
> theoretical framework or concept or method intrinsic to their research
> 3. an opportunity to bring a pedagogical practice for a test-run and
> discussion
> 4. inkshedding and discussion in response to CASDW papers or panels...
>
> I checked into renting a meeting room at a hotel, and the costs worked
> out to $640 ($500 plus taxes) for the room plus whatever food and
> drink we wanted to order (approximately $40/person for a buffet
> lunch). With 20 people attending the room cost would be roughly $30
> each; the room plus lunch would be about $75 per person based on 20
> people registering. The room holds 36 people and can be set up with
> round tables.
>
> Is there any interest in doing this? We need a decision before people
> start booking tickets, I think.
>
> Roger
>
>
> Roger Graves
> Director, Writing Across the Curriculum
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~graves1/index.html
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Brock MacDonald <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: June 2, 2009 9:09:58 AM MDT (CA)
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Inkshed 2010
>> Reply-To: CASLL/Inkshed <[log in to unmask]>
>>
>> Graham's forthright rejection of nostalgia for the "old Inkshed days"
>> is actually very much in the spirit of the meeting we had in
>> Ottawa-not that a certain amount of nostalgia wasn't expressed there,
>> but it quickly yielded to more pragmatic considerations. Taking up
>> Roger's call (or challenge?) to elaborate on his summary, here's my
>> sense of the main points of our deliberations, which I hope will be
>> helpful:
>>
>> We talked quite a bit about the fact that the Canadian conferencing
>> landscape has changed since the old Inkshed days. CATTW has morphed
>> into CASDW and now seems to meet the conferencing needs of a wider
>> membership, with a wider range of research and teaching interests,
>> than it used to; the formation of the Canadian Writing Centres
>> Association (CWCA) has given that constituency a separate conference
>> of its own. The current strength of these other conferences means
>> that Inkshed needs to redefine its niche-it needs to offer something
>> compelling and distinctive, if it is to continue.
>>
>> We all agreed that Inkshed's greatest strength was always its
>> character as a kind of anti-conference, different from the standard
>> ninety-minute-panel, twenty-minutes-per-talk,
>> ten-minutes-of-questions model. However, we noted that Inkshed has
>> actually drifted towards that standard talking-heads model in recent
>> years, simply to accommodate the number of participants who wanted to
>> present. This trend has meant less and less time for both
>> inkshedding and discussion, both of which, we all agreed, were
>> important elements of the conference.
>>
>> A side issue, but nevertheless a very important consideration: we
>> agreed that Inkshed as a kind of retreat experience (three days
>> isolated in a resort somewhere, all participants present the whole
>> time) is no longer tenable. The cost factor puts participation out
>> of reach for grad students and the underemployed, and it makes
>> attending increasingly difficult even for well-established members.
>>
>> So, we asked ourselves, with all these things in mind, is there a
>> need and a purpose for Inkshed now, and if so in what form? Do we in
>> fact want something different, an anti-conference (for lack of a
>> better term) that offers a kind of experience that CASDW and CWCA
>> don't? Obviously, all of us who were at the Ottawa meeting agreed
>> that we do, but this is the first question that everyone else in
>> CASLL now needs to ponder, it seems to me, before we start thinking
>> about the planning questions Roger has raised.
>>
>> In Ottawa we did go so far as to speculate that this reconfigured or
>> reborn Inkshed might not have conventional papers at all, that it
>> could be some kind of "working conference" (as indeed Inkshed was in
>> some of its early years), its details, focus, process, etc to be
>> determined later. We also came up with the schedule Roger has
>> outlined, Inkshed following CASDW but away from the Congress site, so
>> that it would be clearly distinct from the latter (I don't recall
>> that we agreed that Talent Night would be on the first evening,
>> though, Roger-I don't think it will work except at the end,
>> considering how much of the fun is usually based on the conference
>> itself). However, as I said, the detailed planning should really
>> come a bit later; to Inkshed, or not to Inkshed-at all!--that's the
>> first question.
>>
>> Brock
>>
>>
>>
>> On 01/06/09 3:00 PM, "Graham Smart" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Well, OK, hoping to get a conversation started, here goes: For me
>> the decision about whether to stay in Montreal an extra day to attend
>> Inkshed would depend entirely on what was planned for the Tuesday.
>> The question for me would be, will what's planned for the day
>> contribute to my research and/or teaching in some way? To be
>> brutally honest, feelings of nostalgia for the 'old Inkshed days'
>> wouldn't enter the picture in any real way.
>>
>> Having just come back from Hong Kong, mainland China, and Vietnam,
>> where people seem to have a much greater and wonderfully gracious
>> sense of community, beyond the self, I realize how individualistic
>> and self-centred this sounds, but if I'm honest, this is what I would
>> be thinking about in making a decision.
>>
>> Graham
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Roger Graves <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Monday, June 1, 2009 12:27 pm
>> Subject: Re: Inkshed 2010
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>>> I am writing to share the results of a meeting of people
>>> interested in
>>> attending an Inkshed conference next year who also happened to
>>> be
>>> attending the Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse
>>> and
>>> Writing meeting in Ottawa May 24-26.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> About 18 people talked about the possibility of organizing an
>>> Inkshed
>>> conference next year. The group decided that there was interest
>>> in
>>> holding a conference. This group, composed of people attending
>>> the
>>> CASDW, felt that holding Inkshed immediately after the
>>> CASDW
>>> conference was a workable plan. A proposal was floated to devote
>>> the
>>> evening after the third day of CASDW (Monday May 31 2010) and
>>> all day
>>> the next day (Tuesday June 1 2010). The Monday meeting would be
>>> held
>>> in the McGill Graduate Student centre and consist of the AGM
>>> and
>>> "talent" night, and the Tuesday would the program of the
>>> conference.
>>> The Tuesday meeting would be held in a meeting room at one of
>>> the
>>> Congress hotels, and would include lunch. Inkshedders would
>>> be
>>> responsible for their own accommodations, breakfast, and dinner.
>>> Costs
>>> for the conference would likely be limited to the lunch and the
>>> costs
>>> of renting the meeting room.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The format and nature of the program is yet to be determined; I
>>> am
>>> seeking descriptions proposing what that program might look like
>>> to
>>> include in the next issue of the Newsletter. Please send
>>> these to
>>> Heather Graves ([log in to unmask]) or
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> before July 31.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
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[log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
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For the list archives and information about the organization,
its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
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