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Dear fellow Inkshedders,
     Like Russ and Anthony, I attended our first working conference in
1984.  Inkshed has informed my teaching life ever since.
    As  nineteenth-century poetry specialist, I had suddenly been
transported to teaching "writing" in 1974.  My national community at that
point was ACUTE (as it was then spelled), a traditional talking heads'
conference whose members viewed writing as a discrete skill, like riding a
bicycle.  Once you got it, you got it.
     I had no larger group to talk to, to question assumptions with, to
argue with, to work through half-baked ideas about real writing in real
contexts.  Over many years, Inkshed became not only a cherished cohort of
companions, but also my central intellectual
community.   (And although I wasn't part of the group that proclaimed
itself "dysfunctional" during the year we tried to write together, I was
certainly pushed often well outside my comfort zone---for which I am hugely
grateful.)
     My debt to Inkshed continues in my current work with Grades 3-6 in a
small Quaker community in the mountains of Costa Rica, where I teach for
six months of the year.

   Thank you, my friends.
  Kenna

On Mon, Apr 10, 2017 at 6:41 PM, Provost, MC Lois <[log in to unmask]
> wrote:

> This is indeed sad. And how could Inkshed have metamorphosed to include
> other languages and dual language learning, bilingual language learning and
> interlanguage learning at a time when our society most needs
> intercommunication ...
> Lois
> --
> Provost, MC Lois
> Doctorandus/Ph.D. candidate
> on hiatus and Scholar Residency in New York
> Focus:Indigenous Mestisaje Knowledge Systems
> Sacred Music and Arts
> Mother Language Teaching & Learning
> Founding Head, World Indigenous (Mestisaje) Teaching & Learning Centre
> Circle
> Advisors: Dr. A. Miles, Dr. G. Dei
> University of Toronto
> Social Justice Education
>
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>
>
> ----- Message from [log in to unmask] ---------
>     Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 18:36:13 +0000
>     From: "Paré, Anthony" <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and
> Learning   (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]>
>  Subject: Re: Farewell to Inkshed
>       To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> As a participant at the first Inkshed conference, a regular attendee  for
>> 13 years in a row, an Inkshed conference organizer (twice), an  early
>> Inkshed Newsletter editor, and a frequent newsletter  contributor, this
>> news makes me feel sad and nostalgic. The  community was absolutely central
>> to my development as a teacher and  researcher. And, most importantly, as a
>> human being; no other  scholarly collective in my experience was so
>> welcoming of me as a  whole person.
>>
>> But I do reluctantly support the Board’s decision. I think Brock is
>> right on in his analysis; all things must pass.
>>
>> Thanks to Brock, Clare, Kim, J. Barbara, and Dena for steering the  ship
>> to shore.
>>
>> Anthony
>>
>>
>>
>> From: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and
>> Learning (Inkshed)"  <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
>> [log in to unmask]>>  on behalf of Brock MacDonald  <
>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Reply-To: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language  and
>> Learning (Inkshed)"  <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
>> [log in to unmask]>>
>> Date: Monday, April 10, 2017 at 7:57 AM
>> To:  "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>"
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Subject: Farewell to Inkshed
>>
>> Hi, all.
>>
>> (I’m sending this message to both the CASLL and CASDW lists, in the  hope
>> of reaching all former Inkshedders.  Apologies for duplications!)
>>
>> The announcement Roger Graves recently sent out re the latest book  from
>> Inkshed Publications makes this a timely message . . .
>>
>> This is the second year in a row without an Inkshed conference.   None of
>> our efforts to reboot and reinvigorate the conference in the  years 2012
>> through 2015, though sometimes moderately successful as  one-off meetings,
>> have generated the collective commitment needed to  truly revive Inkshed
>> and keep it going.  Taking stock of this  situation, the CASLL Board of
>> Directors has decided that it’s  finally time to face the music and accept
>> that Inkshed and its  parent association aren’t coming back.  (Re the
>> association, it  effectively no longer exists: for several years now there
>> have been  no paid-up members apart from some of us on the Board and
>> Margaret  Procter, who manages the Inkshed/CASLL website.)
>>
>> No doubt there are a number of reasons for this situation: one is  the
>> growth of CWCA in recent years, based on its great success in  bringing
>> together the Canadian Writing Centre community; another is  the way that
>> CASDW has become a big tent association for Canadian  writing studies and
>> writing pedagogy in general since its  metamorphosis from CATTW.  Most
>> pertinent of all may be the fact  that a great many (almost all?) of
>> Inkshed’s founding generation of  members have retired in recent years: the
>> core of the community that  once sustained the conference and its parent
>> association just isn’t  there any more.
>>
>> I’m sure many of us will feel some sadness about this, remembering  how
>> significant Inkshed has been in our professional lives.   However, although
>> the Board has decided that it’s time to shut CASLL  down, this isn’t an
>> absolute ending.  The Board proposes to transfer  the remaining funds in
>> the CASLL bank account, roughly $7000.00, to  Inkshed Publications.  Unlike
>> the Inkshed conference, Inkshed  publications is very much alive: besides
>> the recently published  Cross-Border Networks in Writing Studies, it has
>> two more books  coming out in the near future, following which it will
>> still have  sufficient funds to produce perhaps one more.  The infusion of
>> the  funds from CASLL will make possible up to four more books over the
>> next few years, following which new funding will be needed, perhaps  from
>> CASDW and CWCA.  According to its Constitution, the purpose of  CASLL is
>> "to provide a forum and common context for discussion,  collaboration, and
>> reflective inquiry in discourse and pedagogy in  the areas of writing,
>> reading (including the reading of literature),  rhetoric, and language.”
>> We on the CASLL Board feel that devoting  the association’s remaining funds
>> to supporting Inkshed  Publications, the one and only Canadian imprint
>> devoted to work in  our field, is the best way to ensure that CASLL’s
>> dissolution is in  keeping with its fundamental purpose.
>>
>> Regarding the association's online presence: it's currently (and  rather
>> awkwardly) in two cyber-places, the Inkshed newletter/blog  site that
>> Margaret maintains (http://www.inkshed.ca/blog/) and the  older Inkshed
>> site (http://inkshed.ca/), now essentially an archive  of material from
>> the association’s earlier years.  Ideally all the  association’s records
>> should be brought together on one site, either  under the aegis of CASDW or
>> as part of an independent Inkshed  Publications site (which would be
>> effectively a repurposed version  of the Inkshed newsletter site, where
>> Inkshed Publications currently  has its online presence).  The key thing is
>> that the association’s  archive needs to be maintained by an active
>> organization to ensure  its long-term viability.  This will be on the
>> agenda for discussion  at the CASDW AGM at Congress.  As for the CASLL list
>> serve, once the  association has been dissolved it would be shut down.
>>
>> I should say something regarding the constitutional aspects of
>> dissolving CASLL.  The one explicit mention of dissolution  procedures in
>> the CASLL constitution is a clause that says "In case  of dissolution of
>> the association, the profits and liabilities of  the association will be
>> shared equally among all of the paid-up  current voting members.”  The
>> Board’s plan to transfer the  association’s remaining funds to Inskhed
>> Publications is in effect  an agreement among the paid-up current voting
>> members to use their  “shares” that way, rather than simply cashing out
>> (!!).
>>
>> As for the decision to dissolve the association, while there is no
>> specified procedure for this, the constitution does say that "The  Board of
>> Directors of the association shall have the responsibility  of carrying out
>> the management of the association. This  responsibility should be carried
>> out with the knowledge and  cooperation of the membership.”  In our view,
>> in the absence of any  specific clause re dissolution, it clearly comes
>> under “management  of the association.”  As for "the knowledge and
>> cooperation of the  membership," as I’ve already mentioned, at present the
>> membership is  effectively non-existent, leaving the Board on its own.
>> However, in  keeping with the spirit of the constitution, the Board agreed
>> that  this notice should be sent out: we hope it will reach all former
>> CASLL members and prompt some discussion, from which we further hope  will
>> emerge general agreement in support of the decision we’ve taken.
>>
>> If there is strong opposition to the Board's decision, those opposed
>> would need to take a number of steps to give their opposition  effect,
>> starting with paying fees in order to become current CASLL  members and
>> thus be entitled to vote on the Board’s plan.  If a  sudden flood of
>> membership payments materializes, obviously we’ll  have to think again!
>> However, we sincerely hope that this will not  happen — that everyone will
>> agree that it’s best to bid CASLL and  Inkshed a fond farewell and let them
>> rest in peace.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Brock
>>
>> On behalf of the CASLL Board of Directors (membership as of 2016,  when
>> we met and made this decision): Clare Bermingham, Kim Garwood,  J. Barbara
>> Rose, and Dena Taylor
>>
>>
>>
>> W. Brock MacDonald
>> Vice-Principal
>> Director, Academic Writing Centre
>> Woodsworth College, University of Toronto
>> 119 St. George Street
>> Toronto, ON   M5S-1A9
>> (416) 978-0246
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>>
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>>
>
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>
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