Date:  Wed, 7 Dec 1994 09:23:13 -0600

From:  debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UIUC.EDU

Subject: Re: The ADS crystal ball



I agree with Allan, or as he is now, aallan[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]aol.com, a thoroughly

distinctive monicker. Ideally I too would opt for a separate conference,

and what better, crueller, month than April (isn't a crueller one of those

pastries everyone has a different name for?)?



My reservations are two: travel money and cancelling classes. Right now I

can scrounge travel money for 2-3 gigs a year, typically NCTE; MLA+ADS; and

CCCC, which I go to partly out of my administrative function as a wpa (with

no budgeted travel money--have to beg each time). Both NCTE and CCCC

typically mean cancelling one or more days of teaching, which I can't

usually make up because I can't pull 30-40 students together at one time

for a make-up session. Adding an April ADS meeting means yet another,

separate, plea for funds and more canceled classes, both of which are

problematical.



But I do like Aallan's idea of a themed conference all on its own. That is

the sort of thing that could attract external funding, at least once in a

while. Having organized several sessions for ADS over the years, I'd say

we could attract newcomers and fresh ideas if we didn't saturate the market

by having too many meetings. Keynote speakers and focused topics are a good

draw. Having organized several sessions for ADS over the years, I can also

add that focused topics is not an easy thing. Our call for papers on

political correctness, language, and the classroom produced many

interesting proposals, and a terrific session, but almost none of it had to

do with the session topic.



illinois dennis

--



Dennis Baron                       debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu



Department of English                  217-333-2392

University of Illinois                fax: 217-333-4321

608 South Wright Street

Urbana, Illinois 61801