Trent Batson, director of the ACW, convened the meeting by explaining that this was not a formal board meeting but rather an informal meeting called for current board members and regional directors and other interested parties in order to clarify various issues regarding the reorganization of the ACW. Accordingly, no formal reports were given, no proposals submitted, and no votes were taken.
Two Years of the ACW
Trent described the two years of the ACW's existence (since May, 1993) as years of great expectations, some remarkable achievements, and notable disappointments in organization and communication. The fault, as he sees it, lies in the director's and codirectors' innocence regarding the demand that staffing and supporting the ACW's ambitious goals would require.Some of the managerial stresses placed upon the ACW and subsequent re-evaluation of its operating structure, Trent said, may be a necessarily element in the evolution of any national, grassroots, organization composed almost entirely of volunteers. The organization should see change being made as the healthy elements in the evolution of our unusual professional group.
Reorganization of the ACW
Chief among such changes is the structural division of the ACW into two separately managed groups: the ACW Institute and the ACW Regional Affiliates. The former will be directed by Trent Batson (Professor of English, Gallaudet University) and the latter by Fred Kemp (Associate Professor of English, Texas Tech University).Through this dual structure, therefore, the ACW will provide not only high level, grant-supported materials and processes support but grass-roots training, issues advocacy, and information sharing.The ACW Institute
The ACW Institute will seek high level cooperation and funding with corporate and educational agencies in order to develop extensive instructional and professional development projects, with an eye toward providing members of the ACW sophisticated support for their classroom and research activities. Examples of such projects include the The Epiphany Project and 21st Century Writing.The ACW Regional Affiliates
The ACW Regional Affiliates will support twTo primary goals: (1) providing the regionals communication, support, and training, and (2) maintaining the ACW Web, email, and electronic database structures.The ACW Email Information Structure
In response to a question, Fred Kemp described the often confusing ACW email information structure. Essentially, this structure consists of three email lists.
- ACW-L
An open, unmoderated discussion list. Anyone may join. All comments are accepted and distributed. A number of people are members of ACW-L who are not members of the ACW itself, and conversly, are members of the ACW who are not members of the ACW-L list. Members and non members of the ACW may join this list by sending a single-line message, no subject line, to LISTPROC@UNICORN.ACS.TTU.EDU. That line should contain four strings: SUBSCRIBE ACW-L yourfirstname yourlastnamep>- ACWREG-L
A closed, unmoderated discussion list composed only of the directors and co-directors of the 19 ACW regionals. The principal area of discussion is regional development and cooperation.
- ACW-MEM
A closed, moderated distribution list composed only of members of the ACW. People are placed on this list automatically when they join the ACW. The only "traffic" on this list are (1) ACW Connections newsletter, (2) Weekly Announcements/News from the ACW, and (3) Announcements from the directors and staff of the ACW.Initiating the Regional Organization
The final 30 minutes of the meeting was given over to Mike Palmquist (director, Rocky Mountain Regional) and Roni Keane (director, New York Metropolitan Regional).Mike described the very successful beginning of his regional and how he carried it off. Roni described problems with starting a local conference, including the lack of enthusiasm among various participants, the inability to get equipment for demonstrations, etc. (Roni's comments will be included later). Conclusion of the meeting The next step for the ACW is the distribution of board nominations to the membership and the election and installation of the new board at C&W in May. Fred assured the regionals that concerns with the ACW Web pages and information collection and distribution will not overshadow the challenges of helping establish the regionals, including an increasing sharing of experiences such as those described by Mike and Roni.