Call for Nominations: Executive Board At-Large Members & President-Elect

The Executive Board invites nominations for three positions: President-Elect, At-Large South Carolina Representative, and At-Large North Carolina Representative.

The Carolinas WPA serves as an affiliate of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. All Executive Board members should be members of the Council of Writing Program Administrators (or be willing to obtain such membership upon election to the board).

Nomination Process

To nominate someone or yourself, please review the open positions below. You may nominate someone with their permission for any of the positions listed below. You may, of course, nominate yourself for one of the available positions. Please note that those nominated will be asked to submit a brief biographical statement before being included on the ballot. Those newly elected are expected to attend our “Meeting in the Middle” (the meeting we have each February at UNC Charlotte.)

Please send an email indicating clearly the person’s name, status at their institution (Assistant Professor, Doctoral Student, etc.), their affiliation, and the position for which you are nominating. The nominating person should include a very brief paragraph as to why this person might be a good fit for the board/position and for the organization.

Once the deadline for nominations has expired, the board will develop a ballot to be sent via the CarolinasWPA Listserv where all who are subscribed to the CarolinasWPA list will have an opportunity to vote on the candidates nominated for each position. Once the voting has ended and the votes have been verified, the Executive Board will announce the new board members and their respective positions.

Please send all nominations to Tony Atkins atkinsa@uncw.edu and Tracy Morse morset@ecu.edu no later than Friday, October 31.

* Online voting ballots will be available approximately November 10 with voting ending on November 30.

Open Positions

1) President-Elect position.

This person will serve a term of two years in this role: January 1, 2015, until January 1, 2017, at which time this person will become President of the organization for a 2-year term beginning January 1, 2017, through January 1, 2019.

The President-Elect has two distinct roles. First the President-Elect is responsible for organizing the Meeting in the Middle (working with the host institution, developing the theme, inviting speaker/s, food, program, etc.) Second, the President-Elect will help in other capacities like contributing to the Annual Fall Retreat each year and organizing our Annual Conference on College Composition and Communication Recruitment Event. This person is also expected to move into the President role upon completing a term as President-Elect.

2) At-Large Position: South Carolina Representative

This person will serve a term of two years in this role: January 1, 2015-January 1, 2017.

At-Large positions on the board serve multiple purposes. One is to ensure representation from both states (NC/SC). Another is to conduct out-reach within the representative state to recruit other members from NC/SC and community colleges. At-Large positions help to organize both the Meeting in the Middle and the Annual Fall Retreat. At-Large positions are directly responsible for managing or otherwise putting together panels for conferences like SAMLA, TYCA, NCETA and/or NCEI. They may contribute in other ways as initiatives arise.

3) At-Large Position: North Carolina Representative

This person will serve a term of two years in this role: January 1, 2015-January 1, 2017.

At-Large positions on the board serve multiple purposes. One is to ensure representation from both states (NC/SC). Another is to conduct out-reach within the representative state to recruit other members from NC/SC and community colleges. At-Large positions help to organize both the Meeting in the Middle and the Annual Fall Retreat. At-Large positions are responsible for managing or otherwise putting together panels for conferences like SAMLA, TYCA, NCETA and/or NCEI. They may contribute in other ways as initiatives arise.

CarolinasWPA Constitution

The CarolinasWPA Board has developed and endorsed a constitution in order to maintain in good standing as an affiliate of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. Members will vote to ratify the constitution in November 2014. To read the proposed constitution, visit: http://www.carolinaswpa.org/about-2/constitution/.

The proposed constitution largely reflects practices followed (and fine-tuned) by the organization since its founding in 2003.

If you have any questions about the proposed constitution, please contact a Board Member or current President, Tony Atkins.

 

Publishing What We Do: The WPA as Researcher – Fall Conference Agenda

Carolinas Writing Program Administrators 11th Annual Fall Conference

Publishing What We Do: The WPA as Researcher

September 15-17, 2014

Wildacres Retreat Center

 Little Switzerland, NC

CarolinasWPAFallRetreat2014 (PDF Version of Agenda)

 

Monday, September 15

4:00-5:30pm:    Check-In | North Lodge Lobby |Light snacks will be available in the Canteen

6:30:                         Dinner | Cafeteria

7:45:                         Auditorium

Tony Atkins | Welcome & Opening Session

Mike House |“Need-to-know stuff” & the fascinating history behind The Wildacres Retreat Center

Featured Speaker: David Blakesley | “Researching and Publishing in the University”

As if the WPA’s job weren’t challenging enough! We also have the responsibility to ensure that our decisions are based on solid research from both internal and external sources, that our successes are public, and that we foster change with our results, both locally and in the WPA community at-large. How do we do it? I’ll tell the story of one dramatic institutional change in a time of crisis, how we approached the various problems faced by the writing program, and the university, and how we also pre-planned for publication of our story and the research that supported it. Jumping ahead, the presentation will then focus on the state of publishing in our field, how WPAs can find their niche, and what we need to do to ensure a bright future for research in the field.

Tony Atkins | Carolinas WPA President’s Report

9:00:                         Social/Networking | Canteen (South Lodge)

 

Tuesday, September 16

8:00am            Breakfast |Cafeteria

9:00:               Tony Atkins |Announcements & Agenda |North Lodge Meeting Room

 

Workshop Facilitator: David Blakesley: “Making Your Work as a WPA Public: A Workshop for the Carolinas WPA” (writing “charge” for the day)

The word publishing means “to make public.” For the long-term health of a writing program, there may be nothing more important than publishing your work as a WPA, as well as making the excellent teaching and writing of your instructors and students as public as they can be.

 

In this workshop, we’ll discuss the challenges of performing the public work of the WPA, opportunities and exigencies for publishing our own research and the writing of students and writing program faculty, the importance of managing our professional and programmatic identities, and of, in short and as Austin Kleon puts it, “showing your work.” Although it appears at first to be a daunting task, it needn’t be, and you’ll learn some secrets for building the profile of your programs, deepening the networks of collaboration in your university, and, in the end, making your job as a WPA easier and more rewarding.

 

10:00:             Round-Table Discussions | Concurrent Session I (A&B)

 

Session A

  • Patrick Bahls | UNC Asheville| “WAC/WID on the move: Charting the Changeover from one General Education Writing Requirement to Another”
  • Gwendolynne Reid and Bridget Kozlow | NCSU | “Modularizing the Writing Program: Researching the Implications of the One-Credit WID Course”

 

Session B

  • Megan Hall | NCSU | Activist Mentoring and Collaborative Teaching: Reinventing a GTA Program across Tenure Lines
  • Jan Rieman | UNC Charlotte | “Assessment, Professional Development, and the Question of Expertise”

 

11:00:             BREAK

 

11:15:             Round-Table Discussions | Concurrent Session II (A&B)

 

Session A

  • Susan Miller-Cochran | NCSU | “Examining Multilingual Writers’ Perceptions of an Ideal Classroom Space”
  • Jessica Pisano | UNC Asheville | “Enhancing Connections: Two Service-Learning Based Approaches to Freshman Composition”

 

Session B

  • Aaron Weekes | UNC Wilmington (UG Researcher) | “Truth is Dead: A Comparison of Gorgias and Nietzsche on Language and Truth”
  • Collie Fulford | NCCU | “A Way Out of No Way: Program Development in Hard Times”

 

12:30pm:         Lunch | Cafeteria

1:45:               Workshop Facilitator: David Blakesley (Reading discussion) | North Lodge Meeting Room

2:30:              Write/Hike/Retreat/Socialize |Carolinas WPA Board Meeting

6:00:              Dinner |Cafeteria

7:15                Workshop Facilitator: David Blakesley: (Discussion of writing for the day) | North Lodge Meeting Room

9:00:              Bonfire/Retreat/Networking/Music |Bonfire Pit: Below South Lodge

 

Wednesday, September 17

8:00am            Breakfast |Cafeteria

9:00:               Workshop Facilitator: David Blakesley |Final thoughts and discussion | North Lodge Meeting Room

 

Tony Atkins | Plans for SAMLA (2014/2015), MIM, Assessment Survey (2015)

10:00:             Departures