MI-WPA Minutes

Below you will find minutes from previous MI-WPA meetings.

MI-WPA Affiliate Meeting Minutes

February 4, 2019: 10-11 am

  1. Update from CWPA Affiliate Committee

Amy: January meeting w/other CWPA affiliates around U.S. report

  1. Initiatives and Ideas

Recruitment and inclusion: how do we get more people to our conferences? Included in other activities? Ideas: webinars, regional workshops, shared conference materials online

  1. Draft of summary activity from MI-WPA

Amy: back to committee by the end of this week, looking for suggestions

Rachel: add specific line re: what regional coordinators do, if it’s to serve as a possible model for other affiliates

  1. Agenda Setting for 2019
  1. Finalize Mission Statement 

Logan: three action verbs will be useful to website

Amy: other feedback?

Rachel: WPA acronym spell out?

Do we assume everyone is an administrator or a director? “Coordinate” and “teach” are added

Megan / Mark: want to also name what we mean by “writing programs” (adding list, first-year writing, professional writing, writing centers, writing minors and majors)

  1. Roll-Out Recruiting Efforts
  1. Update Website

Logan: what do we want to prioritize?

Amy: (primary) position descriptions and mission statement; (secondary) officers and Corridors

  1. Position Descriptions

Amy: ready to go, once terms are staggered for officers

Liz: do we want to stagger regional coordinators, too?

  1. Head shots: do we want images? Yes. Need to send to Logan.

Need: images from others

  1. Bios from Coordinators

Have bios from officers who are not coordinators

Minutes on the website? Every month? Yes.

Corridors as part of our site?

Amy: past conference links

Megan: could also add Corridors history + “how to” regional conference from presentation from Derek Mueller and Steve Krause (at EMU)

  1. Google Form for Recruitment

Amy: Any other changes? None.

Logan: who will receive notification when people join? Can use MI-WPA gmail account for form, will get notifications and/or Logan will check once a week

  1. Target Completion Dates
  1. Website Updates: new by-laws, mission statement on home page, minutes and agenda, Corridors (previous Corridors + history), headshots and bios, position description, Google Form on MI-WPA account

By mid-March? Logan will carve out time to work on March 1, by 5 p.m.

All other revisions and materials submitted by February 22

  1. Send out Recruitment Emails: don’t need to wait for website to be updated

Rachel: who’s sending? Do we want a deadline for that? Megan and Amy will decide. By end of February? Send to existing MI roster, WPA-L, Facebook, Twitter, social media, etc.

iii. Updated Roster/Google Group: by end of March, after recruitment email has gone out

  1. Next Steps
    Amy: How to keep people engaged between the time they sign up and Corridors?

Add to agenda for next meeting: how to keep active and keep folks invested?

Rachel: how to balance what we know/think would be useful and what people say they want and have to offer (from the membership form)

  1. Update on Corridors?

Megan: committee of folks at Oakland have met again; CFP and website ready end of April, beginning of May, will be online; save the date flier in a couple of weeks w/conference theme

What venues to publicize? MI-WPA roster, Corridors Facebook page (Steve Krause and Scott K. moderators), WPA-L

  1. Panel at CWPA this summer in Baltimore? (call for proposals)
    Panel on MI-WPA?

Likely already a panel re: affiliates at the national level (from different regions)

Rachel: might be a possible idea to reach out to Derek at Virginia Tech and/or others at EMU or MSU to talk about the history of Corridors and the affiliate, and a current member of MI-WPA could talk about the revamp

  1. New Business

None

  1. Next meeting?
    Week of March 25

By then, we will have reached out to the roster with the mission statement + form to join; so we will have a populated form with some answers to the questions “what do you need” and “what do you want to offer”

Rachel: Doodle for that week

MI-WPA Board Meeting

September 7, 2018

Google Hangout, 12-1pm (ET):

Participants:

Amy Ferdinandt Stolley (stolleam@gvsu.edu)

Megan Schoen (mschoen2342@gmail.com)

Logan Bearden (lbearden@emich.edu)

Rachel Gramer (rgramer@emich.edu)

Jeff Pruchnic (inferentialkid@gmail.com)

Derek Mueller (dereknmueller@gmail.com)

Scott Kowalewski (sjkowalewski@gmail.com)

Agenda/Discussion Items

  • Update from Scott about Corridors Conference

36 presenters, 14 talk sessions, 4 roundtables, 4 make-do sessions

Similar size as previous years

Plenary speaker TBA soon, with title for talk

Hotel/lodging accommodations + final schedule coming next week, too

Phase 2 descriptions/details due next week

Encourage folks to register

For MI WPA: roundtable space available for us on Saturday (see #5 below)

  1. Update from board members about action items from last meeting

Web presence (http://miwpa.emuenglish.org/)

Logan’s questions for us:

    1. Other coordinators? Exec members listed as coordinators?
    1. Head shots?
    1. What else do we want to add?
  1. Design suggestions?

Role of coordinators?

By-laws say coordinators appointed as needed

Coordinators initially “bought-in” folks

Could be individual programs/institutions who are receptive

Some folks Derek suggested might be bought-in

Brian Gogan at WMU

Daniel Lawson who directs the writing center at CMU

Stephanie Roach at UM-Flint

Could also be regional

Could discuss at Corridors during Friday and/or Saturday times

Wouldn’t necessarily post on website if folks are on more of an ad-hoc committee status

Coordinator positions not overdetermined, also don’t have to be permanent beyond 6 months or so

Could be a means of rotating in future exec members

Can reach out to short list (rather than deep end) of folks who have expressed interest since our compilation of email list (Amy)

Headshots?

Yes–which means we need to send photos to Logan (all)

Things to add to website

Places to share meeting minutes publicly (Logan)

Any updates about status of CWPA Affiliate Committee?

Not on the current list of affiliates produced this year

Megan wanted to address during CWPA Town Hall, but was not able to do so during that time

Affiliate being “official” seems less of a priority for CWPA

Will try to reach out to Marc (Amy at Corridors, and/or Megan will continue to try to find out)

Additional issues/updates?

None at this time

Agenda Items

Revisions to Bylaws? Re-Adoption of Bylaws?

Amy’s agenda draft approved by all

Time/Location

Previous agendas: meetings were late afternoon

Could do late afternoon, early evening, evening

Not sure who is likely/planning to attend meeting

Afternoon meeting might work better for folks who are closer and who want to drive home on Friday evening (whether coming on Saturday or not)

Time: 2-4:30

Location: Scott reserving location w/tech set-up and movable furniture/flex space

Virtual participation options for the meeting

Scott can provide space with tech + set-up for inviting folks virtually

SVSU switching platforms for group video conference; could also use Google Hangout (accessible, familiar)

Publicizing MI-WPA Meeting
Amy reaching out to listserv and smaller group of interested folks

Can send link to website along with email invite

Could send to roster? Some folks on roster *not* on listserv

Megan sending to roster (once we have room location from Scott)

Could use Google Groups, more flexible and accessible than listserv through MSU

Can add Communication preferences to Friday meeting agenda

  • Developing a Talk/Collaborate Session on Saturday for Corridors–could be framed as Make/Do

Possible ideas for use of that time:

Open space/time for talking with other WPA folks

Recap/sharing out from Friday meeting

Sketch out plan for communicating with folks

Work session, writing emails to folks (more of a Make/Do Session)

Scott can/will create session on schedule as a Make/Do WPA session

Session B, around 10-10:25 a.m.

Amy starting draft of Phase 2 description for program schedule

  • New Business

None!