IWDPA 16 July 2015 Meeting Minutes

Independent Writing Departments and Programs Association
Biannual Meeting at the CWPA
Boise, ID

16 July 2015, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Summit Room
With Minutes in Blue

AGENDA ITEMS

Call to Order: Brief Overview (Leslie Werden)
(Executive Board: Leslie Werden, President; Alice Johnston Myatt, Vice-president;
Pete Vandenberg, Past-president)

Introduction of those present

OLD BUSINESS

• Website overview
  • Reviewed the distinctive logo (note name changed from “Affiliate” to “Association”). We will need to make this change official through CCCC and WPA.
    • Members can subscribe to this as they might a blog.
• Directory / Membership
  • Nice feature of the website is the ability to create a form that will build a “directory,” for example.
  • Hope to build this with additional members — Alice is working diligently on this.
  • Alice reviewed the need to grow our active membership for meeting presence, for resources to, for example, post on social media (see first note in “open discussion”).
  • Membership: we have about 60 names on an historical list of members, so we hope to contacting each of them and asking for profile information.
  • CCCC / Sponsored Panel 2016
  • We will have a sponsored panel because we are now a “standing group” within 4Cs.
  • To be part of the “standing group,” there has to be at least one person in your department/program that is a member of 4Cs.
• Bibliography
  • We will create a form to build the bibliography on the website (as the “directory” has been built).
  • We hope to get a good start on the bib (perhaps 12 entries) by fall, 2015.
    • NB update: Leslie shared a bibliography post-meeting with Alice; it has been posted on the IWDPA website under Scholarship and Resources

NEW BUSINESS

• CCCC Sponsored Panel 2017
  • Possible topic for the panel were requested
    • Labor (adjuncts)
    • Visibility (on campus, greater community, nationally, etc.)
    • Collaborative work (across campus, in community, nationally)
  • Will probably do a query to the listserve to see what is of interest most.
• VP to begin July 1, 2016
  • This is a two-year term.
  • The Constitution has a voting mechanism but because of the small size of the organization at the moment, it’s been handled on an ask-and-do basis.
  • The position will require a six-year commitment, since the position cycles from VP, to President, and then to past-President, each with two-year terms.
• Call for new board members
  • Benefits of being involved with the executive board: good for the CV, as the IWDPA is connected to both Cs and the C-WPA
  • We need board members who would serve as members at large.
    • The current constitution calls for 9 members at large, but again, because we are small – we may rethink this, but we do need the board members to reflect the diverse array of departments and programs.
    • (Alice also reminded everyone that we need to keep in mind that there is a trend of writing centers being more decentralized, more freestanding, often reporting to a provost or as part of an academic support center. What can we do to get more writing centers involved in our group and on the executive board?)
  • Leslie proposed that we send out an official email with an official call for board member and vice-president nominations.
• Updating CWPA website (Leslie)
  • C-WPA website – page needs to be updated, right now it is sitting at 2011.
    • Pete Vandenberg explained that when he sent in the most recent report that was written for the C-WPA affiliate page, somehow recent updates were deleted and the page reverted back to the 2011 page.
    • We discussed how to best get in touch with the person who is maintaining the C-WPA website; while no one at the meeting knew the person to contact, Leslie noted that she was going to attend the Affiliates Meeting after our IWDPA meeting, and that she would be sure to bring this to the attention of the group.
    • In thinking through the need for managing the content connected to the IWDPA, someone proposed that we put a link to our website (independentwriting.org).
    • We also asked Leslie to find out how to put up most recent information; Pete noted that Keith was the connection for a long time; we can also ask Susan Cochran-Miller for assistance.
• Review of constitution (complete prior to 4Cs) (Leslie & Alice)
  • Leslie asked that we post the current one up on the website, and she recommended that the executive board review the constitution on a regular basis in order to ensure that it reflected the evolution of the organization.

OPEN DISCUSSION

• Do we have a social media presence? Discussion on what folks use more often. Facebook seems to be prevalent; however, Twitter has been growing more. We would need someone to be consistent with posting on social media if we add these.
• Some discussion about branding: logo (created), more posting of photos, etc.
• Continued discussion about what it means to be “independent.”
• Affiliates Meeting:
  • Possibilities for other “shared interest” kinds of affiliates (adding to the regional)
  • Better access to WPA website — main contact?
  • Hard to get to affiliates link on the WPA site?
• Discussion of IWDPA website:
  • About Us Page comments – it was noted that the wording about the mission of the organization was vague; for example, a member/program could be more than just a writing program, but could be first-year writing center.
    • It was suggested that we use bullet points and that we provide examples of programs and departments that are involved.
  • An Archive page was proposed; this would serve to curate the activity and artifacts of the IWDPA.
  • Alison suggested that we develop a visual infographic of connections with IWDPA at the center and other types of institutions (along with specific individual names) coming out from the center.
    • Those present thought that was a suggestion we should work to implement; Alice will follow up.
• With the meeting reaching the hour point, we adjourned after reviewing the action items:
  • Leslie – attend the Affiliates meeting and ask about the C-WPA website and improved visibility for Affiliates on that website
  • Alice – continue to update the About Us page, the membership page, adding profiles as they come in, and also to post resources in the annotated bibliography (Scholarship page)
  • Alice – set up an Archive page on the IWDPA website; post content as needed
  • Leslie and Alice – work to draft a Call that will be ready for review prior to the April CCCC in Houston
  • Leslie and Alice – review and update the constitution (Alice to post the current version on the website)
  • Leslie and Alice – send out a call for VP and board members once the constitution is in order