Annual Meeting Proposals Solicited

By: NWP Staff
Publication: The Voice, Vol. 7, No. 2
Date: March-April 2002

Summary: Site directors, co-directors, and teacher-consultants are invited to propose a session for NWP's 2002 Annual Meeting in Atlanta Friday, November 22, 2002. Deadline: May 17, 2002.

Is there a site director or teacher-leader who would pass up a chance to talk for 75 minutes with National Writing Project colleagues from all over the country about a topic of shared interest? This is exactly the kind of forum NWP will provide at its annual meeting, November 22, 2002, in Atlanta, Georgia.

As in the past, NWP will offer a rich array of interactive workshop sessions, roundtable discussions, and demonstrations of successful practice. These sessions, which account for about one-half of the program at the annual meeting, are generated from proposals submitted by site directors and teacher-leaders across the network.

Topics that have been of particular interest in the past fall into such categories as programs for new teachers, community partnerships, and technology issues, as well as concerns more traditionally at the core of the writing project, among them teacher demonstrations and inservice. (A more complete list of areas of special interest is available on our website.)

Those wishing to propose a session will find more information and an application should visit the 2002 Annual Meeting Sessions RFP Web page. The deadline for submitting proposals is May 17, 2002.

The Path of an NWP Annual Meeting Session Proposal

Just what does happen to your session proposal once you've hit Submit? No, it's not siesta time for your paperwork until November 22. In fact, it's quite the opposite. From the time a session proposal hits the National Writing Project website, your information is busily moving from point A to point B, helping give shape to what will become the NWP Annual Meeting 2002 program in Atlanta.

Maybe for no other reason than a behind-the-scenes look at just one small part of the annual meeting process, we offer readers the following look at the path of an NWP Annual Meeting Session Proposal.

1. The session proposal is submitted online.
2. A confirmation of receipt ("We got it. Thanks!") goes back to the contact person named on the proposal.
3. The resulting database of proposals—including information such as name, email, mailing address of contact person, site name, names and titles of all presenters, title of session, short description, AV request, index selection—helps the NWP Annual Meeting planning committee shape the meeting, stay in touch with session proposal groups, meld similar proposals, and make its first selections.
4. Selected proposals are shared with staff and network leaders for consideration for use in strands, in Thursday workshops, or in special events at the annual meeting.
5. Proposals are either accepted as is, combined with other proposals, or invited to be submitted for other events.
6. The session title and description are double-checked and reworked, if needed, to fit the program and accommodate all presenters.
7. Contact people receive information about finalized sessions.
8. After a final review and edit of the session descriptions by NWP's communications staff, sessions are assigned rooms and time slots.
9. Final information on each session is entered into a growing mass of information that will become the NWP Annual Meeting program.
10. The annual meeting program—with your session description in place—is put into production (layout, proofing, printing). Programs are shipped to the meeting site.
11. November 22: Atlanta, Georgia . . . it's SHOWTIME!

Visit the NWP 2002 Annual Meeting homepage.

Download "Annual Meeting Proposals Solicited"