Jan,
 
I have a few thoughts to offer about your concerns:
 
1--I tend to agree with your comments, and I believe that probably most other ATEGers feel the same way. Furthermore, speaking personally, offering only my own opinion, and not pretending to represent ATEG in any official capacity, I don't think there are any official plans to have the conference in Fairfield permanently. I think it was just convenient, based on how well this year's conference went, to hold it one more time at the same location. I don't think there is any plan to keep it at the same location from now on.
 
Last year we were in Chicago, this year on the east coast. Before that we were in Seattle. There was some interest expressed this year about having the conference in one of the southern states in the near future. I plan to try to host the conference at my new home, Missouri State University, as soon as I can. Others have expressed a similar interest. So, at least as I see it, there doesn't seem to be much danger of having the conference stuck in one part of the country permanently. I think most of us are in agreement that it would be better if we rotate the conference regularly to the western and central areas of the nation in order to make it accessible to all of our members.
 
2--This, however, brings up another issue: It IS true that the majority of our members are in the north and/or east. I have wondered about this: Does it reflect the fact that the organization had its beginning, and held its early meetings, in that area of the country? Or is there some other explanation? Whatever the reason, we need to work on recruiting more members in the west and southwest. The large majority of our membership is clustered in the northeast, midwest, and along the east coast.
 
3--Finally, though the conference was in CT, flying into NYC from TX (where I am at the moment) was actually less expensive than flying from TX to Missouri. My ticket cost only about $400, purchased several weeks in advance. My point being, of course, that flying across the country is often no more expensive than flying a short distance, especially if you are flying into a major hub like NYC. This is also something for future conference hosts to consider; the availability of major airports often reduces travel costs considerably.
 
Tim
 
Tim Hadley
Research Assistant, The Graduate School
Ph.D. candidate, Technical Communication and Rhetoric
Texas Tech University
Editor, ATEG Journal

________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Jan Kammert
Sent: Tue 8/1/2006 10:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: next year's conference



I am disappointed that next year's conference will be in the East again.
I loved going to the conference a couple years ago in Seattle.  I know
that I will never be able to attend a conference so far away.  Is there
any thought of rotating the location of the conferences so they're not
always in the same region of the country year after year?
Jan

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