09/05/2023

CWPA in August/September

A Monthly Update to Members

Dear Members,

Hope the beginning of the fall semester has been smooth with as few problems as possible. I know better than saying problem-free since there is no such thing in WPA world 😊

Welcome to the August/September Updates

Topics in this email:

News and Updates

CWPA 2023 – 2024 Committees

CWPA Calls for Ex-Officio Positions

CWPA Conference Siting Call Application Deadline

CWPA Events

News and Updates

CWPA Bylaws Revision

After consulting the Executive Board, I’m happy to announce that Holly Hassel will be chairing the CWPA Bylaws Revision Task Force. The task force will consist of two elected Executive Board members and selected CWPA members, representing diverse institutional types and academic ranks. The Task Force will use the final Culture Assessment Report from One Eight Create as the foundation of revising the bylaws to reflect the organization’s values and priorities.

I will keep you updated as the Task Force work progresses.

CWPA will Join the National AI and Writing Efforts

CWPA will join MLA, CCCC, and other national professional organizations working at the crucial intersection of reading, writing, and language to develop critical AI literacy. These stakeholders will work together to produce policies and guidelines on AI literacy and the appropriate uses of AI in the classroom.

CWPA 2023 – 2024 Committees

The CWPA 2023 – 2024 Committee Involvement form is ready for your input. Serving on one of our committees is a great way to get to learn more about CWPA mission and goals.

I’d like to clarify a few points about the decision behind selecting those eight committees for this year.

• As CWPA will be revising the bylaws and the WPA OS 3.0 this year, the decision was to have a limited number of committees that are essential for the organization business and member services.
• The Town Hall discussion at the summer conference in Reno last July informed the selection of which committees to run this year. Specifically, we wanted to focus on growing membership, increasing member diversity, and supporting formal and informal WPAs in various ways: mentoring, grants, awards.
• We re-envisioned the role and charges of the DEI committee by folding DEI principles in other committee charges rather than having a DEI committee that works in isolation from other committees.
• The Disability and Accessibility Committee has been discontinued because the committee’s major charge used to advise the summer conference organizing committee on accessibility issues. Each conference organizing committee always has a local disability and accessibility sub-committee that advises the conference program chair and local co-chairs on accessibility issues. To avoid redundancy and duplicating efforts, we thought to leave that work for each conference planning team.

CWPA Calls for Ex-Officio Positions

In the coming two weeks, you will see several calls for Ex-Officio positions: Secretary, Treasurer, Communications Coordinator, and Archivist and Historian. I hope you’ll consider applying for one of these leadership positions.

CWPA Conference Siting Call Reminder

This is a reminder that the CWPA Conference Siting Call for Applications deadline is September 30. If your institution (or multiple institutions) is considering an application to host the conference in 2024 or 2025 but may need more time to complete the application, please let me know.

CWPA Events

The August workshop on “Responding to the moment: Writing Program Curriculum Redesign” was very successful. There were many inspiring concrete plans for curriculum redesign and a great discussion between the workshop facilitators and participants.

In September, CWPA is hosting two events:

September 15: A Free Member-Only webinar “AI and Writing Programs: Issues for Program Coordinators”

September 29: A virtual workshop “Making Space in the Chaos: Strategies for Balancing Scholarly Productivity as a Program Administrator”

In November, we will host another Free, Member-Only event “Resources and Strategies for Writing Program Leaders with Online Programs and Courses”

All events are open for registration

Don’t let your membership lapse to take advantage of these free events.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Please email me at councilofwpa@gmail.com

Until next month, Stay well and enjoy the cooler temperatures (hopefully)

Lilian Mina

CWPA President