Proposed Assignments

Hi Everyone,

Okay, now the IWCA workshop is less than two months away, so we probably need to get started. (Did I tell you all that I don’t procrastinate? It’s an irritating habit of mine.) Claire Hughes, who is in charge of organizing the conference, just sent me the list of who is registered for our workshop. I’ve attached it here. There are 11 people so far.

We can do this on email, or on the blog, but for ease, right now, I’m going on email for “assignments.” (I guess I’ll also post this to the blog.) If you look at the blog, you’ll see what we have planned for the day. To that end, I’m going to make the following proposed assignments and then you can agree, or disagree, depending on what you think of them. Okay, here goes:

1. Everyone needs to send to Tif, by October 1, the information needed for the Project Profiles. Tif will put them together in one handout for the workshop.
   
   
2. Teresa, Jennifer, Eliana and Melissa T. need to compile a bibliography of scholarly research.
   
   
3. Tif will put together the “Asset Analysis” handouts for the workshop and plans for that section of the day.
   
   
4. Thomas, Andrea and Melissa H. will contact the participants in the workshop and ask do the “motivation survey”. They will also prepare handouts, plans, etc. for the Ethics of Working with community section.
   
   
5. Tif and Andrea will put together the Action Plan worksheets for that section. (I’ve already got a version of this and the Asset Analysis stuff, just need to revise it for this workshop).
   
   
6. Jennifer/Teresa, Thomas/Eliana, and Andrea/Melissa H. need to figure out what they’ll say for the “Present Types of Projects” section of the day.
   
   

Does this sound good for a start? I’m sure it will get more confusing at first, but it will all fall into place.

I’m really looking forward to working on this with all of you! It should be a fun time.

Tif

Revsied Proposed Agenda with more time

(This is revised with Melissa T. not presenting)

Hi all,

Our workshop is now scheduled for 9-3 with a lunch break. Here is a modified proposed agenda. Please add your comments/suggestions. Thanks, Tif.

Draft Agenda for IWCA Pre Conference Workshop

Before the workshop, participants will be sent a survey of their motivations for engaging in community outreach.

Workshop Packets will include:

• Project profiles of each facilitator
• Name/Institution/Contact Info
• Brief Description of Community Outreach project
• Brief description of how funding has been secured
  
  
• Bibliography of scholarly research
  
  
• Handouts/Worksheets for Workshop
  
• Asset analysis
• Ethics of working with community
• Results of motivation survey
• Criteria for determining mutual benefits
• Strategies for negotiating within institutions
• Action plan worksheets

Agenda (6 hours)

1. 9:00am: Welcome (10 minutes)—Tif
1. Funding Spiel
   
1. This is not about funding.
1. “Revolution will not be funded.”
2. There’s always money—not a formula to get it
   
   
2. 9:15am: Introductions of facilitators (2-ish minutes each, 20 minutes total)
1. What’s my program?
1. Reference Project Profiles—specifically funding
   
   
3. 9:35am: Overview of scholarly research and current outreach programs (15 minutes)—(Team: Jennifer, Teresa and Eliana)
   
   
4. 9:50am: Asset Analysis (1 hour)
1. Introduction to strategies (10 minutes)—Tif
   
1. Break into groups based on geographic region (50 minutes)
1. One/two facilitator(s) per group
1. Begin conducting asset analysis (will need to be finished with partners in community/institution)
   
   
5. 10:50am: Break (10 minutes)
   
   
6. 11:00am: Ethics of Community Partnerships (1 hour)
   
1. Introduction to ethics (10 minutes) (Team: Thomas, Andrea and Melissa H.)
   
1. Break into small groups based on Institutional Type (two facilitators per group) (50 minutes)
1. Discuss self-motivation for community outreach
1. Discuss potential of mutual beneficial outcomes
1. Transition to discussing institutional strategies (based on asset analysis, and mutually-beneficial outcomes)
   
   
7. 12:00 noon: Project Action Plans Presentations (30 minutes)
   
1. Present types of projects (20 minutes) (Teams: Jennifer/Teresa, Thomas/Eliana, Andrea/Melissa H.)
   
1. Present Handouts/worksheets for action plans (10 minutes)--Tif
   
   
8. 12:30 pm: Lunch (45 minutes)
   
   
9. 1:15pm: Project Action Plan Workshopping (facilitated in teams of two) (1 1/2 hours)
   
1. Break into small groups based on type of project (two facilitators for each) (45 min)
   
1. Work on action plan handouts for project type
   
1. Post action plans on wall, present and discuss as a whole group (45 min)
   
   
10. 3:00 pm: END
    

Draft Agenda for workshop

Hi Everyone,

It was such a pleasure to see and meet you all at CCCC's on Friday, and to share a little New Orleans' cooking that evening. I'm really excited about our workshop at IWCA.

I have submitted a request to the IWCA organizers for a six-hour slot, instead of our four-hour one. I haven't heard back yet, but will let you know ASAP.

In hopes of getting these ideas out to you before too much time passes, I have drafted an agenda for our workshop based on our very stimulating discussion on Friday. I know that I've not captured it all, so please take this as a first step in the unfolding of the final agenda.

If you can make comments or add new posts on this topic, it will be great. I think that if we can get the agenda set in the next few weeks, then we'll have nice leisurely time to work on our respective assignments over the summer/early fall. I have 'teams' set on the different items, but please know they are not set. If you do or don't want to be on one, that's all flexible now.

Thanks very much, and I look forward to pulling this all together over the next six months or so!

--Tif
(P.S. Sorry if the formatting of the agenda is a little squirrely.)

Draft Agenda for IWCA Pre Conference Workshop

Before the workshop, participants will be sent a survey of their motivations for engaging in community outreach.

Workshop Packets will include:

• Project profiles of each facilitator
• Name/Institution/Contact Info
• Brief Description of Community Outreach project
• Brief description of how funding has been secured
• Bibliography of scholarly research
• Handouts/Worksheets for
• Asset analysis
• Ethics of working with community
• Results of motivation survey
• Criteria for determining mutual benefits
• Strategies for negotiating within institutions
• Action plan worksheets

Agenda (based on 4 hours right now, asking for 6 hours)

1. Welcome (10 minutes)—Tif
1. Funding Spiel
   i. This is not about funding
   ii. “Revolution will not be funded.”
   iii. There’s always money—not a formula to get it
   

2. Introductions of facilitators (2-ish minutes each, 15 minutes total)
1. What’s my program?
2. Reference Project Profiles—specifically funding
   
   
   
3. Overview of scholarly research and current outreach programs (10 minutes)—(Team: Jennifer, Melissa T. and Teresa)
   
   
   
4. Asset Analysis (1 hour)
1. Introduction to strategies (10 minutes)—Tif
2. Break into groups based on geographic region (50 minutes)
   i. One/two facilitator(s) per group
   ii. Begin conducting asset analysis (will need to be finished with partners in community/institution)
   

5. Break (10 minutes)
   
   
6. Ethics of Community Partnerships (1 hour)
1. Introduction to ethics (10 minutes) (Team: Thomas, Andrea and Melissa H.)
2. Break into small groups based on Institutional Type (two facilitators per group) (50 minutes)
   i. Discuss self-motivation for community outreach
   ii. Discuss potential of mutual beneficial outcomes
   iii. Transition to discussing institutional strategies (based on asset analysis, and mutually-beneficial outcomes)
   

7. Break (10 minutes)
   
   
8. Project Action Plans (1 hour)
1. Present types of projects (10 minutes)

i. (Team: Melissa T/Carol, Thomas/Eliana, Andrea/Melissa H.)

2. Break into small groups based on type of project (two facilitators for each) (50 minutes)
3. Work on action plan handouts for project type

9. Present action plans to each other and post on wall

feedback on second draft

I've read Tif's revised draft once, twice now, and I don't see anything to change! This proposal covers all our bases, as far as I can tell, and it's tightly written. I move to send it on!

Thanks for your hard work on this, especially at a busy time of year,

Melissa

Second Draft of Workshop Description

Hi everyone,

This draft isn't horrible, so it's probably a good place to get some real specific feedback about what you'd like to see changed. Thanks for taking the time to do this in these frantic weeks at the end of the semester. Also, any titles are also highly welcome.

Hope you have a good break!
Tiffany

"Title of Writing Center Outreach Workshop"

Writing centers are uniquely poised in higher education to provide flexible literacy and community-building opportunities to the neighborhoods and cities in which they reside. In fact, this workshop posits that higher education institutions—in particular, those that are publicly funded--have an obligation to be a “good neighbor” and make available alternative learning environments for people in the community. As the need for writing skills and abilities transcends traditional educational programs, writing center should be the first to explore how to be a “good neighbor.”

In this half-day workshop, participants will be introduced to writing centers that have reached out into their surrounding communities in multiple ways—some that have just started the process, others that have been in partnership for nearly a decade. Facilitators from universities and community colleges across the country will share their stories of challenging institutional assumptions of writing center work and the process of building mutually-beneficial partnerships with people and organizations outside of college/university boundaries.

Participants will be provided with an overview of established and newly-developing theories and research that ground such writing center outreach. We will examine strategies for assessing community and institutional assets/needs, community partnership ethics, negotiating institutional politics, generating opportunities for tutors to create innovative partnerships, and research possibilities.

After an initial orientation and discussion session, participants will break into small groups to analyze community and institutional assets in order to brainstorm potential community partnerships and institutional support for such outreach. Participants will then move through round table discussions focusing on different approaches to working within the community: service learning, community partnerships and community writing centers.

At the end of the workshop, participants will have a plan to begin exploring community outreach possibilities and/or strategies to interrogate and refine current outreach efforts. Participants will also have the option to join a writing center outreach network that will emerge from this workshop.

Why I Do Community Work

Hi Everyone, (If you haven't read the two posts below about the workshop abstract, please do that before reading this one. Otherwise, it will make no sense).

I've been thinking a lot about this question for the past 24 hours and had an epiphany when I woke up this morning. Well, rather than an epiphany, I finally remembered why I have been doing this work for the past decade. (It's sad that doing the actual work starts to cloud the reasons for it.) What follows is not very qualified or restrained, and not appropriate for academic discourse, but I'm hoping we're in a more brainstorming-focused level now.

Pure and simple, I think that institutions of higher education have an obligation to the communities they reside in to provide flexible opportunties for self-directed learning. And, I believe that writing centers are uniquely positioned to provide these opportunities.

I came to this realization at the University of Southern Califronia--a wealthy private university in the 'ghetto'--when I worked for a program that provided edcuational support to students in two surrounding junior high schools. USC felt obliged to be a good neighbor to their community. And, they're a private university, not receiving taxpayer funding.

My notion of higher ed having an obligation to the larger community, is only strengthened when talking about publicly-supported institutions. The national average for Bachelor's Degree attainment is 27%. Yet, 100% of the people are providing support to their colleges and universities. I'm not saying that the other 73% do not benefit from the traditional education that higher ed provides to members of the community--they do in the many ways that education provides an infrastructure for community growth and services.

However, a public institution is a part of the community and, therefore, should be flexible, to a reasonable extent, in providing options for ALL community members to improve their knowledge and skills.

Now, why writing centers? I see writing centers as one of the most flexible and innovative 'institutions' within the larger higher education system, and thus, they can respond to community educational needs with dynamic responses. Also, equally important, writing is a skill, knowlege, need, etc. that all (or nearly all) people encounter. Not everyone needs to know how to code the human genome, or fix air conditioners or understand the physiology of a flower. These are academic and vocational pursuits that universities and colleges house within their traditional programs.

But, the need for writing abilities transcends traditional programs.

So, does the obligation of the university/college fall on the Writing Center's shoulders? To me, yes and no. I think that the writing center is uniquely poised to provide opportunities to the community, but finanically, it is the university/college that should be held responsible. It is their obligation and the writing center can be a vehicle for it to occur.

Financial support for such work will always be a miniscule amount of the institution's budget, but the payoff in terms of public appreciation and institutional image is huge. The CWC's budget accounts for only 0.14% of SLCC's E & G (state appropriated) budget, only a bit more than a tenth of one percent. But, we reap huge rewards for the college as they can point to our work as truly dedicated to the community that we belong to.

Now, I don't know how to turn this into a 'hook' for our abstract, but does it give any of you ideas?

Thanks for listening,
Tif

Abstract Draft

OK, raise your hand if you think that Tiffany's being too hard on herself about that abstract. (ME!!) It's a terrific start! The first go-at-it is always hardest, as we all know, and I think the main pieces we need are here.

Right now my only "bigger" suggestion is that we make the first sentence or two more exciting. The typical writing center is pulled in multiple directions, lured by so many possibilities for "reaching out" right on their own campuses. Why would a center want to think about reaching out to the community -- what are the potential payoffs? I am not suggesting that we can answer that question in this abstract, let alone in the first couple sentences. But maybe we can liven things up so a reader thinks, Wow, I can do that! I want to do that!

Having made that suggestion, I'll now say that I myself can't think of the exact words to achieve that kind of opening. Not at the moment anyhow. What do others think?

Melissa

PS: Great job starting us off, Tif -- truly! I think the main thing the rest of the abstract needs is a little polishing.