Dear EATAW colleagues,

 

We have put together a collection of the presentations, videos, images and tweets from EATAW 2011. These are available at: http://www.ul.ie/rwc/eataw2011/node/32. It will give you an opportunity to catch up on some of the presentations that you may have missed during the conference. It equally provides those who were unable to be with us with an opportunity to experience virtually some of the conference. A call for selected papers from the conference will be circulated shortly.

 

It was an absolute please to welcome you to Limerick. We look forward to seeing you at EATAW 2013.

 

Kind regards,

Íde

 

 

Dear EATAW colleagues,

We hope those who attended have all returned safely from the Limerick conference and that summer vacation is now the main activity for us all. Before we all get too deep into vacation mode, there are a few points we would like to communicate.

First, we would like to thank Íde and Lawrence and their amazing team for a splendid conference. Participants commented on how well-organised everything was, how effective the schedule was in terms of linking papers effectively, and the general high quality of the many sessions. The international character of the conference remained strong without losing the European focus and character that distinguish EATAW as a forum. We already look forward to the next conference and to EATAW listserv discussions. The Call for bids to host the June 2013 conference will appear on the EATAW listserv between now and September and full bids will be due in November, so please watch this space and start thinking if you would like to host the next EATAW conference!

One of the items on the conference agenda was the report from the EATAW Board during the general assembly. We will not give the detailed account here but will mention briefly some central items:
 
*The Board reported on membership issues and procedural aspects of membership. While membership information is available on the EATAW website, the assembly decided to go ahead with a proposed new membership database system to be designed for the association that will simplify the membership process and hopefully minimise confusion regarding membership status in future. Approximately 80 Euros were collected at the conference to be put toward funding the creation of this database. We are seeking a total of $200 (USD) to pay a Ukraine-based programmer to create this database. Further information on this project and methods of donating will be circulated on the listserv shortly.
*The Board also reported briefly on the moving of the EATAW organisation website and the annual cost involved in paying for the web-hosting of the site.
 
*Another point on the report was the representation of the EATAW Board (ex-officio) on the International Writing Centres Association (IWCA) Executive Board. The 2009-11 period on the IWCA-board has been characterised by confusion and it is only well into the second year that we begin to see what is expected and what can or should be done.
 
*The main part of the report and probably the most time-consuming of the Board’s activities these past two years was the establishment of EATAW’s online journal, the Journal of Academic Writing. The first issue will be published shortly and promises to be an exciting and important forum for scholarly exchange. Details of the journal will soon be circulated on the EATAW listserv.

As you all know, the biennial EATAW Conference is also where the next Board of the association is elected. The election process for 2011 was unproblematic and the nine candidates standing for the Board were elected. During the conference the new Board met twice to discuss the division of labour and the new offices and tasks. Before the presentation of the new Board, however, we would like to thank the out-going Board members who served from June 2009-June 2011:

John Harbord
Bojana Petric
Anne-Florence Dujardin
Ulrike Lange

All four colleagues have been integral to the work of the Board. John Harbord, a former chair and a Board member for many years, is no longer on the Board and we will sorely miss his incredible knowledge of the association and its work. John’s expertise has been invaluable to most of the discussion on the Board and we can only thank him for the work he has done for the organisation. Thank you John, we hope to see you on the list, in the journal, and at the next conference!

The election process also meant that we now have four new Board members among the nine members on the Board:

Roman Banzer (Treasurer)– new member, welcome!
Melanie Brinkschulte (Web secretary)
Kathleen Shine Cain – new member, welcome!
Jim Donohue
Lisa Ganobcsik-Williams (Journal Editor)
Magnus Gustafsson (Co-Chair and ex-Officio member to IWCA)
Stefanie Haacke (Secretary) – new member, welcome!
Halyna Kaluzhna (Membership Secretary)
Íde O’Sullivan (Co-Chair) – new member, welcome!

A few comments are called for regarding the offices of the new board. Lisa would like to devote her energies to the EATAW journal, and this demanding task in combination with her regular responsibilities at Coventry University, Centre for Academic Writing, makes it untenable to also continue as Chair. So, as the attentive reader will have noticed, we now have two Co-Chairs. The Board felt that the association faces too many potential new directions, challenges, and activities for one Chair and that the function of a Deputy Chair might not sufficiently reflect the responsibilities of the Co-Chair. The Board has decided that while both Co-Chairs will be responsible for leading EATAW as an organisation, Íde will focus her attention on ensuring the hosting of, and supporting the planning of, the EATAW 2013  conference, and Magnus will run the Board and its internal communication, communicate for the Board on the listserv, and take the lead on addressing additional issues that EATAW faces in the future.

For EATAW,
Magnus, Íde, and Lisa

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Magnus Gustafsson
Chalmers University of Technology
Department of Applied IT
Division for Language and Communication
SE-412 96 GÖTEBORG
+46 31 772 5815
+46 709 68 79 82
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