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“You Are Not Alone”
Context for Hope: |
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Academic Organization, Conferences and
[New?] Proceedings “You are not alone!” My daughter’s soccer coach calls out to the players on the field: “You are not alone!” This is neither purely supportive nor an existential assertion. This coach is trying to get the player with the ball to remember that she has teammates who can help. In higher education many of us are often pressed to make important decisions and complete significant work alone -- without the benefit of counsel or collaborators. Without anyone to share the burden of confusion, the challenge of difficult choices. Students, faculty members, and administrators need to believe they are not alone, and act accordingly. They need opportunities to connect with peers and make real friends whom they can rely on in difficult times. Many people return repeatedly to professional conferences not only for the new information and relevant gossip, but also for “connectedness” – for links with peers and colleagues who become friends.[1] Many return because for a few hours or a few days they can feel less alone. Presenting a paper, participating on a panel or a committee, may contribute to the profession, but these are also the tickets to renewing the ties that really mean something. Conferences that offer and sustain deeper connections have a special challenge when trying to be inclusive and welcoming to newcomers. One of the loneliest experiences of all is to arrive at an event for the first time and watch others laughing, and embracing. Each new person may feel that everyone _else_ knows everyone else. How can we help newcomers recognize that they are not alone? That they are not the only ones without great friends eagerly awaiting their return to this event? How can we provide a clear, comfortable path to becoming a contributing member of a particular event community? To developing more meaningful relations and deeper connections? How can we provide everyone with more realistic expectations and perceptions? With a clear understanding of the rewards for patience and persistence? A new version of conference proceedings may offer one possibility for extending further the usual variety of visible role options for constructive, continuing participation. We could consider structuring each conference to provide opportunities for ALL participants to collaborate on some projects – many of which cross usual institutional or disciplinary boundaries. New computing and telecommunications technologies offer the possibility of launching these collaborative projects before the annual conference, continuing work on them during the event, and finishing up in subsequent weeks or months. The final “products” could be publishable papers or works in other media suitable for sharing via the Web. I realize that the events that I will return to year after year are the ones where I feel most welcome, most comfortable, most understood; where I can be with people I like and admire; where I can help and contribute and feel valued; where I can be stimulated and challenged and soothed; where my mind can be changed, and I can change others; where I can often find commitment and compassion -- and occasionally wisdom and truth. I want to find and return to those places where many of us can say something like: “This is the place where I can be the way I’d like to be all the time.”[2] _______________________________________________ For additional related information and background, please see: The “FireCircle Website” at: http://www.tltgroup.org/firecircles/activepage.htm |
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