A Public Service Announcement! ;)

A Public Service Announcement! ;)

Friday, June 06, 2008

NCTE Lows and Highs

Today I received an e-mail from NCTE telling me I did not garner enough votes to be elected to the Secondary Nominating Committee. To make the news more official, a letter restating this failure is on the way to me via parcel post.

I didn't exactly campaign for the nomination -- I don't think I even mentioned it on ENSANEWORLD -- and though I was honored that someone thought enough of me to at least nominate me for consideration, I admit I was always a little nebulous on what the responsibilities of the position would entail.

It did require freeing up some time at the national convention in November. Though I'm saddened not to have gotten the nomination, it might work out for the best anyway. Currently, I'm scheduled to be at 3 different NCTE sessions as a presenter or group leader of some kind, so garnering the nomination might have meant dropping out of something. I'll be busy enough in San Antonio, it looks like, so no need to be too sad.

As well, in addition to being a speaker at NHCTE in Manchester this past April, I'm on tap to speak at NCTE state affiliate conferences in Iowa (which I've previously announced), Oregon, and my homestate of North Carolina. I'm excited about all three of these engagements, though being the keynote speaker for the NC branch, in the state where I was born, raised, and taught middle and high school and community college, is a special delight.


On top of that, I've got an article forthcoming in a volume of The ALAN Review that I'm excited about, and apparently so are the editors, who have told me the piece is of "feature article" quality. On top of all this, I just sent a project proposal to NCTE that may turn into something very major, and I've got another NCTE-related big event being planned sometime in September, but I probably can't speak too much about that now, except to say it will be web-based.

So, all in all, it always stings a little to be rejected, but in the karmic scheme of things, if I have to accept a small bit of negative news so that I can focus on and maybe see to fruition other future successes with NCTE, I guess that's fine by me. I'm sure the person nominated will do a great job. I wish him or her success.

2 comments:

Sharon Pajka,Ph.D. said...

I completely understand the feeling. I submitted a proposal to one of the International Reading Association's regional conferences; then, I discovered a conference that same week specifically for research focusing on Deaf Adolescents (my research interest). My presentation was accepted for the Deaf Education conference and as prepared to withdraw my IRA proposal I discovered that my proposal was already rejected. It stung a little (even though I have been accepted to two other IRA conferences). I guess it happens to the best of us:)

Bucky C. said...

Thanks for the empathy. Say, maybe the next time IRA rolls around we can put together a panel featuring folks from the project we've got going.... Something to think about!