Conference Planning for the Author Society: A Roundtable Discussion
(Friday, 23 Oct., 4:00-5:15 p.m.)

1. Beth L. Lueck, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, chair, “Planning an International Conference on a Shoestring Budget”

2. Brigitte Bailey, University of New Hampshire, “Framing Conference Questions,
Developing Programs, and Collaborating with Other Organizations”

3. Lucinda Damon-Bach, Salem State College, “From the Ground, Up: Five Conferences in Ten Years for Sedgwick and Her Contemporaries”

This roundtable will offer officers of other author societies, as well as any conference participant, information about how to plan a small to mid-sized conference. The three participants listed above all have experience in conference organization, from small conferences (several dozen participants) to mid-sized (75 to 80), from regional to international conferences. During the planning of the international conference Transatlantic Women: 19th-C. American Women Writers in Great Britain, Ireland, and Europe, the organizers remarked numerous times that the planning would have been easier if we had had the benefit of other author societies’ experience. While everyone we asked for advice gladly gave it, we still sometimes felt as if we were “reinventing the wheel.” For this roundtable, Brigitte Bailey, President of the Margaret Fuller Society, brings her experience working on conferences with the Fuller Society and writing the CFP and organizing the program for Transatlantic Women; she will also discuss collaborating with other organizations. Lucinda Damon-Bach, President of the Catharine Maria Sedgwick Society, offers her experience planning smaller conferences that offer opportunities to present on a range of authors and topics. Beth Lueck directed Transatlantic Women and will offer tips on planning an international conference and dealing with contracts, both domestic and international.