Secretary Fail and Intellectual Community

Happy New Week, EGSA!
I am so sorry I did not send the Digest on Friday, especially because I had a simply fabulous announcement from our very own Mandy

Nydegger to include. She has a wonderful idea about cultivating intellectual community. I’ll let you read her invitation (below), but if you need any proof that this is a good idea, check out this article on how great ideas happen: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=130595037&ft=1&f=1032

All the best, Bethany

FROM MANDY: Hi, Friends.

Remember a year minus 2 months ago when I e-mailed you all and invited you to join in an exercise of Intellectual Community? Well, several people have brought to my attention that it’s about darn time to resurrect intellectual community in the form of a good old fashioned paper exchange.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about (and yet have somehow miraculously read this far), I would like to propose that anyone who is interested gather together on Wednesday, October 27 from 4-6:30pm. (Not a great time—I get that.) I would like for us to bring 2 papers we would like to (or should have already but haven’t) published. This get-together isn’t the place for brainstorming, half drafts, or ambiguous feelings…I’m talking about papers you feel good about and that you want to publish ASAP.

I propose exchanging papers and reading someone else’s work while snacking on whatever confections I can dream up or others volunteer to provide. We would spend time reading, making comments, and then briefly talking about the essays. Then, we would switch again and do the second essay—reading or being read by a different person than the first time, provided we have time. As I said the last go round, I’ve learned that feedback is invaluable, even if you are not super familiar with the content you are reading about.

I realize that we could do this without being together, but I think this is a fun way to add the Community to the Intellectual. Plus, it will be a way to be accountable (“Have you submitted that paper for publication yet?!”), and it will be fun to celebrate when our papers are published (“I just found out I got that paper published you helped me with!” “YAY!!!”).

I know that Wednesday semi-evening is not the best time for, well, anyone. But hey, that’s what I’ve got right now. I propose meeting in the 4th floor lounge at a little before 4 and getting right to work so we can make the best of our time. If you can see past the awful timing and are still willing to come, please let me know by Friday, October 22 so I can plan on making snacks accordingly. Also, if anyone is willing to not only come but to bring nourishment of some kind, please let me know that, too.

So, friends and fellow writers, let’s do this together: Intellectual Community or Bust!

Hopefully I’ll see some of you on the 27th! Mandy