My JACET Convention Steering Committee duty / 大学英語教育学会大会運営委員会のお仕事

In February, I was nominated and accepted as a member of the Annual Convention Steering Committee for JACET, the Japan Association of College English Teachers, starting my first ever gig as an actively contributing member of an academic association.

This is unpaid, but has been a good experience for the past six months, a good chance to see the inner workings of academic conferences and to meet many other college educators outside my own university. Some of the leaders of my committee put in huge numbers of volunteer hours to make everything work. They have my deepest respect for all they do; it takes a lot of volunteers to put a convention together.

I'm still not sure of all of the responsibilities that will be coming up, but basically, what this has entailed so far is 1) attending a monthly meeting to discuss and decide on matters for preparing the annual convention coming up in early September, 2) helping with the drafting, revising and proofreading convention documents such as the online schedule or paper booklet with the conference presentation listings. At the convention, I'll also have a shift behind the registration desk and possibly help out with taking care of some of the plenary speakers unfamiliar with getting around in Japan.

Being part of the committee has made me look at academic conferences I attend with a new perspective. I notice what online tools are used, how feedback on proposals is given, how arrangements are communicated to presenters and participants...all those details. I also have started to think critically about the whole time/money value of going to a convention to listen to presentations that may or may not be worth your while.

I'm hoping I can continue to make a solid contribution at JACET this year and, after I get a bit more familiar with things, come up with some good ideas to help streamline some of the more time-consuming procedures and make the annual event maximize ease and take-aways.

Ideally, conferences should become more "blended" with a mix of online/offline interaction. Presenters should do a bit more work in advance to post their papers and PowerPoint slides and possibly a video of their presentations to communicate their main points, and people who find common interests should start the discussion online with Q&A and meet at the convention location at certain time slots to do more indepth face-to-face discussions.