On Thursday, September 26, Jennifer Tannous of the Central Bucks High School Writing Center in Pennsylvania hosted a Roundtable with assistance from Kelly Crespo of the Downey High School Writing Center in California.
The session began with introductions and then quickly segued into the carefully curated documents put together by Jennifer Tannous, who used her own experiences along with experiences and advice from several prominent board members. These materials can be found here:
Template letter for funding (with 2025 info)
Sneak peak of conference hotel block ($145/night 2 Queen Beds and 1 sofa bed)
Resources for Conference Proposals
One of the attendees was Anna Kirker, a student from a high school looking to start a writing center, which was very motivating as this young person was a part of data gathering for not only conference attendance but to start up the actual program. They asked a number of important and insightful questions, which led to a discussion about emerging centers attending and potentially presenting at the conference, leading into information about the Jenson-Hutton Grant for Emerging Centers.
We also discussed motivating and inspiring stories of student attendees and the move from attending the conference to presenting at the conference. Both Jennifer Tannous and Jenny Goransson were able to relay experiences that emphasized that though bringing students to conferences took time, effort, and planning, it was ultimately worth it and they really felt that the camaraderie and rapport within their programs benefitted greatly. For example, Jennifer told a story about her tutors’ organic debriefing session after the Boston conference last year, where they wanted to stay up late and talk with her about all they’d learned and how they could bring it back to their program at Central Bucks. This anecdote was particularly motivating and an excellent example of how a director’s labor to figure out travel for their students can absolutely be worth it.
The conversation then shifted to Jenny Goransson answering some questions about the types of presentations and the amount of presenters at previous conferences. It was estimated that SSWCA 2024 had about 30 presentations and about 200 in-person attendees and about 80 online attendees. Because this is the organization’s first conference further west, it is hard to predict what the breakdown will be, but Jenny was positive and encouraging about a new center using the conference as a way to legitimize the program in an administration’s eyes. She spoke about how sometimes it’s hard for new centers to define their work to administration who are unfamiliar with what writing centers do, but attending the SSWCA conference can place that new center within a community of schools doing this same work.
Reverting back to logistics, both Jen and Jenny stressed the importance of starting early in regards to finding funding, getting admin approval, and informing parents and students. There were discussions about the importance of communication before the conference and during the conference. It was suggested that something like the Remind app worked particularly well, especially if schools had policies against teachers and students having each other’s phone numbers.
Overall, the conversation was an honest look at the work involved with taking underage students to conferences. It was clear that each person’s experience would be different depending on their school, their kids, the parents, and the length of travel; however, the conversation consistently tied back to the incredible benefits that giving students this opportunity brings to participating writing centers. The unique experience for students to attend and present at an academic conference while still in high school or middle school is such an amazing resume-builder; however, the connection, rapport, and community built on a trip like this sounds absolutely irreplaceable.
We’d like to keep this conversation going asynchronously. Please use our Padlet to add questions, answers, concerns, and resources. We will check back weekly to answer questions and contribute more tips and tricks as SSWCA 2025 gets closer: https://padlet.com/kcrespo/director-roundtable-tips-and-tricks-for-conference-travel-eda0nk55etgn8rcn