NEWACC Meeting Minutes – June 17 1:00-2:15
Quinnipiac University, North Campus, 370 Basset Road, North Haven CT, 06473
Room: MNH 138
Present: Laurie Britt-Smith, Michelle Cox, Jeffery Saerys-Foy, Haivan Hoang
Although a small group, we had a very good discussion. During the course of the conference, the conversation continued as more NEWACC members gave feedback to the question of what they would like to see NEWACC do in the future and also what a partnership with AWAC would look like.
1. Quinnipiac University Writing in the Workplace Research Survey/Study – Updates and Invitation (Paul Pasquaretta & Jeff Saerys-Foy).
The second round of data has results that are of interest to all. Highlights include the fact that almost all employers report that writing is highly important to the jobs they offer, but that they do not spend much time on training. Most of them ranked their new employees as only being moderately prepared for the writing tasks they ask them to complete.
Also, a shocking number indicate that the only document they read to judge a candidates writing skill prior to hiring is the cover letter and resume AND how well they communicate via e-mail – which is a weakness for students who communicate mostly by text or consider e-mail to be “old fashioned” or like a verbal phone call.
Five institutions have indicated an interest in joining the project and Jeff is looking for more partners. Your data will be included in the aggregate, but can be broken out for your purposes. Jeff will be happy to answer any questions about the survey they use and how they can use the base questions plus customize it to your interests. He would like to have those interested signed onto the project by the next NEWACC meeting, and would like data collection to occur by the end of 2019. The goal is to publish this work. Contact Jeff at Jeffrey.Saerys-Foy@quinnipiac.edu
2. Gathering ideas on building faculty coalitions and collaborations.
After making a long list of possibilities, we realized that this should be a workshop for our next meeting. Another thought is that we need to create some kind of space where these ideas can be collected and shared. Perhaps this can be the next project now that the map project is complete.
3. Discussion about NEWACC partnering with AWAC.
Michele Cox gave a brief overview of how AWAC came into existence and where it stands now. We need to be able to articulate why NEWACC members should be interested in joining AWAC, and what the relationship between a local organization might have with a national umbrella organization like AWAC. Specific questions include:
This is a longer discussion and is worth taking up at later meeting, or having an online discussion about over the list. Slides from the presentation given at the conference about the formation of the organization and next steps can be found at tinyurl.com/AWACatQU
4. NEWACC Business: Vice Chair position.
Heather Falconer at Curry College has indicated an interest in stepping into this role. Thank you Heather!
Michael Cripps has long served as our webmaster. He is willing to continue, but if anyone else is interested, he is also willing to pass this along.
We will set a next possible NEWACC meeting site (Fall 2019). The Spring 2020 meeting will be at NEWCA 2020, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, Saturday, April 4.
*** NEWCA Announcement: NEWCA's Inaugural Writing Center Administrators' Retreat has been postponed from July 2019 to June 2020, due to unexpected health-related issues among a few members of the planning committee. Please stay tuned to the website and our social media for the retreat dates/details.