Indigenous Thinkers

FYI

I thought you all might want to know what a chair does for a panel at a conference. Sara gives us a great outline. This is the second year I have volunteered to chair a panel. The main benefit I get is reading or listening to all the different papers and meeting new people. Much like our class with Demmert, we get experience a glimpse into the academic pool of the indigenous thinkers.

Hopefully, we’ll all be attending this great conference arena, together.

Have a safe and wonder filled Holiday break.

Depree

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From: Sara Sutler-Cohen [mailto:saraksgirl@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 2:34 PM
To: Sara Sutler-Cohen
Subject: PCAACA Panel Chair Responsibilities

Hi Folks,

First off, thank you so much for offering to Chair these panels. We have a huge attendance this year and the help is much appreciated. The following are the responsibilities for Chairing the panels and I've also included suggestions for what has worked in the past for myself and other Chairs.

1) Introductions - soon you will get an email from me with bios and abstracts for your presenters. Not everyone has sent in a bio, so if you're missing any please let your presenters know they need to send them in. There are a couple of ways to do this. You can either introduce people one at a time or all at once. Introduce their names, institutional affiliation and paper title. You can include something from their bio where appropriate (no novellas, but if there's something interesting, include it!).

2) TIMEKEEPING - this is perhaps on e of the more mundane and important things youre responsible for. Folks going over time take away both from other presenters as well as any discussion time at the end and it makes for an uncomfortable experience for everyone. Please let your presenters know exactly how much time they'll have in an email before the conference. Panels are 90 minutes long so if you have four people, they each have about 18 minutes to present (leaving 18 minutes at the end for discussion). Remind your presenters again at the beginning of the panel that you'll be keeping time and sit at the front with a piece of paper that says FIVE MINUTES and another that says TWO MINUTES in a Sharpie-pen scrawl. Give them a Five and Two minute warning and then politely cut them off if you have to. It stinks to do that, but you have to. If you have 3 presenters they'll have 20-25 minutes with 25-30 minutes at the end for discussion. Be VERY wary of going over 25 minut es as people tend to check out after that period of time. Many people go to several panels at a time and everyone starts to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher after awhile if you don't stop them. If you have 2 presenters (or 1 sometimes) the same applies. There's nothing wrong with closing the panel early; in fact, it can be quite pleasant!

3) Closing - I find that the best way to do this is to act as a moderator - tie in the dominant themes at the end and discuss how everyone's paper relates. Get some discussion questions ready to go to start the flow of discourse. You'll find that even academics can be quiet just like students and you often have to wake up the room. End by thanking everyone, etc.

4) PR! - The Native/Indigenous Studies Areas has become one of the largest in the SWTX PCAACA - so when you shut down the panel be sure to mention some of the panels that day and push the s pecial events as well. Be sure to invite people to come to the creative writing reading session and let folks know that it's open to anyone that wants to read their writing, regardless of area. It does have a Native experience theme, however, so it's important to keep that in mind.

5) Getting the papers - when I send you the abstracts and bios it's a good idea to solicit the full papers so you can do the best job you can as a moderator for that session. Keep in mind that some folks (myself included) go by rough draft or outline alone and may not have that ready until they land after writing it out on the plane. So just be sensitive to that.

That's all I can think of right now - if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm sure I"ve left something out...so you'll probably hear from me again.

Take Care and happy holidays!

Sara

“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
-- Paul Valery

Sara C. Sutler-Cohen, Ph.D.
www.sarasutlercohen.com

Editor-In-Chief, Native Realities
www.wordcraftcircle.org/natreal/index.htm

Area Chair, Native American Studies
SW/TX Regional PCAACA Annual Conferences