Yesterday I bounced around from person to person and fun event to fun event here at Cs, and the most pressing question is this: should I, someone who came to the conference mostly to see old friends from grad school and to recruit new graduate students to our program, someone who is not on the Cs program, register for the conference? Registration for NCTE members (I am a member, btw) is $100.
I know it's probably my association duty to register, and Collin kept telling me yesterday that I would get my 'CCCC license' revoked. But I ask you, is it worth it to pay $100. for a name tag and a program? Before you answer, consider this: my position at Illinois is half in Communication and half in English, which pretty much doubles my big corporate conference requirements. This year I've already presented at National Communication Association's conference--the most corporate, and expensive, of all. I also presented at MLA, and I'm attending the Aphthonius seminar at the Rhetoric Society of America meeting in May. I just became a life member of RSA, which I'm happy about (it will pay for itself by my next promotion, since life membership includes conference registration and membership dues for life), but which took a big chunk out of my tiny research account. When I'm tenured next year, my allowed conference trips will be reduced from 2 to 1, and so that tiny research account will no doubt dwindle even more quickly.
So I didn't register. One interesting effect of not dropping the Jefferson Franklin (dammit) on Cs--besides thwarting those nametag-searching eyes--is that I don't feel obligated to go to that many panels. This could be of course because I didn't get a program, and so don't know what cool stuff I'm missing. I admit to feeling a little weird without the tag, and the fact that I've changed jobs recently adds to identity confusion. People I know by sight basically scan my midsection where the tag should be hanging and say "now where did you end up?" Others, understandably confused by whether to call me Debra or Debbie, end up going for the common chummy denominator and calling me 'Deb,' which I really, really, can't stand. Long story about why. Yeah, yeah, next year I'll register.
