Some more thoughts on GALA and BWLG

[Alice Freed]

     I would like to make a few quick (and not carefully composed)
comments in response to the last few postings on GALA. Some of
these are directed to individuals and some to everyone. This does
not respond to the more substantive questions raised by Mary but
reflects a few thoughts that I have.

     To Kira -- when experiences are positive and rewarding as
organizing the BWL conferences were for you -- we can ask for
nothing more! I just happen to know several people who have
described running conferences as one of the hardest and most
overwhelming of all academic experiences. I never meant to
suggest that graduate students should be prevented from playing a
significant role in GALA activities. I was feeling rather more
protective than anything. Having said that, I agree with Mary and
think there is value in having both new-to-the-field as well as
old-to-the-field voices joined together; what is crucial, it
seems to me, is that the people involved be individuals who are
doing (or have done) some sort of work in gender and language.

     To Mary, Suzanne and everyone: Are we necessarily wedded to
having a conference in the spring of 2000 instead of the fall? It
seems like short notice to pull this off regardless of how we
decide to move ahead. I haven't checked the specifics but the
dates for many of the year 2000 conferences are posted and we
might want to look and assure ourselves that there isn't too much
overlap between what we are planning and what has already been
arranged. (For example, AAAL is in Vancouver next March.
"Language and Gender" is mentioned in the call I believe.) And
assuming that the conference is in the US, do we necessarily have
to keep the conference on the west coast? I for one would like to
see the location shift the way the LSA and AAAL and other
conferences shift from east to west to central locations of the
US.

     Finally, since, as Kira suggests, it *is* possible that
students at Berkeley will want to revive BWLG in a few years
(these things often go in cycles), is there a downside to taking
all of their records and lists? Certainly the resources are of
tremendous value to GALA but what about any future for BWLG?

     Alice