conference details

[Catherine Rudin/HU/AC/WSC]

Just a few little practicalities for those of you attending the Siouan and
Caddoan conference:

1.  Parking.
Parking on campus will be free, but you need a guest permit.  I've got a
bunch of these and would be happy to send one to anyone who gives me their
mailing address.  (Alternatively you can just pick one up when you get
here.  I'll leave some at the motel and dorm front desks, and will have
some in the meeting room.)

The lot where this permit allows you to park is across campus from the dorm
and conference building.  Not too far -- about 2 or 3 city blocks -- but if
walking this far is going to be a big problem for anyone, let me know.

2.   Maps/locations
I've also got some campus maps -- like the permits, I could send them out
if you want one ahead of time.   You can also find a campus map on the web
-- http://www.wsc.edu/about_campus/map/front.htm

"The Dorm" is Neihardt Hall (named after WSC alumnus John G. Neihardt, of
"Black Elk Speaks" fame).  It's the first building on the left as you turn
in at the main entrance to the college (turning into J.G.Lewis Drive off
Main St).

Paper sessions will be in Humanities Building (3rd building on the right as
you come in that same entrance), room 319.

For early arrivals ...  pre-conference extremely informal party is at 915
Logan St.  (1 block south of campus.  Logan is parallel to Main St., one
block east.)   375-4316.   Thursday evening 7:00 on.   If you show up
before 7 we'll put you to work chopping veggies or something; feel free.

3.  Housing
Just a nudge...  make your reservations soon if you haven't done so.  The
motel block is held for us only till the 27th.  I don't know of any big
events that should fill up the motels, but in a 3-motel town it doesn't
take much.  One wedding could do it.  The dorms also fill up with summer
sports camps and such...

Forgive me, I can't help myself.  I ran across this in a novel:
      "When April with its sweet showers has pierced the drought of March
to the root, and bathed every vein of earth with that liquid by whose power
the flowers are engendered; when the zephyr, too, with its dulcet breath,
has breathed life into the tender new shoots [...], then, as the poet
Geoffrey Chaucer observed many years ago, folk long to go on pilgrimages.
Only, these days, professional people call them conferences.
      The modern conference resembles the pilgrimage of medieval
Christendom in that it allows the participants to indulge themselves in all
the pleasures and diversions of travel while appearing to be austerely bent
on self-improvement.  To be sure, there are certain penitential exercises
to be performed -- the presentation of a paper, perhaps, and certainly
listening to the papers of others.  But with this excuse you journey to new
and interesting places, meet new and interesting people, and form new and
interesting relationships with them [...] eat, drink and make merry in
their company every evening; and yet, at the end of it all, return home
with an enhanced reputation for seriousness of mind. "
A free WSC pencil to anyone who can identify the author.
(Of course, Siouanists ARE serious-minded, and the "pleasures and
diversions" to be had in Wayne will consist mostly of listening to each
others' papers...  :)