What could be more pleasant than imagining yourself walking down the Boulevard de St.Germain-des-Prés in the company of your favorite WESS colleagues? Looking for a small bistro to duck into for lunch or dinner, stopping by bouquinistes along the Seine? Planning for the 2004 international conference: Migrations in Society, Culture, and the Library: WESS European Conference, Paris 2004 has hit the ground running. We have a fully staffed Planning Committee hailing from both sides of the Atlantic, a number of subcommittees, list-servs and, of course, a full-fledged website: see http://milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/germrom/wess/wess2004.html
A preliminary budget will be submitted to ACRL before Midwinter. The dream is becoming a reality as we speak. Stay tuned!
Here some subcommittee reports:
Local Arrangements:
The WESS 2004 Local Arrangements Subcommittee has been busy making contacts in the French library and book trade worlds, making inquiries about ancillary logistical support (interpretation services, block lodging, local collective transportation, etc.), and venues that are hopefully compliant with the French equivalent of the Americans with Disability Act. We need to supply cost estimates for the provisional budget. But we haven’t forgotten the first duty of planning committees: organizing the WESS cruise. So we’ve sent out feelers to bateaux mouches operators on the Seine. (Jeffry Larson)
Program
Based on the general conference theme & title provided, the program committee created a bilingual flyer announcing the conference and outlining the theme in slightly more detail. This flyer was distributed via email to all members of the committee for use in searching for partners and contributors. It received its first airing at IFLA, where Diane D'Almeida,
Shari Grove and Sarah Wenzel distributed the flyer to IFLA attendees and made some initial contacts with European and Canadian librarians. Twenty flyers were left in the literature racks and all but one were taken by the end of the conference. (Sarah Wenzel)
Publicity
We have started to gather information about the potential costs of publicity and are individually collecting our thoughts. Thanks to committee members Tom Kilton and Caroline Szylowicz at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign, we will have access to a talented designer for brochures, flyers and programs. We will make sure the whole library world knows about this magnificent event. (Helene Baumann)
Fundraising
Conferences cost money, especially conferences in a foreign metropolis. Speakers of quality appreciate more than a pourboire for their appearances, suitable meeting space must be secured and paid for, and publicity and conference materials that reflect well upon the sponsoring organization also do not come cheaply. What partners can we find to share in the expense of WESS's European conference? A WEC fundraising subcommittee has been formed and is already reaching out to prospective partners, mainly among government bodies, NGOs, and foundations. These initial contacts have been very encouraging. A transatlantic encounter that will strengthen ties and promote greater exchange across the Atlantic is attractive to many of them. Cooperation with these sponsors will help defray conference expenses and keep the cost of participation affordable. (Jeff Garrett)