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October 2011

President's Report

Let me start by thanking Ruth Beattie, now the Past President of ABLE, for her commitment to and leadership of our organization for the past two years.

Our 2011 ABLE conference hosts, Ralph Preszler, Any Marion, and Lina Urquidi were tested by fires (literally), both near and far, yet were unfazed. We had a wonderful meeting at New Mexico State University with 157 registered participants. Above and beyond the ABLE standards of 18 major workshops, 24 mini workshops, and 15 poster presentations, our hosts arranged some remarkable local field trips before, during and after the conference. The evening trip to White Sands National Monument, the Hayden-McNeil/Freeman Reception with mariachi band and pinata, a closing banquet with entertainment by guitar and flamenco dancers, visits to the Las Cruces Farmers Market and Old Mesilla, an all day trip to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and a Sunday bird-watching excursion made this conference unique and very special. On behalf of the ABLE membership, my sincere thanks to Ralph, Amy and Lina for a very memorable meeting.

This past year marked the first exclusively on-line publication of the Proceedings in Volume 32. This occurred so smoothly that you may not have noticed the change. None of this would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our Proceedings Senior Editor, Karen McMahon and her editorial associates, Dan Johnson who performed the Proceedings page layout formatting and last but not least, Mark Walvoord and Chris Beck who expertly manage our website and created our Proceedings website interface.

Congratulations and welcome to our newly elected officers:

• Alec Motten, Treasurer
• Isabelle Barrette-Ng, Member-at-Large

ABLE membership continues to grow and we now have more than 400 members. It is my desire that we continue to actively seek new members, particularly among colleagues at west coast colleges and universities, postdoctoral scholars whose interests are in both teaching and research, and under-represented minorities. Part of that recruitment effort has been a redefinition of Institutional Membership. An educational institution (one campus) may now join ABLE for $200 per year that will provide their employees (faculty and staff) and students full access to our on-line proceedings as well as member-registration rates for our annual conference. Being an individual ABLE member still has the added benefits of voting rights and access to our member directory, but this redefinition of Institutional Membership may increase access for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who are our future members.

The 2012 ABLE Conference will be held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, June 19-22, hosted by Barbara Stegenga, Dan Johnson, and Alec Motten. Check the ABLE website for conference information and registration details. I look forward to seeing old friends and many new members in 2012.

Last but not least, I want to thank all of the Board members, elected and appointed, for their tireless work on behalf of ABLE. Unlike most organizations, we have no permanent staff, so we depend on our members to pitch-in and provide the leadership and hard work that makes ABLE possible.

Larry Blumer, Morehouse College

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