Behind the Scenes: DU Writing Program Roles at the WPA
Carol Samson

Background/Administrative Tasks: Doug Hesse, director the the DU Writing Program, and Amy Kho, his assistant, set the plan for our WPA conference early on, in December 2006. They wrote a 26-page proposal to hold the Conference in Denver in July 2008. Awarded the task in February 2007, during the first year of our Marsico Writing Initiative, they had to research venues and evening events, workshop spaces and seminar rooms. They looked at eight major spaces in the Denver area, selecting the Grand Hyatt Hotel, a central site with fine rooms, excellent cuisine, and a 38th floor panoramic view of the city and the mountains.

Doug, along with Amy and Eliana Schonberg, director of the Writing Center, ran the conference and manned the Registration Desk along with DU Lecturers: Blake Sanz, Jeff Ludwig, Linda Tate, Rebekah Shultz-Colby, Heather Martin, Carol Samson, Geoffrey Bateman, Geoff Stacks, Mindy Williams, David Daniels, and Richard Colby. At the dinner on Saturday night, Doug was recognized for holding an organized and informative conference. He, in turn, asked Amy and Eliana and the Lecturers to stand and be recognized. These people are responsible for the success of the program, he told the assembled group.

When asked about her experience at the conference, Amy said that, for her, the most peculiar experience was to study and to know a delegate by their typed name on a registration list and not to know them when she encountered them in person. On paper she knew their backgrounds, their points of campus origin, and even their academic specialties. She could converse about them in the abstract. When she met them, her mind brought up the printed matter which she applied it to the human standing in front of her like a label or a tag. Amy did the lions share of the work hosting the conference, meeting needs of participants and hotel and Writing Program volunteers. She answered questions about the room and equipment, set up projectors, organized transportation to Red Rocks for films and to Elitchs for amusement park festivities, found refreshments at breaks for the Lecturer volunteers, and took tickets at meals. She was the center of the storm. In looking back at the event, Amy said that she enjoyed it, even with the problems of equipment that would not work, and that she appreciated the Thank you she received in many a banquet introduction when she was recognized for all that she had done.

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