Reimagining CCCC in 2024: A Distributed Model
Dear CCCC Members and 2024 Presenters,
The CCCC Officers and Executive Committee have been working hard since CCCC 2023 and over the summer to reimagine what conferencing and professional engagement in rhetoric, composition, and writing studies might look like in 2024. We are writing now to provide some updates and information about CCCC-related opportunities for 2024.
From the time the global COVID pandemic was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2020, CCCC, like many other organizations, has been forced to quickly pivot and adapt, first with a canceled 2020 convention, then with virtual conventions in 2021 and 2022. This year, in 2023, we tried a hybrid model with an in-person convention in Chicago and online access through the Whova app. Although the past few years have been challenging, to be sure, they have also, in certain ways, been an opportunity to try out and learn from different approaches as we work to rethink CCCC for our current times.
We’ve learned from these experiences about the challenges and access concerns that come with the different modalities. We’ve reviewed data regarding the use of the online Whova platform in 2023, and we learned that only 3.5% of presenters submitted virtual content, and 1.8% of attendees viewed the virtual content for two hours or more. We also learned that the average cost per virtual attendee was more than $450, which is very clearly not sustainable given our current convention registration rates. In addition, we’ve been forced to reckon with how hybrid experiences are often unequal experiences for attendees across modalities. More broadly, we’ve been thinking through the benefits as well as the limitations of the different conferencing models we’ve tried so far, especially at a time when travel funding is decreasing at many postsecondary institutions and COVID continues. We further must weigh out the environmental consequences of in-person travel compared to video conferencing, both of which contribute to carbon emissions and require land and water resources. In truth, we must continue to work to develop sustainable and equitable approaches that will support the needs and demands of all of our diverse constituents with the relatively small cadre of volunteers who serve the organization and with our current budget model, which has been affected not only by the COVID pandemic, but perhaps more significantly, by broader issues impacting higher education across the country, as well.
So, this year, we’re trying something different. We are announcing a distributed, semi-synchronous hybrid model for CCCC 2024. Inspired by the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, which recommend multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression, we are developing a number of synchronous and asynchronous events and opportunities for multiple means of professional development, networking, learning, sharing, and engagement throughout the year:
- The CCCC 2024 Convention, which will take place in person, in Spokane, April 3–6, 2024; but also
- The CCCC 2024 Convention Companion Publication, which will include short papers and will be made available to all CCCC members on the Ingenta platform, with print-on-demand copies available for purchase, expected in June 2024. Submissions from those whose CCCC proposals have already been accepted and those who are unable to attend the in-person convention due to extenuating circumstances (e.g., those with health-related issues, including immunocompromised individuals, graduate students and contingent faculty who lack access to sufficient financial resources, international scholars for whom travel to the convention would pose great difficulty, individuals who opt not to attend the convention due to religious commitments, etc.) will be prioritized. The Call For Proposals for the CCCC 2024 Convention Companion Publication is forthcoming;
- A One-Day Virtual Institute to center on matters of concern to the membership (look out for the survey soon), to take place in Fall 2024. This fully virtual and synchronous event will leverage the strengths of online convenings and the community and access they provide, while creating opportunities for teachers and scholars to share their work;
- The formation of a Task Force for the Future of CCCC to help the Officers and the Executive Committee think through groundbreaking, paradigm-busting approaches to creating a sustainable, inclusive, and accessible conference and professional organization. This Task Force will be inviting member feedback to inform their recommendations.
In short, we are learning that the model of the large multi-day annual convention as a standalone professional experience (which has been in place for 75 years) must be reimagined if we are to serve as many teacher-scholars in the field as we can. Too much has changed about how people do their work: the modes and models in which we teach; funding available for professional support; employment structures and proportions that are accompanied with resources for travel; institutional variation in what is valued for the purposes of professional credit, and so on. CCCC has to adapt to meet these needs.
With all of this being said, we continue to believe in the value of a large in-person convention experience. We understand that conventions like CCCC provide unique opportunities to dedicate a few days to intensively connect, learn from, and collaborate with colleagues from across the country and across the discipline. For many of us, there’s nothing like being in the same space with a large group of members of your profession, especially for its energizing, generative possibilities, and its capacity for guiding our movement forward as a collective and as a disciplinary community. In addition, these events make possible our ability to support the members of our profession through advocacy, position statements, and additional professional development opportunities. At the same time, given the broader sociopolitical and economic contexts in which we are currently working, we believe that CCCC needs to look toward the creation of multiple opportunities for professional development, networking, and collaboration—some of which we may not have thought of yet.
We hope you will join us.