ELA Decompression

Well, ELA is over for another year and I thought I would decompress for a minute with some broader thoughts.

1. Everyone seemed to enjoy Louisville. I think it held up quite well for a conference city. I was a little surprised, but happily so. 
2. The General Sessions lacked a little umph this year. Most years I enjoy the generals more than the breakouts at ELA, but this year the opposite was true. Charles Rose was a big name, but dry speaker. Kevin Brady is the conference chair next year, so I'll be sure to send him some names - and you can too if you are an ELA attendee. He should bring some fresh ideas.
3. The breakouts were pretty good this year. I enjoyed several of them and learned a good deal. I do still hold the position that this one was the best session I attended. 
4. I got a wealth of new responsibilities this year. I am the new Chair of the Technology Committee for ELA. Not really sure what that means outside of planning a few webinars, but I'm looking forward to seeing how ELA can expand. I look forward to working with David Doty (@canyonsdave) on these issues. David is also in line to be President of ELA in a couple years, so congratulations (there is not a better person to integrate some tech. in the organization than him - he is a very impressive fellow).
5. Cate Smith, the new executive director, did well in her first conference. I think everyone has a quiet confidence in her. ELA's staff, though, Jody and Judy, were perhaps even more impressive as a lot of planning for this event probably fell to them during the transition. 
6. There were a LOT of students there this year. I was so pleased to see that. It really speaks well for ELA's future. We need to find a way to continue to encourage student participation. Maybe reserving a few additional sessions for students to present or bringing back some student only oriented activities. Anyway, encouraging signs.
7. I'm looking forward to the leadership of Brad Colwell. Brad and I go way back, and he is more than a competent leader. We chatted a little and he even entertained the idea of making the School Law Reporter public. That's the kind of outside the box thinking that will take ELA to new places. Plus, a little SIU representing ... and that always pleases me.
8. Vancouver next year. That could be painful for the organization, but at least it will be beautiful.

In sum, I am excited about the future of ELA. There have been times in the past few years when I questioned whether ELA could reinvent itself for the next generation, but I think the changes of the past year and the events of this conference have answered a lot of those questions for me. Now, though, the challenge is to move past the potential of new leadership toward real, lasting changes. It is not going to be easy, but it can be done and I think there are a core group of people interested in pursuing that objective.