Good evening my friends,

I am sitting on my porch enjoying this beautiful early summer evening and thinking that exactly 8 weeks from now–Sunday, August 3rd–I will be downtown at the Regency Hotel and beginning to welcome my colleagues to INANE 2014! It is hard to believe that after three years of planning, the conference is only 2 months away!

While I know I will have millions of details to take care of between now and then, overall, the conference (planning, registration, and everything else) is in great shape. I am hoping for an event that meets and exceeds everyone’s expectations.

As of this minute, there are 136 people registered for the conference. There are lots of familiar names on the list as well as quite a few newcomers (who won’t be new for long!) but I also know of folks who will not be able to attend, due to travel, family obligations, or other schedule conflicts.

Which brings me to the point of this post–call for live bloggers! If you recall, when we started this blog back in September, one of the intents was to have a cadre of live bloggers who would be posting regular updates from the conference. Last fall (nine months ago), “live blogging” was a vague idea. Now it is time to make it a reality!

If you are interested in participating, send me a message via the Feedback Form. If you are intrigued but want more information–basically, this is a way to communicate what is going on at INANE 2014 to our friends and colleagues who aren’t able to join us in Portland. Live blogging–or reporting–would be via this blog. Posts can be short and frequent. The more live bloggers we have, the more updates we can have each day of the conference. Live bloggers can share their impressions of the sessions they attend, the meals, sights in Portland, friendliness of the hotel staff–really, anything at all. The idea is to make those who are not at the conference feel like they are at the conference.

This blog (and website) are hosted on WordPress so if you are familiar with that platform, you are ready to be a live blogger. If you aren’t–it is easy to learn. You can post from email, a tablet, or a computer–the process is simple. Plus, if you volunteer now, you have two months to learn (and I will provide inservice education!).

Give us a hand!

INANE members are great at volunteering and helping out so I am counting on you once again to jump in and give us a hand. If you would be interested in posting updates from the conference, let me know via the Feedback Form and I’ll get you started!

Thanks in advance to everyone for your help. I look forward to hearing from you!

Leslie

for the Planning Committee: Peggy Chinn, Margaret Freda, Shawn Kennedy, Lisa Marshall, Jean Proehl and the memory of our friend Suzanne Smith.