Today is the CNCH (Conference of Northern California Handweaver) Liaison Luncheon and Advisory Meeting. This also means that it’s the official unveiling of the CNCH 2010 conference. The conference brochures will be passed out to the Liaisons to take home to their guilds. But this year, in addition to the paper brochures, we will also be unveiling the new conference website. On this website, you’ll find all the information in the brochure and more. You will find galleries of teacher works and many other things that we just couldn’t fit into the brochure. Go ahead. Take a look through the website. We are all very excited.
This is the first year that I’ve been involved in the conference from something other than an attendee. I have to say, these ladies are amazing. The committee has been busily working away for over a year. Yes, a year. This means each conference takes over 18 months to plan and execute. These women worked tirelessly to create an exciting slate of teachers and classes, activities, and events. And with grace and respect for each person’s expertise.
These ladies also had the courage to make some significant changes. One of these exciting changes is to put the conference materials and registration online. This is how I became involved. With the help of all the ladies on the committee, Kris Peergand, and Suzanne Pedersen, I pulled together the conference pages on the official CNCH website.
Who’s Kris? She is one of the driving forces behind the rebuild of the CNCH website. Take a cruise through the rest of the site while you are there and see the amazing changes she has made. The website is clean, easy to navigate, and makes use of the available technology to allow all the member guilds to update their own areas.
Suzanne has graciously and openly shared all her experiences with the online registration process with me. She has been a wonderful resource for all my questions. She guided me through the selection process of the online registration software. We’ll see how well I followed her advice when the registration opens on November 1st!
By the way, did I mention that this committee is an all volunteer organization? Yes, everyone worked on conference (including Kris for her work on the website) without monetary compensation. Why? Because they have a passion for textiles and want to share that passion with all of you. That’s the compensation, the reward: sharing the passion.
I am proud to be part of all of this. Thank you, Nancy and Kathy, for inviting me along for this amazing ride!