Off to MARAC - Harrisburg

Tonight, I am making my way to Hershey, Pennsylvania (The Sweetest Place on Earth!) in advance of the Fall 2010 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC). At this meeting, I will be making a presentation to my colleagues, inviting them to the next meeting (which is the best meeting). I am serving as co-Chair of the Local Arrangements Committee for that meeting, which will be in Alexandria, VA in May 2011. If you're around, you should come.

I enjoy traveling to conferences. It is good to meet up with my friends and colleagues and hear what is going on in the profession. While I always attend sessions, for me, the most beneficial aspects of the meeting are the networking opportunities the meetings present. I will admit to having a problem staying awake in sessions at times, even in the most interesting of sessions. I don't know what it is, but put me in a chair and don't let me move for a while, and down I will go.

Some time ago, a blog I read, Marginal Revolution, written by the very astute Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University, posted a question from a reader, "Why do people ask questions at public events?"

The exact question was:

Does anybody have a theory about the length of questions during the Q&A sessions that follow lectures/talks? Is there a relationship between length of question and age, gender, status, place in queue? Why do some people make rambling statements disguised as "questions"? How can moderators avoid such abuse of the process (pleas to keep questions short don't seem to have any effect)?

Cowen's response made note of some use of Q&A sessions as satisfying a need to:

1. "make a public statement and show them" motive.
2. "somehow feel a need to void" motive.
3. "signal intelligence" motive.

I am not sure moderators wish to avoid "abuse" of the question and answer process. Perhaps the process is part of what draws people to the talk.

My favorite method for giving "talks" is to offer no formal material but to respond to pre-written questions, which are presented and read off as the "talk" proceeds.

I recently chaired a session at a MARAC meeting, where following the presentations, I took a microphone and walked around the audience to get the questions from the floor. I felt very much like Phil Donahue and even remarked that I was feeling that way, but most of the people in the room likely had no idea who I was talking about.

Unfortunately, Q&A sessions at our professional meetings are the time when people get up and head somewhere else (the bar?, no not us). But there is value in questions posed at the end of session talks, isn't there?

Thoughts?

I will work on having another post for you mid-meeting, maybe something on Friday.