Dear GSOLE Members,
Happy November All!
We are all in the thick of the semester. We all appreciated the extra hour that daylight savings gave us, but I am sure that we are wishing there could be more extra hours as we stare down the (digital) pile of grading while the semester’s clock ticks down. Yet soon many of us will be taking a respite to celebrate what we are thankful for–and for many of us that is family and friends.
And GSOLE is for friends, old and new.
One thing I have heard over and over again during the last few years from GSOLE members is how our organization, despite its mostly online presence, is where many have made friends in the field. Mary Lourdes, our vice president, has often been GSOLE’s greatest advocate, explaining to potential members how the organization has given her a community of teachers and researchers with similar scholarly interests with whom she can share her ideas and practices, as well as collaborate with. These friendships go beyond the academic halls; I am grateful that Scott, a past president, has come out to my partner’s art show when we were in Philadelphia.
But I also know that we are lamenting that our traditional meeting space, the meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication will be ending after 2027. As we create ways to connect with old friends, this moment also gives us an opportunity to make new friends.
The November Pledge In that spirit, I want to ask GSOLE members to make a pledge. I want you to recruit one new member for the organization.
We know the de-chartering of the CCCC has left many instructors and scholars who employ and think about online pedagogical methods–like teaching through Learning Management Systems (LMSs; such as Canvas and Moodle)–without an academic home. Reach out to them. We know people in our departments and across our campus who teach writing using online pedagogical methods but do not feel like they have been appropriately prepared or have had sufficient support. Reach out to them.
Point these individuals to the many text-based resources that GSOLE has, such as the ROLE journal (https://gsole.org/olor/role), the OLOR Effective Practices (https://gsole.org/olor/ep), Just in Time archives (https://gsole.org/jit). Or invite them to a live event, such as the December 1st Cyber Salon (https://glosole.wildapricot.org/Sys/Login?ReturnUrl=%2fcyber-salon%2frooms), the February 3rd-5th GSOLE Conference (https://gsole.org/2027-conference-home) with plenary speakers Kofi Adisa, Amy Cicchino, and Jessie Borgman, or the February 12th Webinar, “Fostering a Community of Readers through Social Annotation Tools” (https://gsole.org/webinars/2026-2027-series). And remind them how affordable our membership and fees are.
GSOLE is also making a new friend, Computers and Writing (or the 7Cs committee of the CCCC). With the looming absence of the CCCC, we have been working with Charles Woods and Wendi Sierra to support each other and to see how these two scholarly bodies can collaborate to support instructors, scholars, and–ultimately–students in the field of writing studies. As an organization, we have a lot of work to do, and the more we can share this labor with the many capable writing studies practitioners, the more we can accomplish.
I look forward to meeting your friends.
