Quick Links into Newsletter 2001 Conference is HERE!! 2001 Silent Auction Still Needs You Appalachian Haute Couture!! W. D. Weatherford Award Ballot 2001 After 2001... 2001 ASA Cosponsors Appalink Information

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Sally Ward Maggard

The twenty-fourth annual meeting of ASA is just weeks away. Our Call for Participation
generated much excitement and a huge out-pouring of proposals. We think this response reflects the times in Appalachia. Rapid change is breeding new opportunities, challenges, energy and creativity, and people are eager to get together and share. As proposal after proposal came in we began to see a different kind of conference unfolding - a conference with new formats for communication and skills sharing, many forms of creative expression, and involvement from diverse com-munities and youth often under represented at our meetings and in our association.

We couldn't resist. We stretched out the length of the conference. It starts at eleven Friday morning and ends mid afternoon Sunday. We worked hard at scheduling, but the conference is so full of options that you will have trouble deciding what to attend. We are confident you will enjoy it and that you will go home with new ideas and in high spirits.

I want to call your attention to several aspects of the conference. First, you will find young people involved in every aspect of the meeting. They will present sessions about their work to improve public schools and their communities, perform music and dance, exhibit their art, read their literature, and gather together to discuss the difficult decisions they face as they grow up and plan their futures. Our ?Twenty-Somethings? will connect with our teens to talk about college, and they will propose new annual ASA activities that focus on youth. I look forward to having many of these young people move into leadership positions in the association.

Second, this will be the most diverse conference we have had. Throughout the program you will find sessions organized by members of Appalachia's African American, Native American, Latino, and gay and lesbian communities. These essions and a number of special events offer wonderful opportunities to deepen our understanding of the region?s complexity and to build networks to improve our teaching, research, community service, and social and economic development work. This also creates an opportunity for the association to broaden its membership and leadership. To encourage this, ASA and the Appalachian Regional Commission will sponsor a Friday evening reception: "Welcome Newcomers -- Building a Region that Works for Everyone."

We made an effort to find and present "Ideas that Work." As a result, the conference will offer varied resources to help people and groups improve their quality of life, provide community services, increase opportunity and equality, use natural resources wisely, and en-gage educational institutions more fully in the region. Workshops, skills sharing sessions, 21st century panels, roundtables, community conversations, and performances will introduce new tools and technology, information, and methods for community and economic development. We also introduce several new prac-tical sessions, including a workshop on shaping the economic and social impacts of the growing tourist industry. Several communities will share their experiences working with federal, state, and local tourism initiatives, and other sessions will promote dialogue about the relationship between tourism and natural resource use and preservation.

We are excited about the entertainment planned for the conference. Two evening programs will feature some of the region?s best musicians, poets, storytellers, liars, songspinners, and word-slingers - from young kids representing the upcoming generation to older performers who are known around the world. There will be entertainment at receptions, breaks, and special events including a performance documentary by Rob Amberg and a Sunday morning Gospel Sing. And, to help cross-fertilize different "ways of knowing," several sessions mix entertainment with papers, panels, and workshops. The conference will give full expression to many of the artistic and intellectual impulses that are shaping Appalachia today.

Finally, I want to extend special thanks to the conference co-sponsors. Their generous support through grants, technical assistance, and program assistance makes it possible for ASA to present the 2001 Conference at Snowshoe.
--Sally Ward Maggard

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It?s Time! Pack Your Bags and Head to the Mountaintop
Snowshoe, WV,
March 30-April 1, 2001.

GET Snowshoe Mountain Top Map (60K gif image or 400K print version)

When you arrive: Check in at the Brigham Center(open 24 hours) for your lodging reservations, map, and Snowshoe information. Conference activities: ASA Conference activities are centrally located in these key locations in and around the Village at Showshoe (top of the mountain): Mountain Lodge Conference Center (most sessions, exhibits, registration, rental condos); Shavers Center (banquet, luncheon, and evening concerts); Spruce Lodge (lodge rooms). A free shuttle runs day and night (7 am - 2 am) to all establishments on the mountaintop. People staying at the Inn at Snowshoe (motel rooms) are fifteen minutes away at the foot of the mountain. Conference registration opens 8:30 am Friday: lower lobby (CC floor) of the Mountain Conference Center in Mountain Lodge.

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Additional Activities Added to the 2001 Conference Program.

Little Kids Storytelling Times: Favorite fairy tales, stories of the eastern woodland people, mountain heritage tales, and many tall tales. Check the program when you arrive to find five storytelling sessions for children.

Children's Art Workshop: Bob Henry Baber will make ?memory jugs? with children--a hands-on folk art experience for the whole family.

Meet the ASA Website: Stop by the ASA Website table in the exhibit hall. Site manager Boyd Shearer will offer hands-on experience with the site and collect suggestions for the coming year. Check your program for two times for focused input: once on diversity and once from young people.

McClintic Public Library Grand Opening: Visit nearby Marlinton, Sunday afternoon April 1, and help celebrate the grand opening of a good rural public library. Step into West Virginia history with a performance by Paul Lutz as William ?Devil Anse? Hatfield and a reading from Douglas McNeill?s The Last Forest by Ken Sullivan. Listen to the award-winning Pocahontas County Jazz Band. See exhibits by Pocahontas County craftsmen, woodworkers, and artists. Enjoy delicious food and refreshments. There will be a map at the conference Announcements Center.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory Tour: See the largest steerable radio telescope on Earth at NRAO, nearby at Green Bank. It is part of a chain of observatories around the world that help us study the physics of the globe. Think Contact! ASA is offering a one-hour tour Sunday afternoon, April 1, including a tour of NRAO, slide show, and presentation on the hows and whys of radio astronomy. For a sneak preview visit the NRAO website: http://www.nrao.edu. Group departs Snowshoe at 1:30; tour begins at 2:00 pm. PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED! Call Gail Lowry at the Pocahontas County Visitors and Convention Bureau for information and to reserve your space on the tour: 1-800-336-7009. DEADLINE TO REGISTER: MARCH 19.

ASA Conference is "PROJECT OF THE MONTH" The Rural School and Community Trust will feature its Appalachian programs and the conference in its "Project of the Month" website feature during March. Have a look at http://www.ruraledu.org.

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2001 Silent Auction Still Needs Your Contribution
Howard Dorgan, recipient of ASA?s Williams/ Brown Award in 2000, reports that this year?s Silent Auction still needs contribu-tions! Our annual silent auction raises money for people who, without financial assistance, would be unable to attend ASA?s conferences. The first three auctions raised, collectively, over $6,000. With the Snowshoe gathering, Dorgan has challenged us to bring that total up to $10,000. This can still be done if we all make an eleventh-hour effort, pitch in with quality bid items, and then make our own contributions to the actual bidding. Please be generous.

Popular items previously displayed have included Appalachian books, regional art and craft pieces, a great variety of ?collectibles,? recordings of Appalachian music, video documentaries, novelty objects, and collections of regional photography. Last year?s hotly-com-peted- for objects included a Star of Bethlehem quilt, several pieces of Depression Glass, three beautifully carved Mountain Laurel or Dog-wood walking canes, and a number of Appala-chian landscape paintings.This year?s event will include a ?not-so-silent-auction,? employing the talents of a West Virginia auctioneer to solicit on-the-spot bids for a number of the high-ticket items.

Give me a call—or e-mail me—if you have some thoughts about a possible contribution:
Howard Dorgan (828) 264-4361 (home); (828) 262- 2403 (office), dorganch@appstate.edu (email).

All bid items should be sent directly to:
Howard Dorgan
Dept. of Communication
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608.

Please make your contributions far enough in advance of the conference that they can be properly readied for the event. In addition, please provide the auction committee with all information that will be helpful in promotion of the item (details about the respective artisan and/or craft guild). Objects which are brought directly to the conference will of course be accepted; however, such a delivery may not provide time for the most advantageous display preparations.

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Robert Gipe--artist, teacher, and regional activist---has designed a special line of shirts featuring images of such Mountain Hero(ine)s as Sid Hatfield, Granny Hager, Don West, and Sarah Ogan Gun-ning. This Appalachian haute couture will be featured at the Snowshoe Conference Not-So-Silent Auction, and will also be available for sale. This is just the start! Robert Gipe plans to take nominations for heroes and heroines and to add original designs annually. Look for details in the Fall Appalink and at www.appalachianstudies.org. All proceeds go directly to the ASA Scholarship fund. Conference Will Showcase Mountain Hero(ine)s T-Shirt Series The New York Fashion District has nothing on us!

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The Appalachian Center and Hutchins Library at Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association are pleased to announce nominations for the W. D. Weatherford Award. Since 1970, the annual award has been pre-sented to the author(s) of the work published anywhere in the United States which, in the opinion of the judges, best describes the chal-lenges, personalities, and qualities of the Appalachian South. The winning work may be book length or shorter, and it may be fact, fic-tion, or poetry. 2001 marks the first year that ASA has cosponsored the award with the Ap-palachian Center and the Hutchins Library at Berea College. A work may be nominated by its pub-lisher, the author, a member of the award com-mittee, or any member of the Appalachian Studies Association. Nominations are due by December 31 of each year. Starting this year, the award will be presented during the annual Appalachian Studies Association. Judging this year are: Loyal Jones (chair), Wilma Dykeman, Brian Cole, John A. Williams, Richard Couto, and David Whisnant. The recipient will be announced at the annual meeting at Snowshoe, WV. Congratulations to all of the nominees.
Update Your Book Collection: 2001 W. D. Weatherford Award

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Ballot 2001
(Download PDF of Ballot for voting)
The Bylaws of the Appalachian Studies Association outline the enual nomination and election of officers. A Nominating Committee presents the ASA membership with a slate of nominees, each with a brief biographical note. The membership elects officers through a ballot, which you find in this edition of Appalink.

The Vice President/President Elect (2002) chairs the Nominating Committee and the Scholarship Committee, and negotiates for conference support at future sites. The Vice President becomes President the following year. The President of ASA, among other duties, pre-sides at all meetings, directs fundraising, serves as spokesperson, and serves on the steering com-mittee for one year following her term. Traditionally, and for obvious reasons, the President Elect resides in the state of the upcoming con-ference(Kentucky in 2003).

The Program Vice-Chairperson/Program Chairperson Elect (2002) assists the Pro-gramChairperson, negotiates the future confer-ence, and becomes the Program Chairperson the following year. The Program Chairperson oversees the operation of all aspects of the annual conference. This includes officiating over the program committeeand overseeing local arrangements. Following his or her term, the Program Chairperson serves one year on the program committee.

The Steering Committee includes all elected and appointed officers and six at-large members, elected by the membership and serv-ing two-year terms. Three new at-large members are elected each year. The at-large members, among other duties, transact necessary business, form standing committees, and ap-prove an annual budget.

The Program Committee prepares the calls for papers, reviews submitted abstracts, and compiles the conference program. A sub-committee handles local arrangements. The program committee includes four at-large members, elected by the ASA membership and serving for one year.

Rationale for Bylaws Revision: From time to time, ASA revamps parts of the bylaws to expedite the duties of the Steering Committee and its components. The proposed increase of voting members on the Website Committee will enable the committee to encompass diverse points of view, recruit expertise, and retain experienced members. The addition of the non-voting members will enhance communication within ASA, particularly among those mem-bers responsible for its publications.

Looking ahead... The remarkable growth of the Appalachian Studies Association can be sensed at our annual conferences. At the same time, ASA has remained true to its calling by blendng scholarship and activism. A diverse and committed core of leadership has driven this growth and perpetuation of the association?s founding vision. This growth also involves increasingly sophisticated planning of conferences, fundraising, and administration. It?s vitally important that we plann ahead! Below, please find the rotation cycle for the annual conference,

Future ASA Annual Conferences through the year 2006.
2001
Snowshoe Mountain
West Virginia, March 30- April 1
***
2002
Unicoi State Park
Georgia, March 22 - 24
***
2003 Kentucky
2004 North Carolina
2005 Virginia
2006 Tennessee

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After "Standing on the Mountain" in Snowshoe... Plans Underway for Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting March 22-24, 2002, Unicoi State Park, Helen, Georgia. We will come down to the fringes and listen to the voices from the margins: Appalachians in North Georgia, North Alabama, and South Carolina hill country, the new Latino Appalachians, African Americans, Cherokees, Gays and Lesbians, and Women and Girls. We encourage research and presentations around these places and people. North Georgia is the birthplace of Don West and we plan to honor him with poetry from present-day performance and protest poets.

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Appalink is published twice a year. The editor welcomes submissions for announcements and news. Subjects may include upcoming conferences, lectures, meetings, fellowships, award nominations, or other events that concern the membership of the Appalachian Studies Association. Submissions should be sent by e-mail or regular mail to:
Bill Klaus at: wklaus@wvu.edu;
Department of History, West Virginia University
PO Box 6303
Morgantown, WV 26506-6303

Limited space is available, and all submissions are subject to editing. Paid-for advertisements will be considered for inclusion. Contact the editor for rates. The deadline for the Fall 2001 edition is September 1, 2001.