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    Question about GA

    Filed Under uu culture 

    Why were there like, 300 workshops at General Assembly? Seriously - why? There were only 6000 UUs there - a large number of UUs, to be sure, but 300 workshops seems ridonkulous. This doesn’t even include the multitude of private receptions, organizational meetings and daily “check-ins” among various committees.

    The amount of energy that goes into planning for GA programming is HUGE and taps the resources of organizations and individuals. So why is there so much of it? Has it always been like this? Does it need to be like this? Does the need for plenary have something to do with it?

    Once again, I’ll look at the Islamic Society of North America conference for comparison. They have about 30,000 attendees - and about half the programming of General Assembly. Granted, it is a shorter convention by two days, but at five times the number of attendees … it is not even close to approaching the low workshop to attendee ratio of GA.

    Also, the fact that Muslims pray five times a day means there are some built in breaks -two 2-hour blocks of zero-programming at lunch time and in the evening. Doesn’t that sound so … humane?

    But really, it’s not the hurrying from one thing to another that bothers me (one can always choose to not attend back to back to back events); it’s the fact that a single organization might be coordinating half a dozen events, which means that they’re expending a lot of resources and staff (or volunteer) time to something that will happen … once. Can’t we cure ourselves of AAS - Academy Awards Syndrome? Plus, if we didn’t have so many friggin workshops, maybe GA could be held over a long weekend, instead of over five days, thereby making it more affordable for all.

    I’m sure this conversation has taken place many times before. What don’t I know? Can someone explain to me what the thought process is behind this?

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    6 Responses to “Question about GA”

    1. Scott Wells (Boy in the Bands) on June 27th, 2007 4:52 am

      Good questions and observations — I think the answer about GA is going to be sociological.

      Can you keep pressing this?

    2. Obijuan on June 27th, 2007 6:54 am

      300 workshops also meant the physcial space resources were spread thin. I talked to more people this past week who said, “I tried to go to X, but it was full,” than I did to people who made it to workshops they actually wanted to attend.

    3. Jess on June 27th, 2007 7:54 am

      And this year was only about half of what has been offered in previous years, at least of planned workshops, because of the Open Space meetings.

      I think it’s ridiculous, too — there should be fewer workshops, with more repeats, and more focus on spiritual/religious development for the movement as a whole rather than selling books/dvds/whooziwhatsits. Imagine if Robert Fulghum, or Kathleen Norris, or any of the other quality speakers contracted for the event, spoke in Plenary Hall to the whole gathering, rather than the lucky few who squeezed into their respective ballrooms.

      I think the reasoning for it is that the planners think people won’t be willing to spend the money if their particular pet issue isn’t represented at the conference. I for one, however, would be more willing to spend the money to attend if the conference were a more focused religious gathering than a huge consumer-based convention.

    4. Returning . . . » Blog Archive » Home. Tired. Healthy. on June 27th, 2007 6:02 pm

      [...] Hafidha mentions the overabundance of programming. I’ll add that workshops seemed to be fighting with Open Space for actual, physical space. Lots of small rooms for popular programming, leading to overcrowding or shutouts. I heard more people talk about the workshops they tried to attend than I heard about actual workshops. [...]

    5. rev. ricky on June 27th, 2007 10:34 pm

      I’d like to see a GA that focused on ten or so key themes rather than dozens of workshops on everything imaginable. And I’d like to see real experts do the presentations and pay them for their work, rather than good-hearted volunteers sharing “best practices” which often translates to “this is my opinion and it worked for us but I don’t know anything else about it.”

    6. claire on June 28th, 2007 9:52 am

      oh i SO hear you about so many workshops at GA. and so many of them are really stellar speakers who do not come cheap. discussion about making GA more affordable should *totally* include paring down workshops & events. everybody who has ever been to a GA says something along the lines of “OMG there’s so much to do/its so easy to get overwhelmed/i just skipped a bunch of stuff”. why *not* just make things both cheaper and easier?

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