Northeast Regional Conference
April 11—13, 2008
Sargent Center
Hancock, New Hampshire
Learn Where You Are
Photo by Julian Garrett
Photo by Julian Garrett
The AEE Northeast Region Conference Summary by Julie Clemons, Convener
The 2008 Northeast Region Conference theme was "Learn Where You Are", reflecting our hope to draw together the communities of outdoor educators and K-12 educators into the common ground of experiential, place-based education. We were fortunate to have David Sobel of Antioch University and Promise of Place as our keynote speaker on Friday night, and we continued the Northeast region tradition of the Josh Miner Dialogue Series on Saturday night. Pam McPhee of the UNH Browne Center was our honoree, interviewed by Anita Tucker.
As the convener I was thrilled to see so many new faces in the crowd. About a third of our attendees were coming to the conference for the first time! With about 310 people attending the conference and preconference workshops, there were wonderful opportunities to connect folks new to experiential education with more seasoned folks, and meet and learn from practitioners all over our region. Additionally, we had many brand-new workshops and first-time presenters, which added a lot of excitement.
Some of my most powerful moments at AEE conferences have happened not in workshops or speaker sessions but in those odd conversations one gets into over a meal, passing in the hall, or in a quiet moment in the corner of the bookstore. We decided this year to create an intentional space for these exchanges, and so was born the Elder Fire. Sargent Center's dining hall is graced by a huge stone fireplace and throughout the weekend a fire burned there, tended and kept company by some of the elders of our field - Keith King, Sam Tower, Jed Williamson, Mike Gass and Pam McPhee to name just a few. All attendees were invited to come "sit a spell" and listen, talk, ask questions, and have a laugh. This was a wonderful, popular option and a relaxing, welcoming place to go for a few minutes or for an hour.
The conference was hosted at the Boston University Sargent Center and their School Programs, Kitchen, and Grounds staff were a huge help to the conference. My wonderful, fun, self-motivated, collaborative and thoroughly delightful Host Committee was Hutch Hutchinson, Deb Sugerman, Janine Jaffe, Sarah Weis, Steve Morriss, Scott Catucci and Keith King. The conference was sponsored by Eastern Mountain Sports and greatly aided by Outdoored.com, the Hannah Grimes Foundation and Orchard Hill Breadworks. I can't wait for next year!
Photo by Julian Garrett
Photo by Julian Garrett
