Dear CWPA Colleagues,
Welcome and greetings. Thank you to those who were able to make the summer 2026 workshop and/or conference. It has been a year of renewal, growth, and recommitments. Thank you to the executive board and officers of CWPA for your service, and commitment. We are a people first organization, and your service allows us to continue to serve, educate, and affirm administrators, coordinators, and leaders of writing on their respective campuses and online spheres of education. We are pleased to offer this newsletter as a tool for sharing new information, celebrating our collective work, and affirming our shared understanding of writing program administration. Whether you are a longtime member or new to the organization, we hope this newsletter helps you feel informed, included, and connected to the work of the organization and the people that make CWPA a vibrant professional community.
To our new Executive Board members, thank you for bringing your experience and perspective to this work. Service is an opportunity to help shape the organization’s direction while listening and responding to the needs of its members. We look forward to the ideas and contributions you will bring, and we are grateful to all our members for the intellectual and material labor you bring to CWPA.
A central goal of this newsletter is to keep members informed about what is happening within our organization by sharing updates about committees, ongoing projects and initiatives, and opportunities for involvement, we hope to make our work visible and accessible to all who take serious the work of teaching, cultivating, and supporting writers, teachers, and administrators of writing programs.
As we consider a professional reality without the Conference on College Composition and Communication as a shared gathering space, the importance of connection becomes especially clear. We need opportunities to exchange ideas, build relationships, and support one another across institutional and geographic boundaries. As dynamic rapper, actress, and businesswoman Queen Latifah can remind us all, unity requires us to listen generously, recognize our interconnected concerns, and work together towards sustaining students and teachers working towards the development of writing in an increasingly hostile environment toward writing instruction and its potential for automation.
There is much to be excited about surrounding our community. That energy invites us to reconnect with colleagues, welcome new voices, and imagine new forms of collaboration. It also reminds us that our organization’s strength rests in the growth of its membership and in the generosity of its members.
As we move forward, we invite you to reflect, absorb, and share what is happening with CWPA, and to let us know what conversations or support you find valuable. Thank you for your continued commitment to CWPA and to the work of writing program administration. We look forward to building together as always.
Below you'll find updates on next summer's Annual Conference, the Summer Workshop, elections for Secretary, Treasurer, and a new position--a Web Manager. Lastly, we'd like to invite all of you to attend the November and December Virtual Sessions on Domains 4 and 5 of the "WPA Statement on the Five Knowledge Domains of First-Year Composition."
In Truth and Service, David, Darci, and Erin
The CWPA Leadership Team
Believe it or not, we're already planning for Summer 2027! Please save the dates for our annual conference and summer workshop!
CWPA is pleased to offer the opportunity to serve on nine (9) committees this year. Serving on one of the committees is a great way to get to learn more about CWPA’s mission and goals. Any person in the field–member or non-member of CWPA–is invited to serve. In the past, we’ve had over 80 volunteers for committee service, and we’d love to see this trend continue.
To learn more about the committees and to indicate your interest in serving, please fill out the Committee Service Interest Form. Responses requested by Oct. 30, 2026.
The CWPA will be running elections for the following positions: Secretary, Treasurer, and Web Manager. Please see the position descriptions below
CWPA Secretary Position Description
As an ex officio (non-voting) member of the Executive Board, the Secretary must attend the primary EB meetings of the Board each year. CWPA will provide economy class travel to CWPA conferences, and all nights’ lodging and registration costs (including conference meals) and non-conference meals. In the event of travel restrictions in which the organizational leadership decides not to hold official CWPA business in person, CWPA will not provide the above funding.
The CWPA Secretary maintains current and historical membership records (which include current contact information and membership status), records minutes at Executive Board meetings, and coordinates and tallies votes of the membership and the Executive Board both at in-person meetings and online meetings. The Secretary is the first point of contact for membership questions and works with the Web Manager to maintain a database of membership (occasionally running demographic and research reports related to the website’s tracking of membership). The Secretary also works with the CWPA President to handle reprint permissions related to CWPA publications and position statements. The Secretary organizes the CWPA booth at annual conferences, including organizing staffing shifts.
The Secretary maintains the circulation of the CWPA Journal (WPA: Writing Program Administration), including maintaining individual and institutional subscriptions, working with the editors and printers to fill and mail back issue inventory, and creating mailing lists. Journal mailing takes place in conjunction with our publisher, currently Parlor Press. Familiarity with Microsoft Word and Excel is a must.
The position provides some clerical support for CWPA, for answering e-mail, telephone, or written queries about the organization and for referring individuals to appropriate contact persons. While our budgets are limited, CWPA may be able to cover some costs associated with clerical support for the Secretary from institutional staff or undergraduate or graduate employees. If this is desirable, please specify the range of duties that will be associated with this request, the approximate number of hours associated with the duties, and an estimate of the budget amount associated with this request.
CWPA Treasurer Position Description
The Treasurer serves as an ex officio (non-voting) member of the CWPA Executive Board (EB). As a member of the EB, the Treasurer must attend the main meetings of the Executive Board each year, normally held in the spring and at the CWPA annual conference; however, the Treasurer also meets regularly with the President and Vice President about the financial status of the organization. The CWPA Treasurer works with other CWPA Officers and EB members to:
The Treasurer needs a good working knowledge of Excel, PayPal, and QuickBooks, as well as experience with budgeting processes. If necessary, the Treasurer must be willing to undertake additional financial training at CWPA’s expense. The incoming Treasurer will be expected to “shadow” the outgoing Treasurer for a period of at least three months to ensure a seamless handover.
While CWPA budgets are limited, some clerical support in the form of an Assistant Treasurer may be possible. The CWPA provides economy class travel to CWPA conferences and all lodging, registration costs, and meals will be covered.
CWPA Web Manager Position Description
As an ex officio (non-voting) member of the Executive Board, the Web Manager is expected to attend meetings as requested and provide regular updates regarding the organization's digital communication platforms and outreach efforts.
The Web Manager is responsible for maintaining and enhancing CWPA's online presence. This includes managing and updating the CWPA website, ensuring that information about conferences, publications, awards, position statements, committees, and organizational initiatives remains accurate, current, and accessible. The Web Manager works with CWPA leaders and committee chairs to post announcements, update webpages, and support special projects as needed.
The Web Manager maintains CWPA’s website and coordinates the organization’s social media presence across organizational platforms. Responsibilities include the following:
In collaboration with other officers, the Web Manager may assist with digital promotion of the annual CWPA Conference, virtual events, webinars, elections, membership drives, and other organizational initiatives. The Web Manager may also help maintain archives of digital communications and ensure continuity of organizational records related to online communications.
The ideal candidate will have experience with website content management systems, email communication platforms, and social media management. Familiarity with web accessibility standards, basic graphic design tools, and analytics platforms is desirable. Strong organizational, communication, and project management skills are essential. The Web Manager must be a member of CWPA at the time of appointment.
To Apply for Secretary, Treasurer, or Web Manager:
Send to CWPA President David Green: (1) A brief letter, designating your intent to be considered for Secretary/Treasurer/Web Manager and a brief overview of your qualifications and reasons why you are interested; (2) your CV, along with the CVs of any other professionals at your institution who may contribute to the effort; (3) if desired, a request for funds to support clerical support including a description of the duties to be performed and an estimate of the number of hours associated with those duties and an estimated budget; and optionally, 4) a letter of endorsement from the administrator(s) (chair, dean, vice-president) demonstrating support for your taking on this role. We can provide applicants with a letter highlighting the ways in which these roles represent professional service to our national organization, and how this work can provide excellent experience for WPA work.
All applicants must be members of CWPA at the time of application. You may self-nominate or be nominated for the position. Each of these roles will be determined through a vote by the Executive Board. We welcome inquiries about any facet of serving in these roles, and would be glad to have individual conversations about your interest. Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis, but for full consideration, we would like to receive them by December 1, 2026, when full review will begin.
We are in the process of adding CWPA virtual events this year. View upcoming events and register here: https://www.wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sp/events
November
November 13, 2-3:15 pm ET: Domain 4: Material Conditions and Technologies
Register and join this event to explore and begin to unpack Domain 4: Composing is always subject to the material conditions of the rhetorical context; such material conditions might include time and space, knowledge, previous writing experiences, and access to production and distribution technologies. Students should critically attend to and reflect on material and ethical considerations in choosing and using information and technologies, acknowledging that they are not always in control of, or able to access the material conditions of any given rhetorical context. Free for CWPA members; $25 for non-members.
Presenters:
December
December 4, 2-3pm ET: Domain 5: Making Composing Processes Visible, Mapping Process in the Domains
Register and join this event to explore and begin to unpack Domain 5: Composition scholars position process as such a commonplace that it often blurs theoretical differences. In the first part of the session, presenters remind participants of the complexity of composing processes, and in the second half, participants and presenters will collaborate to map processes in other domains in the context of participants’ SLOs and institutions. Free for CWPA members; $25 for non-members.
Presenters: