In the fall of 1995, when Audrey Dorsch resigned as the editor of Faith Today and director of the God Uses Ink Conference, I was part of the planning committee. Even though Faith Today was short-staffed and assistant editor Marianne Meed Ward knew she could not handle the workload of both putting out the magazine and organizing the conference, we decided to go ahead and hold the 1996 conference. Larry Matthews, who had been part of the committee, agreed to be the conference director that year. But things were a bit rushed.
Back then, the conference didn’t actually start until 5:00 pm on Thursday. A few years earlier, we’d started having an early bird workshop for those who wanted to come earlier. We would charter a bus for an off-site trip to an interesting location, and then give people an hour or so to write something based on what they’d seen and heard. Then the organizer would judge the stories and we’d give prizes. I remember going on field trips to a mission in downtown Hamilton, the Hamilton Spectator, an historic church, and a book distributor’s warehouse.
Anyway, we decided we didn’t have time to organize a field trip for this year, so I volunteered to do something on-site (which was then Redeemer College in Ancaster.)
Thank you, Nancy, for sharing this fun memory!
I was there, in that classroom! I had forgotten about it until I started reading this post. It was my second or third God Uses Ink conference.
I must say I was feeling very embarrassed for you as you “interviewed” the Canadian author. I felt sorry for you and wondered how I could help you out. I was relieved, but felt more embarrassed and sorry for you, when the young man took over the interview, but soon realized it was probably all planned.
It seemed so obvious to me that before you conduct an interview you should do some research, find out all you can about the author, read the book, be prepared. Little did I know then that many interviewers do not do their homework. Many don’t read the book and know only a few details, if that, about the authors. Prepared interviewers are a real treasure.
Hmm, have you done any “fun” interviews lately?