The third year of the existence of the website www.ctemeritusassembly.org or www.eact.info has been
marked with a number of changes in direction, some as consequences of changes in the assembly, while
others resulted from changes in external circumstances. As an example of events within the assembly, we
have the retirement of Mary Rogers as its one and only newsletter editor of eighteen years. While the web
site had served as support for the newsletter, publishing, within certain restrictions, complete issues at the
site, it benefitted from having access to the newsletter, a rich source for content and editorials. The web
site was, at times, able to publish contemporaneous stories and even previews of the newsletter pages as
they became available. And, it received all of the historical information from Mary Rogers as she composed
new articles and features from researching her collections of the newsletters and issues of Vanguard, the
publication of the AAUP-CSC, mothership of the EA. In addition, Mary has written essays special to the
web site. In return, the web site has served as a resource for the newsletter as well.
The newsletter then, has had a number of ad hoc editors until recently. This has resulted in more, instead of
less, collaboration between the newsletter and the web site. There are articles unique to each, and there are
features published in both formats. In addition, Flo Hatcher, Executive Director of the AAUP-CSC, has
offerred to make available articles in the Vanguard upon request. A case in point is Morton Tenzer's
Vanguard article that is published on the site as http://www.eact.info/cscnews/tenzeryeshiva.html which was
published in the April 2009 issue of the Vanguard. These developments have contributed to a web site that
reflects more the on-going activities of its members and more transparency in the processes that are involved
in these activities thus appearing less cabal like. Currently, Tim Killeen has undertaken the job of being the
newsletter editor, while continuing to serve as EA president, its membership chair, and events corrdinator
this fall. He has enriched the web site by keeping members informed of the progress on these fronts via
providing updates often to the web site. At the same time, some structural changes in the web site,
eventhough due to external circumstances, may have facilitated this development.
Initially, the use of a blog, in this instance, the Assembly Blog, was meant to be experimental. It was
certainly easier to upload blog entries than to remake web pages. However, the limitations of what one
could upload were many. While the use of the program supporting the Assembly Blog had its advantages,
its tech support was at times more than forgettable, meaning they impeded progress instead of helped. So,
when in June of 2009, the notice came that the provider will cease to support the blog on July 1, we were
at a cross road to curse at the inconvenience or to enjoy the opportunity to discontinue the blog. With the
help and encouragement of the website advisor, Clifford L. Pelletier, and web associate, Cecilia Welna, we
took the second road. Thus, the EACTBLOG was born. This turned out to be serendipitous as the entries
are much more readable and the format permitted more items to be displayed without having to retype the
links each time they are to be referenced. It is also easier to edit the entries and to upload photos. The first
entry posted, on June 6, 2009, was that of an announcement of the annual meeting at CLIR. An attempt to
upload a graphic followed with no problems. Next came the struggle to connect the EACTBLOG with the
web site. While the old Assembly Blog allowed for updating itself and displayed the updated version as the
home page when accessed via the web site url, the new blog could be integrated as the home page but the
updates would have to be re-transferred each time they occurred. While this ploy can be said to be
workable, it certainly is not a convenient way of going about updating. Fortunately, Professor Pelletier came
to the rescue again and wrote a short program to have the web site url be re-directed to the EACTBLOG,
making the updated blog page the first, or, home page for the web site. We, then, put a logo on the blog
page for getting back to the old home page that leads to the rest of the web site. Pages from the old
Assembly Blog have been saved on the server and may be accessed via
http://www.eact.info/oldblog/index.html/.
One of the improvements the new blog offers is that of the use of team blogging. This means that one can
invite persons to author entries for the blog and post them directly. To date, one member has been added
to the team. You may see Kensington's entry on "Art Attitude", posted on September 5, 2009. We would
welcome more authors to join the team and hope it will happen.
We have had quite a variety of content for the web site this past year, from personal reports such as Henry
Snider's December 8, 2009 message about moving to Virginia , Kathleen Mcgrory's report in February
2009 about her experience in working with Joza Karas on his book Music in Terezin before he died last
fall, http://www.eact.info/jozakaras.html, and from the spring 2009 newsletter, Tim Killeen's description of
his personal journey to better health in Musings of the President, Cecilia Welna's anecdotes on enjoying the
good life in retirement and other items. We were sorry to have reported, in June 2009, on the passing of
Irmgard Rees, who, as indicated in the last web site report, had been a most enjoyable presence at many
of the EA meetings and who was working on a logo for the website before she took ill. In terms of issues,
we have Mort Tenzer's article, mentioned earlier, Mary Rogers' notes on higher education,
http://www.eact.info/webcommentary_files/rogerscom.html, Clifford Pelletier's comments on the state
retirement program, especially with regard to that of the retirements of faculty members, Tim Killeen's
concerns re recruitment of new members, and others. We like also to mention Nick Welchman's fine
description of the program at the Wadsworth Atheneum,
http://www.eact.info/ProgramNotes/wadsworth.html. and David DeNuccio's minutes of EA meetings. In
terms of photos, we have had the most charming pictures from Kathleen Mcgrory of the visit to the
Wadsworth Atheneum and at the Bertucci Restaurant, and Youssef Kouatly's excellent photos of the
AAUP-CSC annual meeting and of the EA visit to the Rose Garden at Elizabeth Park.
Thanks, everyone!
WEB SITE REPORT 3, (2009)