REPORT FROM THE ENA PRESIDENT

ENA91 CANCELED; ENA92 WILL BE IN BOSTON
ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITIES BEING PLANNED

by Margaret Chambers

In light of the war crisis, the downturn in the economy and the current stage of progress in conference planning and promotion, we proposed in the ported topic two weeks ago that the ENA91 conference be canceled. Now the decision has been made. The Executive Committee with input from the planning groups and many others asked Susan Valdez to cancel arrangements for the ENA91 conference in Seattle this spring.

We will refocus our energies on making ENA92 the best conference ENA has had. Joan Sweeney is the Conference Chair. She will need a month or so to digest this acceleration of planning and then will share the structure and directions for planning
activities. If you would like to get involved in the planning, contact Joan via e-mail: joan@tmn.uu.net

I want to thank Susan Valdez and the entire Seattle-based planning group for the tremendous efforts they made in setting up plans for the year's conference. For Susan it represents more than a year's commitment and volunteer activity. She had the guts to step forward and the drive to follow-through. Her efforts will not be wasted as they will help speed the planning of next year's meeting.

We hope that Bob Jacobson, Asst Director at the University of Washington's Human Interface Lab, can transport his virtual reality/telepresence demo into 92. Ray Gallon also has been great progress in setting up a ISDN demo between Paris and the US which we trust will still be fresh in 92. To all of you from all of us. THANKS!

Because the face-to-face conference has been ENA's most significant activity, we made this recommendation _very_ reluctantly. However there are ways in which ENA can benefit from other face-to-face conferences. In March we will piggyback
on the Conference on Computers, Privacy and Freedom, which ENA is co-sponsoring with the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (see other articles in this issue). We'll plan a working session for Friday morning, March 29, in the San Francisco Bay Area and we hope to attract conference attendees, local networkers as well as ENA members.

As we move through this year, we should ask ourselves three questions:

* Who are the people, organizations, and communities
we should serve? (vision and strategy)

* What can ENA offer to them? (organizational activities
and benefits)

* How can ENA attract them? (membership and recruitment)

We need to create a clearer, stronger organizational framework through which to network people and activities. I hope that this March meeting will be the first of a series of face-to-face meetings around the country in the next several months where ENA members and interested others can explore these questions. ENA members may want to suggest other meetings or conferences where ENA members might gather and "evangelize." Also we will discuss these questions online in this new conference.