[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: history

[Risko, Victoria J]

The Board is in full agreement with your concerns and we plan to move away from this direction in the conferences after Chicago.  The use of publishers in this way was not voted on by the current Board and it is a practice that we questioned.  For Chicago, we have tried to work with constrained lists provided by publishers; yet I have said no to many speakers for their lack of fit or concerns about promoting commercial products.  We are moving away from this practice in the future.  Thank you Ken.  Vicki 
________________________________________
From: goodmankenneths at gmail.com [goodmankenneths at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Ken Goodman [kgoodman at u.arizona.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 11:46 PM
To: mmullen at reading.org; Risko, Victoria J; reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: history

Some of us have a longer history with IRA and there was a time when no speaker was credited to a publisher and in fact state affiliates were censored for crediting publishers. This practice of paying a company to sell us to publishers certainly happened long after I was president. Selling our endorsement for any product willing to pay us is further degradation. It must be opened to pubic scrutiny and It should stop now. What does it cost IRA (us) How much did it cost Pearson to get to run the whole show in which we honored the African American  leadership in Atlanta . I was frankly embarrassed  for IRA in that situation.When we contract to private companies to do what we should do ourselves we create  situation for risk of unwsie and sometimes illegal actions to occur.
There is a long history in IRA Be careful what you use it to justify.
Ken Goodman
Past Prsident 1980-81
--
Ken Goodman
7814 South Galileo Lane
Tucson, Az 85747
520-745-6895<tel:520-745-6895>