CEC Conference 2009

The Council for Exceptional Children (special ed folks) are having their annual national convention in Seattle this year. It's really cool, but insanely expensive. Katie got free registration as a UW student (by agreeing to do a bit of volunteering which they then never asked her to do), but I didn't meet the criterion (a current student, though in retrospect, I think I could've done it anyway), so I thought I was out of luck, which was sad, because national conventions don't usually come so close to home! But then earlier this week Ilene (chair of the special ed dept at UW) put out an email saying that they needed volunteers for the UW booth at the expo. I decided to reply because I'm not up to anything anyway, and Katie was going to be at the conference. Katie replied too, because while it meant volunteering for UW and not the overall conference, at least it left her with a clean conscience. I figured, at least I'd get to go through the expo hall after my shift and get some free stuff. But it was better than that. The best part: I got the same badge/bag/schedule as everyone who was registered! So I get to attend the conference like everyone else (after my 8:30-11 stint at the booth this morning). By the end of the day my bag was super heavy and I had lots of good information. We're going back tomorrow.