“Best conference ever!” and “Awesome” were just a couple of the many positive comments we received following the ASPS Annual Conference held January 13-15, 2023 with an in-person event on Saturday, January 14 at Pima Community College in Tucson.

ASPS received 62 paid registrations.  Of those, 36 attended in person (7 were unable to attend) and approximately 19 attended on zoom throughout the weekend.

A short business meeting was held Friday night where we elected the Board of Directors for 2023:

President, Katie Zale

Vice President, Janice Fuller

Secretary, Johnny Chavez

Treasurer, Kris Perry

The Board recognized Christy White on Saturday morning with a standing ovation for her 20+ years of service.  She was given a lifetime honorary membership to ASPS and will remain on the Board as our Outreach Coordinator.  She was gifted with a framed poem by Ellen Bass titled “Any Common Desolation.”

Approximately 25 conference surveys were returned and the compilation supported the overall feedback that all of the guest speakers were appreciated and insightful.  The favorite features of the conference included the craft talks, poetry workshops, poetry writing/generative time, and of course, the speakers.  On a scale from 1-10 with 10 as the high mark, the conference was given an overall rating of 8-10.

We did experience a minor glitch with zoom Saturday morning, but got it up and running quickly. Many thanks to Christy White for keeping it going throughout the conference.

Special thanks to the Tucson Team for hosting a great conference:  Hank Dallago, Alan Perry, Kris Perry (chair), Elaine Powers and Katie Zale.

Conference planning for January 2024 in Phoenix will begin soon.  Stay tuned for future updates – we hope to see you there!