Roundtable Presentations

Roundtable Participant Confirmation

All roundtable presenters must verify their intent to attend and present at the convention, so that we may begin to plan the program. Submitters of accepted roundtables will receive a second email with a link to Hubb, where you can confirm that you are accepting our invitation to present at the 2017 Convention. The deadline for this acceptance is Wednesday, December 7. All other participants on your roundtable will receive an email no later than December 14, with the same link and a request to respond by January 17.

Beginning on January 3, you will also be able to register for convention–registration must be completed in order to secure your roundtable’s spot in the program. Our early registration deadline is January 23; meeting this early deadline saves attendees money! Complete registration information is available on the website.

A tentative schedule of events will be posted after February 17, giving you an opportunity to confirm the final details about your roundtable.

Accepted Roundtables

AcceptedRoundtables (updated 12/14/16)

Roundtables were judged using the same overall criteria as were used for evaluating paper submissions: Content, Structure, Originality, Support, and Polish. Particular attention was paid to whether roundtables followed the instructions given in the Roundtable Guidelines. Priority was given to those roundtables that included members from more than one chapter, and/or that covered the convention theme of “Recreation” or the 2017 Common Reader.

Most of the roundtables fit well into one of the categories for which we solicited roundtable proposals. The most common problem reported by the roundtable evaluators were these:

Fortunately, most of the roundtable proposals this year are very good, so we are looking forward to stimulating exchanges among the convention attendees.

Roundtable “Tips from the Field”

So you’ve been invited to participate in a roundtable panel for the Sigma Tau Delta convention! Having now been a member of two different roundtables at previous conventions, I’ve compiled this list of tips about how to have the best possible roundtable experience.

Before the convention:

You have a few months’ worth of planning and preparation time, but with classes, work, and everything else you have on your plate, it’s really easy to let your roundtable slide to the back burner. A weekly or even monthly check-up is a good way to make sure everyone stays on track.

At the convention:

During the roundtable:

What all this boils down to is that a roundtable is a more extensive group project, and group projects are most successful when everyone participates and contributes throughout the entire process. From the planning stage to presenting, being an active and involved group member will make the experience more enjoyable for you and better for the group as a whole. Your Sigma Tau Delta convention experience will be heightened by a successful roundtable, and when it’s done you can head to one of the guest speakers’ readings or Bad Poetry Night for some more English major-type fun.

By Elizabeth Dangelantonio, class of 2015 and graduate from the
Alph Xi Upsilon Chapter, Alfred University