u/ryokobeis

I found this year’s ASA annual meeting to be a very frustrating experience. Some sections have moved their sessions off-site, in protest against ASA leadership and/or to accommodate those who want to boycott ASA but still wish to present. Section chairs announced the new venues via section newsletters to their members. These off-site sessions remain on the program with original on-site locations. To my knowledge, there is no way to know if a session has been relocated/rescheduled and where the new location is unless you are a member of the hosting section.

Unsurprisingly, this makes the conference incredibly difficult to navigate. Yesterday I went to a couple of sessions where a roomful of people waiting for a session to begin only to find out it’s not happening when no presenters showed up.

I am not sure what this intends to accomplish. I am not against the protest, but the execution appears to be not well thought out. Those who are involved in sections may have been sufficiently informed, but those who are not - especially first-time attenders - are left in the dark. If sections are changing the venues, it should have been communicated to all participants, not only section members. At very least, placing someone or posting a note in a room listed on the program would have minimized the confusion and helped communicate the intentions.

Maybe I am missing something? I would like to hear thoughts and experiences of other sociologists at ASA.

Considering driving to LGA and leaving a car for a three-day trip (early Sat morning-Mon evening). I have heard long term parking at LGA is great now, but on-site lots are pricey ($200 pre-booked for Terminal C lot). Internet told me that there are affordable lots nearby with a free shuttle service, but it’s hard to tell which one is reliable. If you have a good experience with a LGA off-site lot (with frequent free shuttle, preferably self-parking) please share your recommendations!

Just learned about Obsidian this summer and loving it. So far I am primarily using it for academic writing. Obsidian is really helping me to keep track of underdeveloped pieces of writing and develop them into a fuller draft. I wish I had known it earlier!

I would like to hear about academic paper workflows of experienced Obsidian users. Specifically, how do you move from Obsidian to whatever app they use at the final stage (MS Word in my case)? I have written sections in Obsidian. Soon I will be putting them together, edit for flow, and then formatting. I am trying to decide whether I should move to Word at the integration stage and make edits there, or work in Obsidian up until final formatting.

I understand everyone works differently. I am just curious to learn how people do it, and why they do it that way. Obsidian seems to be a powerful tool, and I am only scratching the surface. I would be grateful if you let me learn from your experience :-)