It wasn't until my first year teaching at the University of Oregon that I felt confident enough to try to write a TESOL proposal.  During grad school, I suspected conferences were better left to the 'experts' and I neglected to consider what or how I could contribute to the field.  If you're in grad school and thinking the same, don't.  Try it out now--you surely have ideas that would benefit others.

Without a buddy I don't know if I would have taken the plunge either.  Danielle Bus and I were working together at the University of Oregon when she suggested that we should try writing something out.  We had some shared experiences over the course of the year that raised questions that we wanted to investigate. We invited some more senior instructors to join us to try to widen our perspective.