Saturday’s article by Lynn Arave in the Deseret News highlights some of the presentations at this week’s FAIR Conference and Sunstone Symposium.
Some people have noticed that this year FAIR and Sunstone are running conferences on overlapping dates. We’ve received a few queries about that, asking if we did it on purpose. (Cue maniacally evil laugh: Buu-WAH-hah-hah-hah-hah!)
However the truth is sadly free of conspiracy. It was simply circumstances of the calendar.
The FAIR conference has run every year (for 10 years now) on the first Thursday and Friday in August in order to avoid overlapping Sunstone, which usually runs the second week in August, and BYU Education Week, which runs the third week in August.
This year August 1st is on a Friday. Rather than have our first day in July, we chose August 7 and 8. The decision was made last year in late August or early September, long before the dates for Sunstone had been announced.
Technically, it’s Sunstone who’s out of their regular schedule — if they stuck with their second-week-in-August schedule, they should be running August 13 to 16. Education Week isn’t until August 18 to 22. But these things just happen sometimes: It’s quite possible Sunstone wasn’t able to get their hotel on August 13–16. Or perhaps they looked at the calendar and said “the second week in August is the 6th through the 9th.”
So if you’re torn, note that you can go to Sunstone on Wednesday and Saturday, and attend FAIR on Thursday and Friday!
Unfortunately, one thing that may draw some students to Sunstone rather than FAIR is unrelated: cost (registration is free to Suntsone for students).
Funny, but this FAIR blog entry is the only comment I’ve seen anywahere on the Internet, that says anything at all about the two events overlapping. It sounds to me like a few FAIR-ies may be inventing a controversy, in order to yet again portray themselves as the poor victims of those naughty Sunstone types.
Nick,
No one ever said there were public comments about it, and no one is manufacturing controversy.
If you’ll read my post again, you’ll note that “we’ve received a few queries” following the Saturday, August 2nd publication of a story in the Deseret News. Since several people had privately asked why we cross-scheduled Sunstone, I thought I’d answer it publicly in case others had wondered as well.
You’ll also note I did everything I could to play down any controversy or conspiracy. And I gave Sunstone the benefit of the doubt.
Based on the tone of your recent comments here, it sounds to me like you are looking for reasons to attack FAIR. Please stop.