Writing to understand ourselves : an organisational history of the Australian Association of Writing Programs 1996-2010

In 2008, the Australian Association of Writing Programs Committee of Management endorsed a proposal that a published history should mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Association. This article outlines the theoretical and methodological framing decided upon, the process to be employed, and the information gathering still to be completed, in order to produce a useful and appealing history of the AAWP. Such planning is essential because writing authorised organisational histories can be an unadventurous and reactionary activity, resulting in dull hagiographies of little interest or enduring value. Recent thinking on organisational history writing has, however, suggested that such histories can be an important and proactive moment in ongoing processes of institution building for the organisation so chronicled. This is at least in part because the processes involved in organisational history research and writing can prompt an action learning cycle of discovery, reflection, learning and future improvement for those involved.