Are You A Member Of Your State Art Organization?

I (maybe wrongly?) assume that if you're the type to be reading art teacher blogs, then you're probably pretty aware of and involved with your state art education organization.  If you're not a member, you should be.  If you haven't gone to events, you totally should! Just that time around all those like-minded people is worth it's weight in gold.
My state (Missouri) has two conferences a year: fall, at a state park, and spring, in a city (it rotates to various parts of our state).  Fall conference was last weekend, and here are just some photos of some of the workshops:

Some yarn bombing.  Inspired me to yarn-bomb the tree in my front yard.

A lesson from our Drag 'N Brag, which is at night
and in the rec hall, where the light is terrible.

Stitched portrait from a Drag'N Brag session

Getting ready for some printmaking luscious-ness

I also attended a session on automatas, and here are some videos from that session.  The first one is one of the presenter's student work.  The second one is Mr. Hodes, of previous-student-teacher fame if you're a regular reader of my blog.

My automata is currently under construction, because I made it way way complicated, so it's taking me a while to figure it out.
I do understand that your weekends are precious and you might not want to be away from your family, but trust me, it's so very worth it.  You'll meet other amazing art teachers, you'll have this whole network of people to call on.  You can use it to your advantage when a new-to-your-school student mentions where they came from and you just might know their previous art teacher.  It helps, it works.  We all need vibrant communities of like-minded friends.  Your state art education association can be that for you.