20190407.0403

To continue from yesterday's comments, I remain in seven groups on LinkedIN:

• Medieval and Renaissance Studies Group
• Language, Literature, and Criticism
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette Alumni Group
• Literature
• Community, Career, Technical, Vocational College Network
• Sigma Tau Delta
• English Language & Literature

As I noted earlier, seven groups is a manageable set. And it has the benefit of being an easily remembered number, one resonant with any number of social constructs. Were I inclined to more ritual, I might even betake myself to engage with one group each day each week.
But I am not thus inclined, and I am not necessarily inclined to retain all seven group memberships that I currently have. Again, I am working to make my LinkedIN profile present me as more of a "professional" and less of an academic, since I am, at best, a part-time academic; I do still do some work in the field, but I have abandoned any pretense that it is my vocation or even my primary occupation. At the same time, having a more business-oriented public identity does not mean excising all outside interests. There are expectations of people in the business world, and even if I do not always understand them as well as I perhaps should, it does not mean I cannot try to meet those expectations.
Among them is pride in schools attended. Many of the offices I enter--and not only the academic ones where I still sometimes find myself--show their occupants' degrees. My own will, when I have it. So I think I ought to keep my institutional alumni group on hand--and I likely ought to add that for my undergraduate degree. Doing so would bring my group list to

• Medieval and Renaissance Studies Group
• Language, Literature, and Criticism
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette Alumni Group
• UTSA Alumni
• Literature
• Community, Career, Technical, Vocational College Network
• Sigma Tau Delta
• English Language & Literature

Similarly, co-curricular affiliations seem to factor into the professional identities of business leaders, at least in my part of the world. (I have no intention of leaving again, so local practice seems worth emulating, at least in part.) Consequently, I will be keeping the Sigma Tau Delta group on hand; I was heavily involved in it as an undergraduate, and a bit less so as a grad student, and keeping that record seems worth doing.
The other groups need not stay in place, however, save perhaps one of them; they reflect concerns that I have had and may still have, but do not need to make much of in terms of presenting myself as a professional working outside (or largely outside) academe. At the same time, I do need to present myself as having a life outside work, some humanizing thing that suggests I might be more than just the workplace self and so might be a colleague people can work with. Given my predilections, looking at earlier works seems a thing to keep doing; the others seem overly broad or no longer relevant to the non-academic identity I would foster. My list becomes, then:

• Medieval and Renaissance Studies Group
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette Alumni Group
• UTSA Alumni
• Sigma Tau Delta

I am not sure that four groups will be enough; I rather doubt it. And, indeed, I need both to foster local connections and to foster connections in my current line of work--where I expect to remain for some time, even if I cannot count on doing so indefinitely. Consequently, I sent off requests to join two groups, one addressing each of those concerns, leaving my list at

• Medieval and Renaissance Studies Group
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette Alumni Group
• UTSA Alumni
• Sigma Tau Delta
• Mental Health and Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Professionals
• Texas Hill Country Professional Network

Six is also a workable number of groups, and the list presents me as more focused on maintaining previous connections and establishing those in my current line of work. I hope it will be helpful.