This article features the California Association of Teachers of English (CATE) Board, a state affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), whose members en(and de)plane traditionally four times a year for weekend board meetings. An important and influential state affiliate, CATE serves California teachers and students as well as NCTE. The essence of CATE, be it those Board (or local and regional affiliate) meetings, or CATE's convention, is the communing, conversing, and even commiserating among its members. Every language arts teacher who has labored in the classroom trenches, with multitudinous students, paperwork, and bureaucracy during the school year, knows what it is like--or deserves to know what it is like--to be at a CATE conference.