The Quilt’s Fall Member Meeting in Dearborn, Michigan is where the adults who actually run the internet for education all show up in the same room, and the energy is unreal. This isn’t a conference for spectators. This is a working summit for leaders from research and education networks across the country—folks like WiscNet—who carry national-scale responsibility and still manage to keep things human.

Here’s the thing: what people don’t understand is that The Quilt is where alignment happens. This is where regional networks stop being islands and start acting like a system. Ideas get tested. Assumptions get challenged. Someone says, “We tried that,” and someone else says, “Cool, let’s do it better.” That’s progress.

Make no mistake—Dearborn is the perfect setting. Industrial grit, deep history, and a forward-looking mindset that matches the conversations. This is where strategy meets execution, where trust is reinforced, and where the future of research and education networking quietly gets shaped.

At the end of the day, this meeting is about stewardship at a national level—shared purpose, shared responsibility, shared wins.

Bottom line: if you’re in that room, you’re helping steer the direction of connectivity in this country. And yeah, that rules.