By and large, survey respondents reported learning about DMAC through word of mouth: whether from colleagues, advisers, or the DMAC directors themselves. Thus, we might expect that DMAC attendance reflects the professional networks of those who administer and attend it; indeed, the great majority of respondents identified as graduate students, tenure-track faculty, or tenured faculty. By contrast, email listservs represent a commonly reported way of learning about DMAC not based on personal or professional networking. Every year, DMAC advertises its first-come, first-served registration period on listservs such as WPA-L, TechRhet, and Wcenter. Administrators appear to be a less-than-likely channel through which respondents learned about DMAC: a missed opportunity considering that administrators are well positioned to promote, legitimize, and support professional development institutes, especially by locating or establishing funding sources for participants.

Because an individual respondent could identify more than one way of learning about DMAC, the percentages represent the ratio of the number of identifications of that particlar way to the total number of respondents. For example, 44% of the respondents indicated word of mouth from colleagues as one of the ways that they learned about DMAC.