Dear SRPP Members:

Looking forward to some good days in San Diego.

In advance of the meeting, I would like to let you know what the SRPP Program Committee has done to promote increased discussion and exchange of ideas in paper sessions. We would like your assistance with this effort and would welcome feedback about whether it strengthens the program.

As in the past, the papers are grouped - in so far as possible - thematically. We have done our best to assign chairs with expertise in substantive areas and are again asking that all session participants arrive at least 15 minutes in advance of your session.

To provide more discussion time:

• Sessions have generally been limited to four papers.
• Presenters are being encouraged to restrict their presentations to no more than15 minutes (inclusive of 3-5 minutes for follow-up questions) and to come prepared to summarize (not read) their papers.
• Each session chair is being asked to take on increased responsibilities; to serve as both moderators and discussant and to keep the initial presentation and discussion of each paper to a maximum of 15 minutes. We would like chairs to be prepared to raise questions and/or comment on papers for about 5 minutes and then open the session up for an interactive Q&A with the audience (about 25 minutes). Of course, some chairs (and presenters) may want to structure their sessions in a different manner and this will be fine.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 200 SRPP members who volunteered to review abstracts, serve as session chairs or otherwise assist with the program. I would like to make special mention of the SRPP program committee - Anne Costello, Alejandro Garcia, John Krout, Deborah Monahan, Richard Russell and Nancy Smith. And, of course, to the GSA staff …

Best wishes,

Eric Kingson
SRPP Program Chair