March 13-15, 2008
Antlers Hilton Hotel
Colorado Springs, Colorado

January 18, 2008

Dear Participant:

Please use the index in the Preliminary Program to find your presentation time at the upcoming conference, The Image of the Outsider. Also please check to see if (and when) you have been assigned as a moderator (if you volunteered). As volunteers become available, moderators will be added to the sessions currently without moderators in this program. 

This program will also be posted on the SISSI webpage <chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/sissi>. There will inevitably be some changes to this program, so please check the final program (it will say Conference Program, not Preliminary Program) when you arrive at the hotel. If any significant changes to your presentation time are contemplated, you will be consulted directly. If you have been assigned as a moderator at an inconvenient time, simply notify us before the conference or at the registration desk and we will find a replacement.

If you wish your paper to be included in the Proceedings, it should be submitted, properly formatted, on email or disk. (A hard copy is not required but is often helpful when there are problems with the electronic copy.) You may submit it at the conference or send it later (email or mail) but no later than June 1, 2008. Email to outsider@colostate-pueblo.edu (or will.wright@colostate-pueblo.edu) or mail it to Will Wright, Sociology, Colorado State University - Pueblo, Pueblo CO 81001-4901.

Each day of the conference will include four 90 minute session-times, beginning at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 2:15 p.m., and 4:00 p.m. There will also be featured talks on Thursday and Friday evenings at 8:00 p.m. in the Learning Center, which is next to the meeting rooms.

Please try to keep your presentation at the conference within a 15-17 minute time frame. This will assure each presenter enough time and also time for discussion. If you have been assigned as a moderator, you should introduce speakers and monitor presentations for length. Please monitor effectively, so subsequent speakers will have an equal amount of time and discussion time will be available. In general, the last 15-20 minutes should be for discussion. As a moderator, you may or may not preside over the discussion, but the role of monitor does not imply prior reading or commentary on the papers. If you are assigned as a moderator after distribution of the Preliminary Program, you will be contacted directly.

Coffee, tea, and pastries will be served (outside the meeting rooms) before the morning sessions (8:30 - 9:00 a.m.) and during the morning break (10:30 - 11:00 a.m.). You are on your own for lunches and dinners. There are two restaurants in the hotel and many others within walking distance.

Various audio-visual equipment will be available for speakers, including slide projectors, screens, overheads, VCR and monitor, tape deck, CD player, DVD player, laptop, and video projectors. If your presentation requires any of these (or anything else) and you have not already informed us, please do so by e-mail, fax, or telephone. You may also tell us at the conference, but the logistics will be simplified if we can plan ahead. You may e-mail either outsider@colostate-pueblo.edu or will.wright@colostate-pueblo.edu and the fax is 719-549-2705. By telephone call Will Wright at 719-549-2538. Please let us know if you have any other concerns.

You may register, get a receipt, and pick up your program at the registration desk. Please ask us, or any of the student assistants, for any help or information you may need. The registration desk will be open Wednesday evening, March 12, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m., in the lobby of the Antlers and then from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., March 13-15, by the meeting rooms.

Please make room reservations as soon as possible directly with the Antlers Hotel. The toll-free number (866-299-4602) is direct to reservations at the Antlers in Colorado Springs, and the hotel requests that you use this number. Their local number is 719-955- 5600. The conference rate is only guaranteed through February 11, and the hotel may fill up. If you would like to share a room with a conference participant in order to reduce costs, please let us know and we will try to arrange connections. (We already have some roommate requests.)

There is no hotel shuttle service from the Colorado Springs Airport to the hotel. Taxicabs are always available at the airport. You may want to ask others to share a cab to the Antlers, since many of the people looking for cabs will be participants at the conference. You may also want to tell the bell captain at the hotel when you plan to leave in order to coordinate groups to share a cab to the airport.

We are looking forward to a stimulating conference.

Will Wright                                                     Steven Kaplan

Colorado State University - Pueblo                University of New Haven