Dear Everyone,

We are gearing up for the conference in Rochester from June 4th to 7th.  These are exciting times and we hope you will join us.  The outline of the conference schedule is below, and one of the important components of our conference is the series of participant led sessions.

Those of you who have attended either of our last two conference know the format - a short presentation, 20 minutes or less, and then open discussion with a small group of people who have signed up for your topic.  The emphasis is on collaboration, engagement, brainstorming and seeking feedback - not on a formal presentation.  If you have a question you would like to discuss with people who are similarly perplexed, if you have a project on which you want comments, if you have an issue that you think would benefit from being considered in an open format - please send a proposal of your idea to jodybeck@earthlink.net by April 7th, one page or less.  We will take as many sessions as we have time for and organize them into streams by loose topic area.  If you have any questions, please feel free to send them to the same address.

We will be filling in the schedule details over the next several weeks, but the conference outline will give you a sense of what we'll be doing over those days.  Registration and fee information will be distributed shortly.  We hope you will be joining us. 

The Conference Committee

Schedule Outline:

Thursday, June 4, afternoon
   working session on issues related to the operation of Community Design Centers such as finance, staff management, board development

Thursday, June 4, evening
   reception at Rochester Design center

Friday, June 5, morning
   participant led discussion groups

Friday, June 5, afternoon
   panel discussion: Shrinking Cites and Community Design
   panel discussion: Community Design and the Public Sector

Friday, June 5, evening
   keynote, speaker to be announced

Saturday, June 6, morning
   site visit to Market View Heights and Susan B. Anthony neighborhoods

Saturday, June 6, afternoon
   panel discussion: Market View Heights and Susan B. Anthony neighborhoods
   panel discussion: Community Design and Food Networks

Sunday, June 7, morning
   working sessions on strategies for meeting current challenges and opportunities