Message from the Chair
Joe Kraus
Hello from snowy Colorado!
Parker Ladwig (your new Chair-Elect) and I recently returned from Reno,
NV where we attended the Leadership Summit, January 24-27. We wrapped up
planning for the SLA Conference here in Denver, and Parker started planning
for the 2008 Annual SLA Conference in Seattle. We went to a number of interesting sessions. We heard an author, Chip Heath, speak about his book,
_Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die_. I also went to a
meeting that was about how to conduct effective meetings. That was actually
a good session, and I learned some new tips.
We also worked on creating an "elevator speech" so we could quickly communicate to a "higher-up" in our organization what we do. We heard Ken Haycock (from San Jose State University) give a presentation on "Leadership and You: Tackling the Dragon". We attended Chapter and Division cabinet meetings, and at the very end of the conference, we wrapped up with an interesting session on strategic realignment and an overview of the conference.
Enough about Reno.
The preliminary program for PAM sessions at the 2007 Annual Conference is on the PAM website. (http://units.sla.org/division/dpam/conferences/2007/)
Note that the conference begins in full force on Sunday evening, June 3rd when Vice President Al Gore opens up the conference with his Keynote Speach.
Once the session is done, we will have our "Early Bird" dinner at a restaurant yet to be determined.
Hotel and conference registration is now open via
http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2007/ and the Personal
Planner should be available by the time you get this PAM Bulletin.
Laurel Kristick started a great new session last year -- the book discussion group. We will have a second annual book discussion group session this year on Tuesday evening, June 5th. Please give me (jokraus@du.edu) some titles in physics, math, cs or astronomy that you have found interesting.
I invite you all to stick around Colorado for a while after the conference is done. We have a tour set up for historic Chamberlin Observatory at the University of Denver on Wednesday night, June 6th, and we are co-sponsoring a tour to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (http://www.ncar.ucar.edu/) and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (http://lasp.colorado.edu/) on Thursday, June 7th
Over the 12 years that I have been an SLA and a PAM member, I have learned so much from my PAM colleagues. I wanted to give back to the Division that has given me so much -- that is one of the main reasons I volunteered to be the Chair this year. If you would like an opportunity to become involved in the leadership of PAM, please contact either me (jokraus@du.edu) or the Chair of the Nominating Committee, David Stern (david.e.stern@yale.edu).
Hope to see you in Denver,
Joe
