Dear AIRfolk, Kris Markman has thrown down the gauntlet and volunteered his dozen badges to the cause of "greening" the event. So who else is up for it? As I mentioned, I am contributing my 15 badge holders (why do we never throw these out?). Mia Consalvo - gamer that she is - immediately jumped to the idea that we should have prizes and a contest for the best/most badge holders. I'll leave that up to your imagination, but if you are game (ahem), I'll do that, too. Anyway, if you want to take part, here's what you do: 1. Gather up all your old badges from previous conferences (whatever style/form you want, you don't have to rinse them out, either) 2. Put them in an envelope and send them to me: Richard Smith SFU Vancouver Suite 3574, 515 West Hastings Street Vancouver BC V6B 5K3 CANADA 3. I will collect them up, sort them, clean them, fix the strings, and keep track of the truly exceptional contributions (and, if Mia gets her way, we'll have prizes at the banquet), and ensure that they are ready for re-use at the conference. Remember, reuse is the best way to reduce our impact on the environment. By the way, the "Facebook" group for AoIR8 is getting a lot of members (well, 39 as of this morning), so join in if you have a face. Here is the URL: http://sfu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2331171313&ref=nf ...r -- Richard Smith, Associate Professor School of Communication Simon Fraser University, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, CANADA V6B 5K3 Phone: 604 291 5116 Web: http://www.sfu.ca/~smith/ Skype - callto:// richard_k_smith New book: http://arago.cprost.sfu.ca/smith/mawc