I think it is very important for people to get involved in this election, and to nominate people to serve on the executive. This next period will be very important to AoIR, and there are quite a few possible directions that the association might head, for instance: Will we develop a journal? or adopt a journal? or something else? Will we continue to pursue the Annual, or will we go a different direction? What will become of the website, wiki, conference system, and other tools we use all the time? Will we have to raise dues? Will we begin offering competitive bursaries to the conferences to whom? Will we standardize the conference or will we continue our 'every one is unique style'? Will we require full papers in future conferences? Those are just a smattering of the issues that the exec will deal with in the next two years, and many of them directly affect all of you. I'm sure the rest of the exec can think of even more issues and I'm sure you can too. So I'm encouraging you to participate in the election, the discussions around it, to nominate people, and to determine AoIR's future. Personally, I know that I'm stepping down this term, though I might stand for election in the future. It has been a great experience, and I'd continue it if I could, but I'm entering a new stage in my career soon, and want to pursue a few other projects for a while. Other original members of the exec are also reaching the end of their terms and ex officio terms, so we need people to step up and take the reins of AoIR, and help determine its future. Let's open the discussion, jeremy hunsinger jhuns@vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu jeremy.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments