2009 POD Network Conference
October 28th - November 1st
Houston, Texas USA

Complete 2009 Program Here

Plenary Speakers:

 Mary Huber, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
&
 Neil Howe, author of Millennials Go to College: Strategies for a New Generation on Campus and Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation 

Please read this information completely before preparing your registration form. You may scroll through the information or link to the various segments as indicated in the directory below. View original Call for Proposals here.

• Invitation to Attend

• Overview of the POD Network and Conference

• Conference Theme: Welcoming Change: Generations and Regeneration

• Topic Areas & Target Audiences

• Conference Overview

• POD Membership Dues

• Conference Fees

  • Job Fair – included in fees

  • Graduate & Professional Student Developers Breakfast – included in fees

  • Resource Fair – included in fees

• Plenary Sessions

• Topical Interest Groups

• Pre-Conference Workshops (descriptions and costs)

• Educational Expeditions (descriptions and costs)

• Hotel Reservations and Travel Instructions

• Shipping Information

• Registration form and instructions

  • 2009 Conference Registration Form – (use this form for secure electronic conference registration; payment by credit card [Visa or MasterCard only], check, or Purchase Order accepted.

INVITATION TO ATTEND

Dear Colleagues,

You are enthusiastically invited to attend the 2009 joint POD conference in Houston, Texas.

Those who have attended a POD conference in the past know, and newcomers will find, that this is not a dry academic meeting. We heartily welcome you to a uniquely friendly and nurturing community of colleagues.

At this conference, you will experience interactive workshops, roundtable discussions, poster presentations and plenary sessions by Neil Howe, author of “Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation”, and Mary Huber of the Carnegie Foundation. 

We promote dialogue among participants outside of formal sessions through shared meals, educational expeditions, and the resource fair, where colleagues freely share ideas and materials with one another.  Some highlights this year include:

1.    On Sunday, November 1^st at 8:30 a.m. we will be offering two special 90-minute concurrent sessions: one on diversity, Re-gen to Next-gen: Going Forward Together, and one on sustaining teaching excellence/faculty development centers, Sustaining and Championing Faculty Development – In Good Times or Bad.

2.    Volunteers will be available in a hospitality area to guide attendees in getting the most out of the many opportunities the conference offers.

3.    Informal meeting spaces will be set up in the Ballroom Foyer to facilitate collegiality and connection.

4.    The vendor exhibit will extend over 3 days.

5.    Rather than printing separate theme sheets, we will include topic and intended audience for each session in the program.  The program will be available online prior to the conference.

6.    Students can register for the conference at a significantly reduced rate.

7.    The IDEA Center will be offering a Users Group meeting from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Its purpose is to further develop on-campus expertise in the use of Individual Development and Educational Assessment (IDEA) among faculty, administrators, and staff. To attend the IDEA Center meeting you must register for it separately here.

We encourage you to register for the conference by October 2nd in order to take advantage of the early bird conference rate and to reserve your room at the conference hotel. The pre-conference sessions are scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, October 28^th (part one of the full day session) and the morning of Thursday, October 29^th. Concurrent sessions start on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. and continue through 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. We look forward to seeing you in Houston!

Debra Fowler & Kevin Barry, Conference Chairs
Suzanne Tapp & Shaun Longstreet, Program Chairs

OVERVIEW OF THE POD NETWORK AND CONFERENCE

The POD Network

POD supports a network of nearly 1800 members who have an interest in educational and organizational development. While POD members come primarily from the U.S.A. and Canada, the membership also represents 20 other countries. Through its members the POD Network leads and supports change for the improvement of higher education through faculty, instructional, and organizational development.

The POD Network seeks to promote these values:

• Scholarship

• Participation

• Interaction

• Collaboration

• Inclusion

The POD Mission

The POD Network in Higher Education fosters human development in higher education through faculty, graduate student, instructional, and organizational development. POD believes that people have value, as individuals and as members of groups. POD considers the development of students a fundamental purpose of higher education that requires for its success effective advising, teaching, leadership, and management. Central to POD's philosophy is lifelong, holistic, personal, and professional learning, growth, and change for the higher education community.

The POD Annual Conference

The annual conference typically attracts over 700 people, and primarily targets practitioners in the fields of faculty and organizational development, both novice and experienced. The conference appeals to these groups:

• Administrators

• Faculty

• Faculty developers

• Graduate student and post–doc developers

• Graduate students

• Independent consultants

• Publishers for the above audiences

• Members of higher education organizations

Collectively, program sessions do the following:

• Actively engage participants

• Reflect current research and theoretical frameworks

• Involve colleagues from around the world

• Address needs of graduate students and both new and experienced faculty

• Stimulate personal growth

• Build working partnerships

• Highlight contributions of diversity

CONFERENCE THEME
WELCOMING CHANGE: GENERATIONS AND REGENERATION

Our conference theme embraces the changes our different generations see across the nation, on our home campuses, and in our students; themes that include, but are not limited to:

• Generational differences

• Emerging technologies

• Embracing learner-centered teaching paradigms

• Sustainability issues

• Reinvigorating established teaching and learning centers

• Creating new centers and integrating them into campus culture

• Facing the challenges of downsizing and limited budgets

While known for bluebonnets, longhorn cattle, Buddy Holly, and Tejano music, Texans are especially known for their warm hospitality.  In fact, Texas derives its name from the Caddo First Nations people in east Texas; they used the term ‘tayshas’, meaning friend or ally.  It is thus in a friendly spirit of change and regeneration that we look forward to hosting the 2009 POD Conference, where we can greet old friends and meet new colleagues.  Join us in Houston as we move forward: Welcoming Change: Generations and Regeneration.

TOPIC AREAS & TARGET AUDIENCES

The following topics represent areas of interest to POD members identified from past conferences presentations, listserv discussions, 2008 POD conference feedback, faculty development literature, and more. 

Proposers were asked to identify a primary topic and (if desired) a second, affiliated topic.  Proposers were also asked to identify particular populations likely to benefit or have interest in the proposed session.

Potential target audience(s) will be listed in the conference program and include the following:

• Seasoned faculty developers

• New/recent faculty developers (5 years or less)

• Large colleges and universities

• Community colleges

• Small colleges

• Historically Black Colleges and Universities

• Faculty (conference attendees who are faculty and also part–time developers)

• International POD participants

• Technology, technology integration specialists

• Administrators

• Other (please identify):
   

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

The POD conference registration desk will be open in the Ballroom Foyer at these times:

• Tuesday, 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

• Wednesday, 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

• Thursday, 7:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m.

• Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

• Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 12 noon

POD MEMBERSHIP DUES
(in U.S. dollars)

CONFERENCE FEES

Conference registration fees are outlined below. Fees are in U.S. dollars and payment must be made in U.S. dollars.

• All conference participants are required to be current members of POD.

• International membership applies to persons from countries other than Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Non–member fees include a one–year membership.

• Please note that the conference registration fee includes the designated conference meals, coffee breaks and receptions (see Conference Overview).

• Pre–conference workshops, educational expeditions, and tables at the vendor exhibit have separate fees, in addition to the registration and membership fees.

Pre–Conference Workshop Fees

Pre–conference workshops are presented in half–day and full–day formats. The fee for the full–day workshop is $170 and all half–day workshops are $80. See the
pre–conference workshop section for more details.

Educational Expeditions

The fees vary, and are specified below in the descriptions of the expeditions.

Job Fair

The Job Fair will be held on Saturday afternoon from 3:30–4:45. This session should be considered a networking "meet and greet" opportunity, not a time for formal interviews. Job candidates are likely to have more success if they meet face–to–face with potential employers rather than just dropping off a resume; the time can then be used to learn more about the position and the employing institution. Potential employers can use this time to plan a subsequent interview during the conference.

Graduate & Student Professional Student Developers Breakfast

Continuing a POD tradition, the Graduate & Professional Student Developers Breakfast will be held on Saturday morning from 7:00–8:30 am. This event is designed to facilitate networking among Graduate & Professional Student Developers, and there is a POD committee devoted to these special interests. The breakfast meeting provides time to discuss directions, issues, and activities for the group and for the committee.

Resource Fair

Prior to 2007, the Resource Fair included both non–profit and for–profit organizations. We now offer two distinct events: The Resource Fair features tables only from college– and university–affiliated programs and from non–profit organizations. The Vendor Exhibit will feature tables only from businesses such as publishers and consultants.

The Resource Fair and Reception will be held on Saturday evening from 5:00–6:30 pm. The Resource Fair provides an opportunity to socialize while showcasing your programs by displaying and distributing information about your activities, resources, and services. Materials and services may NOT be offered for sale or promoted for sale during the Resource Fair.

NOTE: If you wish to have a table at the Resource Fair, you must register for the conference and reserve your table in advance by checking the appropriate box on the conference registration form. You or your representative should plan to be at your table to talk with conference participants during the entire session.  There is no fee.

Vendor Exhibit

The Vendor Exhibit will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday excluding the time during the plenaries. The Vendor Exhibit is the only time at the conference when items or services may be offered or promoted for sale. We welcome publishers, consultants, and others. If you wish to reserve a table at this event, you must reserve your place in advance by checking the appropriate box on the conference registration form. The fee to reserve a table is $400 for individual conference attendees and $750 for corporate vendors.

PLENARY SESSIONS

Plenary 1   Teaching Travels: The Social Life of Pedagogical Innovation in Higher Education

Mary Taylor Huber, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Friday, October 30^th, 12:00-1:30

A quiet but significant change is taking place in college and university teaching. Once practiced mostly in private, teaching in higher education has become more public. On campuses, in disciplinary and professional associations, among publishers and journal editors, there are growing numbers of face-to-face, print, and on-line forums in which faculty are presenting, critiquing, and building on each other’s pedagogical work. Many factors have contributed to this transformation, including the development of new media and new genres for conducting and representing teaching and learning, assessment efforts requiring greater attention to learning outcomes, and the spread of a scholarship of teaching and learning that is bringing regular faculty members (not just specialists in pedagogy) into the conversation. My subtitle borrows shamelessly from John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid’s important book: The Social Life of Information (2002). Their point, briefly put, is that “information” and the “individuals” who produce and use it, “are inevitably and always part of rich social networks” (p.ix)—and that these networks are central to understanding why knowledge sometimes travels and sometimes does not.

Teaching Travels will start by looking at a couple of cases of classroom innovation--one that can stand for the old status quo, characterized by a culture of “pedagogical solitude” (Shulman 1993) and one that suggests what’s possible in the more public pedagogical environments that are developing today. The second part of this talk will look more closely at “demand,” in particular at the kinds of communities that inform the pedagogical imagination of teachers. I will conclude with thoughts about what it might take to turn these often transitory trading zones into a genuine commons, which scholars treat as an integral part of what it means to be a teacher in higher education (Huber and Hutchings 2005). If Brown and Duguid are right, the place to look is not to information itself, but to practice. “Become a member of a community,” they argue, “engage in its practice, and then you can acquire and make use of its knowledge and information” (2000).
 

Plenary 2  Millennials Go To College

Neil Howe, author of “Millennials Go to College: Strategies for a New Generation on Campus” and “Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation”

Saturday, October 31^st, 10:30-11:45

Who are the Millennials? Why are these young people so new and special? And what can educators do to make their institution of higher education best serve their needs? Neil Howe explains it all. He draws the big picture by locating Millennials in the context of other youth generations (G.I.s, Silent, Boomers, Xers) over the last century. He describes what has happened in families, schools, and politics to shape this generation so differently from Xers or Boomers. And he focuses on the concrete steps schools can take to best leverage their distinct collective personality--including how to get Boomer and Xer educators to work together. His presentation will cover the hottest emerging issues, from helicopter moms to the new focus on teamwork and protection, from the new research on "small learning communities" and more rigorous "standards" to continuous academic feedback.  He will also focus on the rising number of Gen-X parents of today’s college freshmen, and on what you need to know about Xers to successfully recruit their kids.

Get ready for a fascinating journey through the life stories of older generations and for an inspiring message about how to be the college of choice for today's rising generation.

TOPICAL INTEREST GROUPS

As conference attendance continues to grow and we foster collaborations with a broader spectrum of learning institutions and organizations, we want to maintain the informal community traditions upon which POD is built by providing an opportunity for colleagues to gather around common interests.  We would like the topical interest groups to bring together newcomers and more experienced educational developers, and to promote deeper interaction than can sometimes occur in conference sessions. 

Each TIG will have an experienced facilitator and will take place on Friday from 7:30–8:45 am.

The topics are not intended to comprise all the areas of expertise represented at the conference, but instead to provide a sufficient range of topics to interest everyone who attends. 

• Balance and Well–Being of Faculty

• Diversity in the Classroom

• Graduate Student Professional Development

• International/Intercultural Issues in Faculty and TA Development

• Issues in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

• Learning Theories, Research and Innovation

• Organizational Development

• Part–time Faculty Professional Development

• Program Evaluation

• Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

• Small Colleges

• Student Learning Assessment

• Teaching with Technology

• Faculty evaluation

PRE–CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

Full–Day Workshop (lunch on your own)

W1 Getting Started: Workshop for New Faculty Developers, $170

Todd Zakrajsek, University of North Carolina; Milt Cox, Miami University of Ohio; Jim Eison, University of South Florida; Karron Lewis, University of Texas at Austin; Susanne Morgan, Ithica College; Michael Reder – Connecticut College

Wednesday, October 28^th, 1:00-4:30 & Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

This session is designed for new faculty developers to assist in gaining the skills necessary to be an effective developer and to determine which activities will best serve their campuses. Experienced faculty developers from diverse institutions will address specific needs of the participants and offer "breakouts" to address a variety of issues.  The goal for the day will be for participants to walk away with concrete ideas of ways to best move forward at their own institution.

Half–Day Workshops (Thursday Morning)
  

W2 New and Experienced Graduate and Professional Student Developers: Generative Regeneration, $80

Laura Border, University of Colorado – Boulder; Linda von Hoene, University of Chicago; Elizabeth O’Connor Chandler, University of California at Berkeley

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

New and experienced graduate student developers prepare graduate students and postdoctoral fellows as current staff and as future faculty in a field focused primarily on faculty development. Workshop presenters and participants will share ideas for planning specific program content, practices, products, and assessments; consider and plan for their own professional development needs; and generate individual plans to create or improve a program or skill.  Newbies gain valuable knowledge and contacts, oldies get a chance to share their knowledge and regenerate a newly found enthusiasm and purpose.  Participants receive a 35% discounted subscription to Studies in Graduate & Professional Student Development.

W3 Organizational Development for Institutional Change: Our Role, $80

Nancy Chism, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis; Phyllis Blumberg, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia; Connie Schroeder, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee; Susan Gano-Phillips, University of Michigan-Flint; Catherine Frerichs, Grand Valley State University

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

While calls for professional developers to become directly involved in institutional development have been made over the years, extended conversations on the nature of organizational development (OD) and its applications to the work of higher education developers have not occurred. This preconference session proposes to address that void by providing helpful resources on OD as a field and basic approaches used in OD, then engaging participants in identifying an important area for change in their own settings, enumerating the contributions they can make, strategizing on getting to the leadership table, selecting an appropriate change strategy, and implementing the change.

W4 Successful Webinars Bring Regeneration During California’s Budget Crisis, $80

Brett Christie, Sonoma State University; Cynthia Desrochers, California State University

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

Our California State University, 23-campus, 24,000-faculty university system, the country's largest and most diverse, leverages the budget-cut challenges to generate new workshop designs. With the mandate to limit air travel, we are providing hybrid webinars. Our efforts have gone from successful initial pilots to statewide perfection -- or close. Moreover, our data show that well planned and executed online workshops are as engaging and interactive for faculty as face-to-face. This interactive session will highlight results of our cost-effective, system-wide professional development webinar series. Included will be online-workshop facilitation best practices, home-site checklists, remote-site checklists, and how we successfully engage all participants.

W5 Welcoming Success in Academe: Regeneration through Writing, Organization and Reflection, $80

Joanne Cooper, University of Hawaii; Dannelle Stevens, Portland State University

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

What is essential for success in the academy? While much is changing in academe, research, writing and publication are still the foundation. However, academic lives are often consumed with meetings, teaching and advising, leaving faculty and aspiring faculty wondering how to fit in research and writing. Success often eludes new faculty, especially women and underrepresented minorities. Through our research we have found some organizational, writing and research strategies that save precious time, encourage focus and foster reflection that leads to success. The purpose of this session is to introduce and practice powerful strategies shown to help faculty and aspiring faculty be productive and, ultimately, achieve tenure in academe.

W6 Starting Out in Leadership Development, $80

Deborah DeZure, Michigan State University; Dr. Allyn Shaw, Michigan State University

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

Increasingly faculty developers are asked to provide leadership development for academic administrators and faculty. While faculty development theory, research and practice provide a strong base from which to move into leadership development, there are new challenges. This session will assist faculty developers to design, implement, and assess high quality programs of leadership development for their institutions. Drawing on theory and research on leadership, leadership development and leadership pipelines from higher education and corporate contexts, this program will identify key strategic decisions, program models, and resources to enable participants to match their institutional cultures and needs with productive leadership development practices.

W7 Developing and Administering Better Surveys: What Educational Developers Should Know, $80

Michele DiPietro, Carnegie Mellon University

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

A key to effecting change on our campuses is high quality data. In an era of increasing accountability in which faculty developers are asked to document their effectiveness, well-developed surveys are a vital tool. In addition, data from surveys play an integral role in needs assessments, course assessments, and workshop, seminar and program evaluation instruments. However, the quantitative and methodological skills required for developing effective surveys are often not part of the developer’s toolbox. This hands-on workshop is designed to help developers design and administer better surveys. Participants will have the opportunity to work on their own survey topic.

W8 Planning for Conceptual Understanding: A New Approach to Course Design, $80

Edmund Hansen, Northeastern Illinois University

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

This workshop presents a blueprint for course design that replaces the traditional content-centered format with a conceptual approach to accomplish true alignment of all key course components. Workshop participants will be guided through a four-step procedure for deriving learning outcomes and linking them with course activities and learner assessment. Participants will receive a model for a course design document that in a few pages communicates the whole structure of a course and how its constituent elements generate conceptual understanding. This model was developed over the six-year period of a large federal grant working with faculty groups across many disciplines.

W9 Sustaining Vitality in All Stages of Faculty Life, $80

Barbara Hornum, Drexel University; Antonis Asprakis, Drexel University

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

In the field of faculty development, sustaining vitality has traditionally focused on senior and long term faculty. However, rapid and large-scale changes in faculty roles create new stressors for the profession at multiple levels requiring faculty development centers to offer programs that move beyond the traditional “senior faculty burnout” model. Several years of working with faculty at Drexel University exposed emerging concerns among them at many levels and career stages. Through expanding the target populations and programmatic offerings, faculty development centers can effectively offer support that is both relevant and meaningful to broad-based faculty development, professional growth and career satisfaction.

W10 Knowledge Surveys and Structured Focus Groups: Leading Change, $80

Barbara Millis, University of Texas, San Antonio; Ed Nuhfer, CSU Channel Islands; Steve Fleisher, CSU Channel Islands

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

Through models, demonstrations, interactive exercises, and hands-on experience, participants will become proficient in helping faculty, departments, and their institutions learn how to use two powerful assessment tools, Knowledge Surveys and highly structured Focus Groups. A shorter 20-minute “Quick Course Diagnosis”—using three specific tools showing satisfaction levels, perceptions of student learning outcome achievement, and course or program strengths or weaknesses—is far more efficient and effective than SGIDs. Participants will leave with new knowledge and skills and a DVD ("Toolbox") of resources that include materials such as templates and sample reports for both Knowledge Surveys and Focus Groups.

W11 Revealing Disciplinary Thinking: Faculty Interviews as a Gateway to SoTL, $80

George Rehrey, Indiana University; Joan Middendorf, Indiana University; Teresa Johnson, Ohio State University; Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens, Otterbein College

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

A seven-step inquiry process known as “decoding the disciplines” allows faculty to work along with educational developers to identify disciplinary assumptions and types of thinking that are second nature to experts but can be baffling to novices such as our students. In this session, we explicitly focus and practice step two, which is the key moment involved in opening this “black box.” Participants will view videotapes of faculty interviews and practice interviewing one another for decoding their own disciplines. Finally, participants will discuss their experiences and consider how they might use this approach to interviewing colleagues on their own campuses.

W12 Peak Performance Practices of Highly Effective and Happy Faculty, $80

Susan Robison, College of Notre Dame

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

Faculty are hardworking professionals who do good, yet sometimes forget to discern which activities are worthy of their time and energy. Drawn to fit into academic culture by complaining about how hard they work, faculty secretly worry that they are not working effectively. This practical, interactive workshop based on studies on faculty productivity, peak performance, work-life balance, and work satisfaction will distill the work habits and practices of the most successful and engaged academics. Help your faculty get in charge of those to-do lists so they can teach well, produce the research that one's institution requires, and achieve life balance.

W13 Delivering Quality Faculty Development in Tough Economic Times, $80

Martin Springborg, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities; Zala Fashant, Minnesota State Colleges & Universities

Thursday, October 29^th, 8:30-12:00

This interactive session explores the means by which faculty development is delivered in a tough economy. In addition to budgetary constraints, faculty developers face the challenge of meeting the needs of baby boomers, as well as millennials who demand quick and easily-accessible faculty development at their fingertips. Using online courses, meetings, workshops and conferences our center has turned challenge into opportunity. Presenters and participants will discuss best practices in online faculty development and share their own strategies. They will also develop their own plan for implementing online faculty development programs. Faculty developers without budgetary and program concerns need not attend!

W14 How’s it Going? Reflecting on Our Work, $80
James E. Groccia, Auburn University; Kate Brinko, Appalachian State U.; Dee Fink, Dee Fink and Associates Consulting; Julie Lochbaum, Truman State University

Thursday, October 29th, 8:30-12:00

“How’s it Going?” offers early and mid-career faculty developers an opportunity to present their work, consult with veteran mentors, and develop networks to sustain the consultative processes initiated in this workshop. Participants present a selective portfolio of their center’s work and target one issue for discussion. The wisdom that emerges from small group exchanges between early-career, mid-career, and veteran faculty developers is recorded so that participants acquire a set of evaluative questions and strategies to use reflectively as they pursue the vision of faculty development on campus. Portfolio guidelines will be distributed in advance.

EDUCATIONAL EXPEDITIONS

Many excursions have minimum and maximum participation limits.  Sign up early to reserve a space!  If an expedition is full, you will be notified and will have the option to be put on a waiting list, get a refund, or choose another expedition.

Please note that driver and guide gratuities are not included in the price per person.

E1 Space Center Houston
Thursday, October 29^th, 11:00-5:00
$70 per person

As the official visitors’ center for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, guests to Space Center Houston will experience the thrill and adventure of the manned space flight program first hand. Space Center Houston lets visitors share in the accomplishments of NASA while exploring the past, present and future of space flight.  See what is happening in Houston's Mission Control, at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center launch pad, and even aboard the actual space shuttle during missions. Journey through the history of space and view what the future holds for this exciting field. Peruse the world’s largest display of moon rocks here, with one that you can touch. Board a comfortable tram and enjoy a guided, behind the scenes tour at Johnson Space Center. View the Mission Control Center used to maintain contact with our astronauts on actual missions. Tour an exact duplicate of the mid -deck and flight deck of the space shuttle. Afterward, try the “Land the Shuttle” simulator. A knowledgeable tour guide will be provided as well as a box lunch for the bus ride down to NASA.

E2 George Ranch
Thursday, October 29^th, 11:00-5:00
$70 per person

A day at the George Ranch celebrates Texas’ heritage. This living history museum brings the sights, sounds and colors of 100 years of Texas history to life as guests take an active role in the daily operation of a 23,000-acre working cattle ranch. Costumed guides depicting characters from the 1890's and 1930’s interact with your group putting on demonstrations and skits and leading tours of various restored homes. Get to know the four generations who triumphed and struggled as they fought to make this Texas ranch succeed. Grind corn, spin cotton and tend livestock with some of Stephen F. Austin’s first colonists at the 1830’s Jones Stock Farm. Wander through a pioneer dogtrot cabin and barn as you come face-to-face with ranch life in the early 19th century. Blacksmithing, hands-on roping, mock branding and campfire cooking demonstrations give guests a peek at ranch life in the Victorian era. This tour includes a box lunch for your ride down to the George Ranch and a professional tour guide.

E3 Menil Collection
Friday, October 30^th, 1:30-4:30
$35 per person

One of the hidden gems of Houston is the Menil Collection.   The collection includes a wide variety of art including Surrealist and Cubist works, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism.  Also included are works from the Byzantine Empire, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Pacific Northwest.  The grounds cover several blocks and include the main museum, outdoor sculptures, the Rothko Chapel, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum, and special galleries for Cy Twombly and Dan Flavin.  Special exhibits during POD include “Body in Fragments” and “Joaquin Torres-Garcia: Wood Constructions”.   Transportation will be provided and you will be given maps and information with approximately 2-2.5 hours to explore the museum and the grounds. 

E4 ElderPOD Dinner/Reunion (for long-time POD members)
Friday, October 30^th, 6:30-9:30

Location & price to be announced. Please register if interested. You will be contacted soon via email with further details.

E5 Mary Poppins
Friday, October 30^th, 6:00-11:00 pm
$65 per person (Price Includes Show Only)

Houston is one of the first stops for Broadway tours.  During POD, there will be a performance of Mary Poppins at the Houston Hobby Center located about five blocks from the conference hotel.  This Tony Award winning performance combines the original stories by P. L. Travers and the Walt Disney movie.  The Hobby Center is less than 10 years old and is a world-class theater.   This excursion includes the tickets with your fellow POD colleagues.  We will provide maps to the show and will make dinner suggestions in the theater district. 

E6 Museum Tour – Houston Museum of Natural Science and Houston Museum of Fine Arts
Saturday, October 31^st, 12:30-5:30pm
$60 per person

Tour two of Houston’s most popular museums.  The Houston Museum of Natural Science is one of the most visited natural science museums in the Southwest. Highlights include the Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals which beautifully showcases 600 of the world’s finest display quality natural mineral specimens. In the newest addition to the Museum, the McGovern Hall of the Americas, discover life in the Americas before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. The Life Through Time

Paleontology Hall offers a chance to experience Prehistoric and Ice Age life through actual fossils, photomurals and displays. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), ranks as one of the largest and most outstanding museums of its kind in the Southwest. With 37,000 works including masterpieces of international significance, the Museum’s permanent collection celebrates 6,000 years of creativity. More than one million visitors pass through the halls of the Museum annually to view the work of 19th and 20th century artists on display. Installations showcasing African gold and the art of Sub -Saharan Africa, stunning examples of Asian, Oceanic, Native American, and masterworks of contemporary art are recent additions. This tour includes tickets to both museums, bus transportation, and a professional tour guide to help show you the best parts of both museums.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS AND TRAVEL INSTRUCTIONS  

HOTEL

Hyatt Regency Houston
1200 Louisiana Street, Houston, Texas, USA
October 28 - November 1, 2009
www.houstonregency.hyatt.com
713.654.1234 
800.233.1234

Special POD room rate: $129 for single or double (be sure to request the POD Network rate)

AIR TRAVEL

The Houston/George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), 22 miles away, may be more convenient (cheaper) since it's a Continental hub, but the William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) is closer, 13 miles away.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION

Bush (IAH) offers a Super Shuttle ($23 per person).
Two or three people would be cheaper in a taxi ($50)
The Hobby (HOU) Super Shuttle is $18, a taxi is $24 (again, cheaper for 2 or more).

SHIPPING INFORMATION

Please send boxes to:

Mr./Ms. Presenter/Exhibitor/Name
Group: POD Conference
Hyatt Regency Houston
1200 Louisiana Street
Houston, Texas  77002

Items should be shipped so they arrive 3 days (business) prior to your arrival.  
A $5.00 per box handling fee will be charged to your guest room bill.
Pallets (for very large & heavy shipments) are $75 each.

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