CALL FOR PROPOSALS

• Complete Call for Proposals (PDF)

• Session Types

• Topic Areas

• Guidelines for Proposals

• Submission Process

• Robert J. Menges Award

You are invited to take part in the 35^th Annual POD Conference to be held in St. Louis, Missouri on November 3-7, 2010.  We are pleased to announce the 2010 conference theme: Gateways to New Directions.

St. Louis is a setting that resonates well with this year’s conference theme. Known as the gateway to the west, the city has a longstanding tradition of being a thoroughfare for groundbreakers and sojourners. It is an area rich in the pre-European, Native American history of the Illini Confederacy, the Missouri, and the Osage. More recently, many people who have impacted the direction of American culture come from St. Louis. St. Louis natives such as Mark Twain, Charles Lindbergh, Tennessee Williams, Josephine Baker, T.S. Eliot, William Burroughs, Tina Turner, Miles Davis and Maya Angelou not only framed modern America, they are iconoclasts who pushed beyond traditions to create new paradigms of practice and thought.   

The iconographic Gateway Arch is a fitting visual symbol for the conference theme, for POD has served as a gateway to the educational development community since its inception. Though the past decade has seen significant changes to POD - the community has grown immensely, it has become more of an international organization, and its members reflect an increasingly diverse range of disciplines and interests - it remains a place for remembering past accomplishments, realizing current initiatives, and discovering new possibilities.  We invite POD attendees to engage in a larger discussion about the many opportunities and challenges we face, such as budget cuts, incorporating technology effectively, and being more responsive to our diverse students’ needs. Let us share our research outlining the ways in which we have successfully created new passageways at our institutions and in our practices. We encourage the POD membership to reflect on the people and forces that have framed and continue to frame our professional culture. Where have we come from and where do we intend to go from here?  What needs to be done to create new paradigms within our practice and our thought?

The 2010 conference theme asks POD attendees to take a fresh look at our past, present and future as we consider new directions for our profession and our organization. In the longstanding tradition of POD camaraderie, we look forward to seeing you at this year’s Annual POD Conference in St. Louis as we all consider this year’s theme Gateways to New Directions.

Shaun Longstreet, Conference Co-Chair shaun.longstreet@utdallas.edu
Suzanne Tapp, Conference Co-Chair suzanne.tapp@ttu.edu
Michael Palmer, Program Co-Chair mpalmer@virginia.edu
Martin Springborg, Program Co-Chair martin.springborg@csu.mnscu.edu

General Information

Proposals may be submitted online beginning Friday, February 19 on the POD website at http://podnetwork.org/pod and will be due by 5 PM (Pacific Time) on Friday, March 26, 2010. Proposals will be evaluated using a blind review process.  Detailed information about the session types, topic areas, guidelines for submission, submission process, and the Robert J. Menges Honored Presentation Award are listed below.  It is vital that you read the guidelines for proposals before submitting as certain changes have been implemented based on feedback from previous conferences.

Session Types

POD welcomes proposals for a wide variety of sessions featuring best practices, new resources, innovative approaches, discussion of critical issues, presentation of research, and work-in-progress. As scholars, we value work that is systematically designed, implemented, and assessed so that the bases for our conclusions are clear. We want participants to leave each session with ideas about how to apply, extend, or adapt what they have learned.

Pre-conference Workshops

Pre-conference workshops emphasize learning-by-doing. Participants explore topics in some depth through reflection, hands-on activities, and discussion.  In the workshop description, please include an outline of the types of learning activities and interaction you are planning.  The vast majority of pre-conference sessions are 3 hours in length. The number of 6-hour sessions is limited and reserved for proposals that clearly justify the need for the longer session. Audio-visual equipment can be requested.

Please indicate the maximum number of participants and any special room set-up you might need.  Computer laboratories are not available and laptops cannot be provided for presenters.

Pre-conference workshops will take place during the afternoon of Wednesday, November 3^rd and the morning of Thursday, November 4^th.  The workshops will be advertised in the conference registration materials and may include a nominal materials fee where justified (e.g., for a book actually used in the session). We will notify you of pre-registration numbers before the conference and request that you be prepared for on-site registrants as well.

Please direct questions regarding pre-conference workshops to co-chairs Valerie Grabove (vgrabove@niagaracollege.ca) and Jeanette McDonald (jmcdonald@wlu.ca).

Concurrent Sessions

A. 75-minute interactive sessions 

These sessions combine brief presentations or panel discussions with methods that engage all participants. POD has a long-standing tradition of interactive, collegial sessions – not of lecturing or reading papers to passive audiences. Session leaders are encouraged to incorporate meaningful activities as appropriate, selecting from a variety of methods such as presentation, demonstration, discussion, application, feedback, group and individual work, and role playing. Use your creativity to model exemplary teaching!  Audio-visual equipment can be requested for 75-minute interactive sessions.

Please direct questions regarding 75-minute interactive sessions to co-chairs Natasha Haugnes (nhaugnes@academyart.edu) and Cassandra Volpe Horii (chorii@curry.edu).

B. 75-minute roundtable discussions

Roundtable discussions provide an opportunity for various kinds of interactions, such as discussion of a concept, approach, program, issue, case study, or reading, in a smaller group setting (10-15 people). This format is ideal for getting to know people who may be facing similar issues to you, for exploring new ideas, and sharing practices.  It is contrary to the spirit of a roundtable discussion for the facilitator to make a formal presentation.  No audio-visual equipment is available for roundtable sessions and none may be used by presenters in the roundtable discussion format.

Please direct questions regarding 75-minute roundtable discussions to co-chairs Laurette Foster (lbfoster@pvamu.edu) and Henry Findlay (findlay@tuskegee.edu).

C. Poster presentations

Poster sessions provide an ideal format for presenting your research, program, or work-in-progress in a context where you can engage in many one-on-one discussions with colleagues. The poster format features visuals as a conversation starter, with the big ideas in large print. Handouts can be used to provide more details. Feel free to use graphics or objects, where appropriate. POD presenters come from a wide variety of backgrounds and present many styles of posters.

Due to space and the number of sessions, no audio-visual equipment will be provided for poster sessions, including electrical outlets.  Each presenter will have table space and a large poster board. 

(Note: In contrast to the Poster Session, the Resource Fair provides an open venue for sharing materials and ideas from your work. The fair is open and non-reviewed. Information about the Resource Fair will be available later in the spring.)

Please direct questions regarding poster presentations to chair Katherine Kearns (kkearns@indiana.edu).

Topic Areas

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

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

Based on feedback from past conferences, we are asking proposers, after selecting their topic area(s), to then identify their target audience(s):

• 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

• All POD members

• Other (please identify):

* The topics, intended audience, and abstract of the session will be listed in the conference program to give participants as much information as possible when making decisions about which sessions to attend.

Guidelines for Proposals

Eligibility

All are welcome to submit a proposal. Once a session is accepted, each presenter and co-presenter must agree to be a member of POD and be a paid registrant at the conference.

Number of proposals per person

Each POD attendee may propose up to one pre-conference workshop as either the primary or co-presenter.

An attendee may propose up to two concurrent sessions, but he/she may be the primary presenter for only one regular concurrent session.  An attendee may also be listed as a secondary presenter in only one other regular concurrent session.  Posters and roundtables are included in this two-session limit. 

Blind-review process

All proposals are blind-reviewed by peers. Please replace names of people and institutions with Xs in the title, abstract and session description. The only identification should be in the contact information. Proposals that identify people or institutions will be rejected automatically in the review process. If the proposal is accepted, you will have the opportunity to edit the title and abstract to include names and institutions.

Sale of materials and the solicitation of consulting work

POD’s statement of “Ethical Guidelines for Educational Developers” emphasizes the importance of allowing “no personal or private interests to conflict or appear to conflict with professional duties or clients' needs” (section 2h, http://podnetwork.org/faculty_development/ethicalguidelines.htm).

To avoid the possibility of a conflict of interest, POD does not permit in any conference session the sale of materials before or during the conference nor the solicitation of presentation materials after the conference.  Furthermore, POD does not allow presenters to solicit consulting work during any session listed in the program.

Session presenters are permitted to use materials they have created and to refer to consulting work that they do, but neither materials nor services may be offered for sale during the session. Pre-conference workshops may receive permission to charge an additional fee for materials (such as books), to be collected with the conference registration fee.

Because POD recognizes and values the expertise of its members, the conference schedule includes a Vendor Exhibit, a specific time when materials can be sold and consultation work can be solicited.

Questions about this conference practice should be addressed to the Executive Director or the Conference Chairs.

To Submit a Proposal

To submit a proposal, beginning on Friday, February 19, go to: http://podnetwork.org/pod

The call for proposals closes at 5 PM (Pacific Time) Friday, March 26, 2010.

Complete instructions are provided on the website.

Submission Process

Before you prepare a proposal, please insure that you have read the guidelines for proposals. Failure to follow these guidelines can lead to the rejection of a proposal.

Components of the proposal
(Note: All proposals are blind-reviewed in accordance with the guidelines described above.)

• Contact information
   

• Session title (no more than 10 words)
   

• Session abstract (no more than 100 words)
   

• Designation of up to two topic areas.
   

• Please select the type of session best suited for your proposal.  Be sure that there is a fit between what you intend to accomplish and the type of session you choose. 
   

• Session description (no more than 500 words)

1. Provide a conceptual framework for your work, e.g., theoretical or empirical basis, goals, implementation, research findings, and assessment.

2. State expected outcomes for session participants.

3. Outline the session activities and plan for interaction. Please model exemplary teaching and learning practices.  For poster presentations, focus on the manner in which you plan to present your work rather than on the type of interaction you anticipate.

4. Appropriately and meaningfully connect your proposal to the overall conference theme of Gateways to New Directions.

5. Where appropriate, integrate critical reflection related to diversity.

• References (no more than 150 words): Strong proposals cite canonical and current literature. You do not need to remove your name if you authored one or more of the references; however, if you refer to the text in the description above, do not state that you are the author.
   

• Audiovisual request: AV equipment, such as projectors and flipcharts, is available but limited to pre-conference workshops and 75-minute interactive sessions. N.B.: POD is unable to supply laptop computers; presenters must bring their own laptop.
   

• Please check the self-nomination box if you wish to be considered for the Robert J. Menges Honored Presentation Award. Research-based proposals may be eligible for this award, as described below. 

Robert J. Menges Honored Presentation Award

Proposal authors are asked to indicate whether they would like to have their proposal considered for the criteria of the Robert J. Menges Honored Presentation Award, as listed below.

1. A session from the 75-minute interactive or roundtable session proposals is chosen to represent the best of sound and rigorous research in an area appropriate to the POD mission, and
    

2. The substance of the session proposal and the research upon which it is based reflect a spirit of nurturing and caring for others, the promotion of professional and personal development, and evidence of serious scholarship in the deepest and most humane sense.

For more details, go to http://podnetwork.org/grants_awards/robert_menges.htm.

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