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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font style="font-size:11pt" face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Obdriveway <obdriveway@aol.com><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, May 5, 2020 7:42 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Wedge, Philip C. <pwedge@ku.edu>; joyced1001@cs.com <joyced1001@cs.com>; sdpeterson1890@gmail.com <sdpeterson1890@gmail.com><br>
<b>Subject:</b> RE Conference</font>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Dear Phil, Scott, and Joyce. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Joyce and Scott would you look this over and if it passes muster have Phil send it out?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Thanks,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Bruce </span></div>
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TO: ARETE LIST SERVE</div>
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FR: BRUCE PRATT PROGRAM CHAIR</div>
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RE: SLA VIRTUAL CONFERENCE UPDATE</div>
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Friends: It has been as Irish a morning as we get here on the Midcoast of Maine—patches of sun-splashed denim skies one moment then a cloak of dark clouds pours rain on us as the wind stirs the greening grass and bends the naked birches like supplicants at
the rail. It seems fitting weather on a day when we mourn the loss of Dennis Gildea, a fine man and beloved colleague. He was the program chair for the first conference I attended and his kind words on the story I read and the warm welcome from the group made
me an SLA lifer. The conference will, of course, include a tribute to Dennis, but when we next convene we’ll surely raise a glass to toast his honesty, wisdom, humor, and decency in a more personal way. I will give preference to Dennis’s Springfield College
colleagues Kyle Belanger and Rick Parr along with longtime SLA members who wish to be part of the tribute. </div>
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Scott and I have received a slew of recent abstracts and will be adding a third session. As Joyce has wisely pointed out, no one wants to spend a full eight hours in front of a screen on the same day, so session three will be on day three. </div>
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It will take a few days before I can get a tentative schedule together. As we will proceed by U.S. Eastern Time, I would ask that all non-North American based presenters send me a preferred time for their presentation—morning or afternoon—immediately and I
will do my very best to accommodate them. We have presenters from Europe and Australia so some of the sessions may not be as focused on one subject as has traditionally been the case. </div>
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We are in uncharted waters, but Scott and I will do our best to plot a sound course and make this as rewarding an experience as we can. Jeremy Larance is working on the technical end of things and Joyce, Scott and I are in that loop as well. </div>
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Many veteran presenters have sent notes saying they will attend but not present so we can get more of the folks who were unable to join us in France last summer on the program. One more reason I love SLA.</div>
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I will be in touch soon.</div>
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Bruce</div>
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