ABJ30 Member and Friends, Please plan to join us for the ABJ30 SUMMER MID-YEAR MEETING in WDC! Our Committee mid-year meeting will be held at the 2008 North American Travel Monitoring Exhibition and Conference, August 6-8, 2008, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. Online registration (www.NATMEC.org <http://www.natmec.org/> ) is available ($50 Early Bird savings by registering by May 6, 2008) and TRB special rate of $154 at the Omni (per room, per night, plus state and local tax). This rate is available until Tuesday, July 8, 2008, or until the block of rooms is sold out. Rooms are subject to availability and may be at a higher rate after this date. I will be looking for volunteers prior to August 1st to help organize our strategy for dealing with papers. We all have greatly appreciated Ed Christopher's amazing paper review process and I hope we can replicate his efficiencies - but it will take some planning to keep things running smoothly. We also will need volunteers for the Annual meeting agenda and a final version of our Goals and Objectives. Thinking about an ABJ30 WORKSHOP at TRB?? We will need to prepare any workshop ideas soon as the formal proposal needs to be submitted by June 1st. Here's what we will need to provide: o Workshop Title o Workshop length (Half Day/Full Day) o Description (A paragraph description is sufficient) o Sponsoring and/or Co-Sponsoring committees o Committee Contact I will be posting the summary report from the Data Retreat as soon as it is ready (should be very soon). The excitement from this conference should help us move forward on those areas where ABJ30 Members and Friends have interests - and help us identify funding sources and opportunities to work with other Committees as well. I will be talking with Ed about how best to keep the news flowing to all of you - including reviewing our website strategy - and working with listservs. Regards, Kate --- _____________________________ Catherine T. Lawson, Ph. D. Director, MRP Program Associate Professor University at Albany Geography & Planning AS 218 1400 Washington Albany, New York 12222 (518) 442-4775 (518) 442-4742 FAX lawsonc(a)albany.edu