A Global Community

Introduction

The Spring Conference in Jacksonville turned out to be a great conference! We were all delighted by how pleasant the Crowne Plaza Hotel facilities and staff were. We had a very good turn out and heard nothing but nice things from our participants. The hotel was situated on the river with views of ships, draw bridges and the city of Jacksonville itself. An inexpensive and pleasant taxi boat ride takes people across the river for various dining and entertainment options. It was a great place to visit that everyone seemed to enjoy and with rates that were very affordable. In fact, we may find ourselves returning in the not so distant future.

UPCOMING CONFERENCES

Summer International Internet Conference

Our Summer 2007 International Internet Conference (July 17-31) has been growing in popularity among our members and gives participants the ability to submit papers just as they would for a normal conference without having to go anywhere. As many of you know, submitting a paper for award consideration at one of our conferences is a very effective way to get your paper considered for Journal publication very quickly. Participation is as easy as reading through the online proceedings, choosing those papers that interest you, then sharing comments on the message board regarding things you would like to share about your paper or other peoples'. We will also post Power Point presentations to our web site if you wish. Submission deadline is July 2. We hope to "see" you there.

Fall 2007 International Conference in Reno

We will be holding our Fall 2007 Interneational Conference (October 4-5) at the Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa in Reno, Nevada. As I have mentioned before, Reno is such a nice little town nestled in some beautiful mountains and the Atlantis is a very nice hotel. Just to give you a little more information about the Atlantis it offers luxury hotel accommodations, the relaxed atmosphere of a European style spa & salon and Reno's only hotel with indoor and outdoor pools, fine dining from around the world with eight award winning restaurants, and non-stop gaming action in Reno's best casino. It is centrally located only a few minutes from the airport (with a free shuttle), at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range and is only a half hour from Lake Tahoe. Its location is also convenient to the newest shopping and dining district.  In short, you never have to leave the hotel, but if you decide to there is quite a bit to do and see. The weekday sleeping room rates are only $69 and the weekend rates are $139. Be sure to tell them you are with Allied Academies when you book. For reservations call 800-723-6500.

If you did not get the previous newsletter that shared some tips on getting to Reno, I have taken the liberty of reprinting what was said here. This past Fall when we went to Reno, we flew into Sacramento, CA and rented a car so we could drive over Donner's Pass and recreate a trip we had taken ten years earlier. The scenery was beautiful and we would have stopped at the historic towns along the way to visit had we had more time to do so. Maybe it's just because it reminds me of home, but in my humble opinion, Reno is a beatiful town nestled in some beautiful mountains. The only drawback it has is that direct flights in are not as easy to come by as they are with a big city like Las Vegas. However, I highly recommend flying into Sacramento and taking a leisurely drive over the mountain so that you can really stop and appreciate the scenery. You will also begin to appreciate how good we have it today compared to when roads and railroads were cut in with men with picks and manual labor was one of the few ways to make a living. After all, what good is a business trip if you don't get to enjoy the scenery.

Spring 2008 International Conference in ???

We are not sure where the conference will be in April of 2008. However, at this point it looks like it will be Tunica, Mississippi. The Crowne Plaza in Jacksonville gave us another great offer to come back and we were very tempted to jump on it. However, we have had a number of members who have expressed interest in returning to a gambling destination. Las Vegas is among the favorites, but has been difficult to get a good deal from in the past few years. Tunica is a very nice little town on the edge of the Mississippi River that offers a lot of the features you would expect to find in a city that never sleeps. We will keep you posted on the decision and dates and hope to see you there where ever there happens to be.

JOURNAL NEWS

On another note, part of our Phase Two system redesign is almost finished. In the coming weeks we will have online access to all of our Journals for current members. We have also signed with Pro Quest and a few other indexing firms to handle indexing our journals. This will mean instiutional subscribers will be able to access our journals all over the world and our journals will encounter a whole new level of exposure. The rest of Phase Two involves further automation of the journal submission process. This will become more and more necessary as we gain more exposure and our submissions begin to increase. A lot of good things are on the horizon and we want to thank those of you who have helped make it all possible.

ALLIED ACADEMIES AWARDS

Creative and Innovative Teaching Awards

The Academy of Educational Leadership sponsors special Awards to recognize innovative and creative teachers and educational programs. To be eligible for consideration, an individual must be nominated by a member of the Allied Academies and undergo evaluation by the Teaching Awards Committee. The following individuals have met the criteria and have been judged by the Committee to be worthy of the designation, Distinguished Teachers. We extend to them our sincere congratulations.

Fellow Award

These individuals have been supporters of the Allied Academies for many years. They have encouraged attendance at the conferences, worked as Referees and Editors, and have taken on extra duties on our behalf and. They have been good friends and colleagues, and are clearly worthy of Fellow status.

Distinguished Research Awards

We would like to congratulate the Distinguished Research Award Winners. The competition was extremely rigorous and intense. After extensive, double blind, peer review, the journal referees distinguished research status to 25% of the manuscripts. The authors of the following works will receive engraved plaques, and the manuscripts will be published in a future issue of the appropriate journal.