NACADA Region 5 Conference

April 11-13, 2012, Akron, Ohio

Announcing the 2012 Great Lakes Region 5 Call for Proposals
“Academic Advising: Reinventing Student Success for the 21st Century”

Proposals due by December 30, 2011

The 2012 Region 5 Conference will be held April 11-13, 2012, in Akron, OH at The Quaker Square Inn at The University of Akron. Join us for an inspiring conference full of new, innovative, and cutting edge practices in academic advising and enjoy what Akron, OH has to offer. We will gather at the historic Quaker Square Inn for two days of professional development, renewal, and a chance to reconnect with your colleagues from all over Region 5. Each Quaker Square guest room is perfectly round in the shape of the silo, which used to hold 1.5 million bushels of grains and is sure to inspire you to “think outside of the box”. Conveniently located in downtown Akron this venue is easily accessible from the Canton/Akron and Cleveland Hopkins airports and within walking distance of downtown Akron. We hope that you will join us!

You are invited to submit a proposal for presentation. We will accept proposals from October 17, 2011 to December 30, 2011. While we do not require that proposals contain the conference title, we do hope participants use their imagination when coming up with possible session topics. Some general ideas we are looking for are:

• Interesting and innovative advising programs
  
  
• Innovative advising professional development and training programs
  
  
• Cutting edge technology programming in the advising field
  
  
• Creative programming with various student populations
  
  
• Integration of Career Advising and Academic Advising
  
  
• Making the transition from Advisor to Administrator

To review proposal submission instructions and submit proposal - click here

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING SUBMISSION CRITERIA:

Criteria for selection of paper/presentation: Proposals will be evaluated based on relevance to current issues in advising, appeal to conference participants, creativity, ingenuity, and applicability for participants after the conference. We are seeking a wide range of presentation topics relating to academic advising from a variety of advising professionals in our region.

Eligibility for submission: Anyone involved in advising (administration, faculty, full-time advisors, and administrative staff) is invited to submit a proposal. We encourage novices and experienced presenters alike. Share your research, best practices, or techniques with colleagues in the region.

Proposals should include your presentation title, learning objectives, and desired format (i.e. topic discussion, panel, etc.). Titles do not need to incorporate the conference theme. Please include a brief abstract describing your presentation, an outline of presentation, the desired learning objectives, and any other information (e.g., brief lit review or supporting research) that will assist the reviewers in assessing your proposal. Abstracts will be included in the conference program and on the conference website. Please limit abstracts to 135 words.

Format options:

Conference sessions include pre-conference workshops, concurrent sessions, and a poster session. Concurrent sessions can be in the format of a paper or topic presentation or a panel discussion.

• Pre-conference workshops are highly participatory sessions that last from 2-5 hours. Due to the length of Pre-conference workshops, presenters should plan to include some lecture as well as possible small and large group activities, and a question and answer period. Pre-conference workshops should be very hands-on and issue specific with material, activities, strategies and techniques that the participants can effectively use in their individual situations. Presenters should come prepared to answer questions concerning implementation and other issue specific questions.
  
  
• Paper or topic presentations discuss current issues in advising. Some are based on research, some share best practices, and some are developmental, while others are theoretical. The format may be mostly lecture with a discussion following or a more informal discussion.
  
• Panel discussions are designed to explain or involve various presenters from different institutions looking at the same topic from various angles. They do not include several presenters from one institution speaking on the same topic. If that is your presentation, it will not be considered for a panel and should be proposed as a paper or topic presentation.
  
• Poster sessions provide an informal opportunity to network and solicit feedback and ideas from all conference participants. The Poster Session is especially useful for new advisors who want to “get their feet wet” presenting at a conference or if you have a new and innovative program to share with your colleagues. You will bring your completed poster to the conference and we will provide space to exhibit your poster during breakfast on April 13th.

All concurrent sessions will be 60 minutes long. Although the program committee will make every effort to honor your requested format option, the committee may recommend an alternate format in order to accept as many proposals as possible. Presenters will be notified via email by the end of January, 2012.