The Annual Meeting is almost upon us.  Whether featured by our SIG, or elsewhere on the Annual Meeting program, there is a wide range of intriguing papers and posters that should appeal to our membership.  We have Caroline Guardino and Hannah Dostal to thank for bringing this information together in the following pages of this newsletter.

Though the 2015 election closed in early March, AERA has not yet announced the results.  Let us be sure to thank Robert Hoffmeister and Kimberly Wolbers for being our Program Chair-Elect candidates in this year’s election.  I’m looking forward to announcing our new Program Chair-Elect very soon.

Remember that we have a rotating, two-year term model for our program officers (i.e., year one of term: Program Chair-Elect; year two of term: Program Chair), which means that annually we are seeking new candidates to stand for Program Chair-Elect.  In addition to this office, during the 2016 SIG elections we will be electing a new Secretary/Treasurer (three-year term).  Nominations will be due in early November of this year.  Please consider running for one of these offices.  Nominations may be sent to the SIG Chair (Ross Mitchell) or the SIG Secretary/Treasurer (Peter Crume).

In addition to thinking about officer nominations, it is time to consider volunteering as a member of the review panel for next year’s proposal submissions.  Having done this before becoming an officer, I highly recommend the experience.  Just be sure to set aside sufficient time in August to do so.

As always, our SIG membership experiences turnover from one year to the next.  Please, continue inviting people to join our SIG and, whether they join or not, to participate in our Annual Meeting program.  Particularly for those people doing research in the field of Deaf Education, now is the time to get the word out about AERA and our SIG.  Encourage researchers you know to think about submitting a paper or poster to our SIG for the 2016 Annual Meeting, which will be in Washington, DC.  Let them know that proposals will be accepted through the online submission system beginning in June and are due no later than the middle of July of this year.

I encourage everyone presenting a paper or poster to the SIG to also enter their paper for The Best Paper Award.  Neither entry received from last year’s Annual Meeting was judged as both sufficiently complete to meet all of the review criteria—the same content criteria used to assess proposals—and executed well enough to merit being recognized as the strongest research from within the SIG.  Since I can only speculate as to why we had so few entries, the Business Meeting agenda will include time to discuss our recruitment and review processes for The Best Paper Award.

Finally, our Business Meeting will conclude with a discussion with invited panelists and a reception (fruit, vegetables, cheeses, antipasti, and tapas).  I look forward to seeing all of you in Chicago!

Your SIG Chair, Ross Mitchell