The annual meeting of SSSR will be held in Chicago at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel, beginning Thursday afternoon, June 27, 2002, and ending Sunday, June 30 at noon.

Most of our annual meetings have been held in conjunction with other, larger organizations, both in the USA and abroad. Last year our annual meeting was held independently for the first time, and it was a great success. Our 2002 meeting will be SSSR’s first meeting held jointly with another group. The Society for Text and Discourse, and we expect another great success. The time and place were chosen jointly by the boards of the two societies. There are many inexpensive flights to Chicago, and the Palmer House Hilton Hotel is well located, comfortable, and has offered us very reasonable rates (approximately $130 plus taxes).

Proposals should be postmarked OR, PREFERABLY, E-MAILED, by February 1, 2002. Notice of acceptance will be made as soon as possible so that travel plans can be made.

The program will consist of scientific papers that report original research in reading. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following: reading acquisition, skilled reading processes, spelling, text comprehension, writing systems, individual differences in reading, connections between spoken and written language processes, reading instruction, and reading difficulties. There will be a series of sessions organized jointly by SSSR and ST&D.

Papers may be presented by voting members, active members, and student members of the Society. Proposals from active members and student members consist of a title, a maximum 100-word abstract, and a 1-2 page (500 words maximum) summary, which explains the major questions and methods of the study and the importance of the results. Priority goes to the studies that are completed. A program committee consisting of SSSR members will review papers. Although an attempt will be made to accommodate all proposals judged favorably, space limitations may be a factor in the final selection of papers. If space limits the number of spoken papers, an author's willingness to present a poster instead of a spoken paper increases the chances of the paper's inclusion on the program. First authors will be notified by email of the acceptance or rejection of the paper.

Proposals submitted by voting members, which must include titles and 100-word abstracts but not the longer summary, will be accepted without review. Generally, voting members’ papers will be accepted as spoken presentations; however, some may be assigned as posters, if space for spoken papers is limited.

Authors making a proposal? Spoken papers should indicate a preference for 10 or 15-minute presentations. Each paper will have 5 additional minutes for discussion. Session chairs will impose strict clocks on speaking time. To accommodate space limitations, some spoken papers may be reduced from the author's preferred time allotment. Generally, parallel sessions will be scheduled. The program committee may nominate a small number of papers to be presented at a general session.

Proposals for posters from members at all levels are encouraged. This is an excellent format for presenting research in a way that encourages real discussion.

All authors of papers will be listed in the program, with the first author designated as the presenter. Any author who becomes unable to present a paper listed in the program should contact the program chair immediately by email. Failure to do so may result in loss of eligibility at next year's meeting.

All presenters must register for the conference and pay the registration fee. Information about the conference registration fee and hotel registration will be emailed to SSSR members soon. International members may pay registration fees in cash (U.S.) at the time of the meeting at the advance registration rate.

Proposals should be submitted to Joanna Williams, PREFERABLY BY E-MAIL, or by regular mail. Email submissions will have their abstracts included on the conference web page program.

To submit your proposal by email, send to: jpw15@columbia.edu
Use "SSSR Submission" as the subject. INCLUDE THE FULL SUBMISSION IN YOUR EMAIL. DO NOT SEND ANY PART OF IT AS AN ATTACHMENT

Include the following information in your proposal, in this order:
     1. Paper title
     2. Presenting Author, with:
          (a) affiliation
          (b) address
          (c) phone
          (d) email address
     3. Co-authors and affiliations
     4. Membership status:
          (a) voting
          (b) active
          (c) student
          (d) application for membership submitted
     5. Preference for participation:
          (a) spoken paper but willing to give poster if necessary
          (b) poster
          (c) spoken paper only
     6. If spoken paper, indicate time requested (an additional 5 minutes will be allowed for discussion):
          (a) 10 minutes
          (b) 15 minutes.
     7. Are you willing to chair a session?
          (a) yes
          (b) no
     8. 100-word (maximum) abstract
     9. 1-2 page summary (500 word maximum)

Proposals by regular mail should include 4 copies of the abstract and summary, and one copy of the proposal cover sheet (which includes points 1-7 listed above). All proposals by regular mail must include a self-addressed stamped envelope for notice of program participation.

Please forward this email call for papers to appropriate nonmembers who may be interested in joining SSSR and/or attending the Chicago meeting. Information about membership applications can be obtained on the SSSR web site at: www.gse.utah.edu/edst/sssr

Address for regular mail submissions (discouraged):
          Joanna Williams
          Box 238, Teachers College Columbia University
          525 West 120 Street
          New York, New York 10027
          TELEPHONE: 212-678-3832