By the Office of Planning and Analysis, Montana State University (OPA@montana.edu)
Dear RMAIRians,
Along with our friends in IR across the state of Montana, we are gearing up for a fabulous 2016 annual meeting in beautiful Bozeman, Montana! Mark your calendars now for our mountain-inspired RMAIR Annual Meeting, “IR Peaks and Valleys,” October 26-28. Please note that these dates have been changed since we announced them last fall to accommodate Yom Kippur as well as a Fall IPEDS deadline. We hope this helps more of you to attend!
We’re planners by nature, so in the interest of helping you plan, we’ve come up with some to-do lists with appropriate subsets.
Things to do right now:
- Reserve October 26-28 on your calendar
- Contact Dawn Ressel, Program Chair, to volunteer to review proposals (Ressel@mso.umt.edu)
- Start pitching RMAIR 2016 attendance proposals to your supervisor, repeat weekly
- Budget for multiple staff members to attend
- Start planning your RMAIR presentation, poster, panel, or pre-conference workshop
- Talk to your colleagues, faculty, and students about their interests in RMAIR-related research, repeat weekly
Things to do over the next few months:
- Watch for the call for proposals
- Draft your proposal for a pre-conference workshop, paper, panel, or poster
- Invite your colleagues to come with you to Bozeman
- Watch for hotel information
- Register for RMAIR 2016 as a participant, presenter, or quiet backrow sitter
Things to do at RMAIR in Bozeman:
- Present a paper on the high peaks in IR, assessment, strategic planning, cross-campus collaboration, or student success at your campus
- Present a paper on your current research related to higher ed.
- Present a paper on the lessons learned from the low valleys
- Display a poster (if presenting is not your style)
- Moderate a panel discussion with your colleagues on a topic of interest to IR professionals
- Lead a pre-conference workshop to teach your colleagues across the region a new skill or software package or to improve IR processes
- Meet with vendors who have products and services of interest to IR professionals
- Hang out with amazing graduate students, faculty, and IR professionals
- Enjoy an entertaining, relaxing, social, and slightly educational Thursday night event at the Museum of the Rockies
Things to do in Bozeman at the end of the conference day or over the weekend:
- Enjoy Bozeman’s varied and delicious cuisine, from fresh locally-sourced produce, beef and bison to authentic foods reflecting traditions around the country and across the globe
- Enjoy hand-crafted beverages at one of our 8 local breweries or 4 local distilleries
- Visit the Museum of the Rockies, American Computer Museum, or Children’s Museum of Bozeman and STEAM Lab
- Check out world-class arts and entertainment in Downtown Bozeman
- Bring the family
Things to do around Bozeman at the end of the conference day or over the weekend:
- Visit Yellowstone, America’s first national park during the National Park Service’s centennial
- See the Headwaters of the Missouri River, and follow in Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea’s footsteps all around our valley
- Visit one of three nearby developed hot springs
- Camp, hike, paddle, hunt, ride, pedal using mapmyride.com
- Bring the family
We look forward to climbing new peaks of knowledge with you in Bozeman, October 26-28, 2016!