Are you interested in presenting at the 30^th Silent Weekend June 18-20 or 25-27, 2009 (Friday morning thru Saturday afternoon) in Orlando? All presenters are expected to use ASL with NO VOICING! (We can offer a few interpreting music and voicing workshops in separate rooms). A few presenters are needed to also present Thursday afternoon and/or night, Friday night, and/or Sunday morning.

We expect 700 participants with about 50 beginners, 100 intermediates and 550 advanced . Even though the advanced topics will have CEUs applied for, some of your topics should be geared toward ASL STUDENTS and not just for INTERPRETERS only. Interpreters can benefit from linguistics, Deaf Culture issues, etc. We will accept about 50% interpreting specific topics ... keep in mind that many of them may want topics related to education. Perhaps signs to use in math, biology, history, English, chemistry, etc?

Unlike many other conferences which require you to register, pay for your travel, and reserve your own hotel room, your registration will be free, you will have a hotel room, and your travel expenses subsidized! Your audience will be 700 ASL & ITP students, as well as RID interpreters from all over the country. For the 3rd year in a row, we are giving comp registrations to every RID affiliate Presidents so this is a great opportunity for you to become noticed by others and get more offers to present.

Selected presenters presenting eight or more hours will be given travel reimbursement (living more than 50 miles away), one-half of a double occupancy hotel room Thursday and Friday nights and free registration to the entire Weekend and an honorarium of $100 per hour for presenters on advanced/interpreter topics and $75 per hour for intermediate and beginner topics. Our registration income is not designed to support co-presenters so if you need to co-present, the 2nd presenter will be given a complimentary registration only and will be responsible for travel and lodging.

If you want a private room, the extra cost will be your responsibility. If you want to stay extra nights, you need to make your own arrangements with the hotel. If you don’t want a private room, then we will pair you up with another presenter.

All beginner topics should be ONE hour. Most participants say that two-hour sessions are too long to stay focused on. Most intermediate and advanced topics should also be one hour. Some intermediate and advanced topics can be two-hours. Presentations should be interactive.

Please submit at least eight hours of presentations in order of preference (This gives you more than half of each day free to attend other sessions). If you want to do nine to ten hours, that is fine. When presenters submit their topics, they will be posted on the website to help other presenters submit different topics. Once 100+ hours of topics are proposed, we will contact you and let you know which topics we would like you to present at end of regular registration (we need to see how many participants are in each level). Please submit descriptions of topics ASAP. This will help in the selection process.

It isn't cost effective to have a presenter doing fewer than eight hours. If you would like to do just two to four hours, you will need to register for the Silent Weekend, obtain your own room and travel (however you will be given an honorarium).

For presenters living more than 50 miles from Orlando you may be reimbursed at 25 cents per mile or round trip airfare, whichever is less expensive. You can get a nice tax write-off for mileage! Please don’t purchase air tickets until this selection process is finalized!

Address ____________________________________________________________________________________

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Email and phone ____________________________________________________________________________

T-shirt size wanted: _____

Private room wanted: [ ] Yes   [ ] No

I wish to present [ ] 2-4 hours   [   ] 8 hours   [   ] more than 8 hours

[ ] yes   [   ] no   I am also willing to present a preconference workshop Thursday afternoon and/or a "night owl" class Thursday and/or Friday nights and/or a post-workshop session Sunday Morning. This will be at a rate of $120 per hour.

I prefer to [   ] have a break between each topic; [   ] present at least two topics in a row; [   ] present at least three topics in a row; [    ] present at least four topics in a row [ ] No preferences (doing two or more topics in a row means you would only have to set up once rather than setting up, taking down, moving to another room, setting up, taking down, etc).

Please give your presentation titles in order of preference. Please duplicate as needed for each topic wanting to present.

1st choice: Title of presentation: ____________________________________________________