Hello everyone, It's that time of year again. SHOT, our parent society, meets in Pittsburgh on 15-19 October. The deadline for proposals is March 30, in about five weeks time. In case you are unfamiliar with SHOT's procedures, here is a capsule version: SHOT allows submission of individual paper proposals or proposals for panels. Panels are usually three or four papers plus a commentator devoted to a coherent topic or theme. However the call mentions openness to other formats. Reviews are made on the basis of abstracts. Full papers are not required at any point for review and are not published. However, if your paper is accepted you are expected to send some kind of draft to the commentator ahead of time. SHOT does not release any comments from reviewers. As at other history conferences people sometimes literally read their papers, but more lively styles of presentation are welcome. The theme is "Reform(ed) Technologies" which seems oriented toward industrial decay but, according to the call, also includes "new uses of old technologies, and issues of maintenance." The theme is not usually a big deal at SHOT, but it doesn't hurt to invoke it where possible. The full CFP is online at http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting/2009SHOT_cfp.pdf The history of computing has been well represented at the last few conferences. Many of the panels including computer material are submitted independently of SIGCIS. However, we also try to organize coherent panels based on submissions from members. Interested people send in draft abstracts, which I then help to edit and attempt to assemble into thematically arranged panel proposals. This went very well for the 2007 meeting, where we received 12 promising abstracts and submitted three successful panel proposals. It went less well for 2008, where only one of our session proposals was accepted. So whether going with a SIGCIS organized panel helps your chances or not will depend on whether 2008 was a blip or a trend. If you are interested in taking part in a SIGCIS organized panel then please email me WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK a short description of the research you are interested in presenting. Do not reply to the entire list. I will assemble these, circulate them among people who are interested, and start to look for themes. If possible panel themes emerge I may send another general call to SIGCIS members for additional proposals on a particular theme. There are two additional reasons you might want to consider taking part in a SIGCIS-organized panel. The first is that we have the ability to offer some supplemental funding for graduate students who are presenting at the meeting. See http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/55. This works along with SHOT's own travel assistance for graduate students and other needy types, http://www.historyoftechnology.org/awards/travelgrants.html. Our funds are limited, so priority will be given to students on SIGCIS sponsored panels. The second is that SIGCIS plans to offer a full day of workshop programming on the final day of the conference. So if, as happened last year, a worthy SIGCIS panel proposal is rejected for the main conference then it would stand a good chance of appearing on the SIGCIS program. Our provisional workshop theme is "Mike Mahoney and the Histories of Computing(s)." Of course we hope to do more with this workshop than just salvage conference panels, so look out for more information on the workshop format over the next month or two. SHOT allows SIGs to sponsor panels but has never clarified what this means with any formal policy or procedure. So far we have only sponsored panels we organized, but if you have a panel you are organizing but would like to attach SIGCIS sponsorship then let us know and we'll try to come up with our own policy for this. As well as the sessions themselves, SIGCIS usually organizes an informal dinner on one evening and holds its official lunch meeting on another day. Both have been very well attended recently and provide a great opportunity for meeting others in the field in a friendly environment. So we hope to see as many of you as possible in Pittsburgh this autumn. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom