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Chicago, IL 60611-4267 
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				Welcome to ISECON 2005 !!
Dear Colleague:

The Information Systems Education Conference, known as ISECON, provides special opportunities for information technology faculty. For a quarter of a century, it has provided a broad spectrum of presentation topics, and a special camaraderie shared by those who attend.

This week, thanks to the extremely capable leadership of Conference Chair Don Colton and his committee members, we are gathering to expand our understanding of information systems education.  We are extremely grateful for the effort and expertise applied by Don and his team over the past year, particularly in light of the recent tragic events in New Orleans and the southeastern US, to present a quality event. In particular, we want to acknowledge and show appreciation for the added efforts of Stuart Varden and Margaret Thomas in finding us an excellent alternative to our scheduled New Orleans location. Please join me in a prayer for the hundreds of thousands of victims of the hurricane that will still be suffering for months and years to come as a result of Katrina.

The authors, reviewers, presenters, and panelists, in conjunction with the ISECON committee, have collaborated to make this national conference function smoothly.  In addition, those involved with registration, logistics and local arrangements deserve special thanks.  Anyone who has worked on the planning and execution of a conference of this magnitude can certainly appreciate the amount of effort necessary to present such an excellent conference and the related proceedings. Also, a huge “thank you” to Mark Kleine and AITP for the new and improved registration system we now have.

The Foundation for Information Technology Education (EF) exists to advance the state of education and practice in the Information Technology profession.  We are extremely fortunate to partner with the Education Special Interest Group (EDSIG) of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) in developing the annual ISECON meeting.  Through this meeting, we offer a forum in which IT educators can interact, learn, and then return to their classrooms to shape the skills and knowledge of tomorrow’s IT professionals.

On behalf of the EF Board of Regents, I would like to extend our gratitude to those who have participated over the last few years to build the coalition that draws on the combined strengths of EDSIG, AITP and the EF.  A special note of thanks to Paul Leidig, EDSIG President, and Regents Teresa Hickerson, and Kevin Jetton, the EF Liaisons to the ISECON 2005 team.

We hope ISECON 2005 will be a valuable experience – from both a personal networking and professional development view.  We also sincerely hope you will join us at ISECON 2006 in Dallas.

Sincerely,

Larry Schmitz, CCP, CMC
President, Foundation for Information Technology Education