SCHEDULE FOR THE RSOL NATIONAL CONFERENCE
July 10 and ll
Austin, TX and Boston, MA
REGISTER NOW! (see below)
EXACT CONFERENCE SITE INFORMATION WILL BE MAILED TO REGISTRANTS AT THEIR MAILING ADDRESS. The Boston site is in downtown Boston, adjacent to the major subway lines. Registrants will also receive hotel information.

The national RSOL conference will be simultaneous at two sites, one in Austin, Texas and one in Boston, MA., Friday July 10. Texas and Mass. participants will be linked by video or audio feed. The conference is NOT a public meeting. It is open ONLY to RSOL participants and invited members of other similar groups, including SOSEN, CURE, Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, and SATA-SORT, who register in advance.

Our´s is arguably one of the most important political struggles of this decade, and it is certainly one of the most difficult. We need to plan a coherent national campaign for immediate and significant change in sex offender laws.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

Preliminary Program (Summary)
National Reformsexoffenderlaws.org Conference

BOSTON, MA and AUSTIN, TX
Friday July 10 and Saturday July 11, 2009

Friday, July 10
6pm: Introductions/coffee
6:30 p.m.: Introduction to Conference and of speaker by Dr. Richard Pillard, Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University
6:45pm: First Boston Keynote Speaker, Dr. Jerome Miller:
“De-Mytholigizing the Sex Offender: Replacing hysteria, slander and demonization with research, justice and common sense”
7:30pm: Responses, discussion and questions and answers
8:30 p.m. Family get together time
Adjourn, 9:00 p.m.

Saturday, July 11:
9:00am, Introductions and coffee
9:30 a.m. Keynote Speaker, Dr. Fred Berlin: “Recent Sex Offender Research and Implications for effective and just policies to safeguard children”
10:15am: Panel Response to Dr. Berlin’s speech, consisting of 1 registered person, 1 family member, 1 therapist.
11:15am RSOL RELATED NATIONAL PROJECT REPORTS
a) The Support Hotline
b) RSOL Prison Project
c) Public Education: Effective use of printed materials. (With available flyers & leaflettes from Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois and elsewhere)
d) SOL Research material highlights. Dissemination of factual information on sex offender laws. By Dr. Marshall Burns
12:15 p.m. SPECIAL REPORT from SOSEN by SOSEN members present
12:30 p.m.: RSOL Affiliated State Groups Presentations
Introduction by Alain Lèvesque
Individual State Reports:
Special Report from Mary Sue Molnar in Texas, and 5-10 minute summary
reports from all states attending at either site. (Each report will focus on challenges in each state, hopes, goals, and accomplishments.)
1:30pm Lunch Break
2:30 Texas Keynote Speaker, Attorney William Habern,”Sex Offender Civil Rights - From Where We Were to Where We Are Going.”
3:15 Laurie Peterson: Lobby Tehniques and Experience for Sex Offender Laws at state and national Levels.
3:45pm Break into 4 small group discussions –challenge for 1 new goal or idea for RSOL to address for the coming year.
4:30 Brief reports from small groups.
5:00pm Panel: “Whither RSOL?-Directions for RSOL in the Coming year”.
6:00 -7:00pm Friends and Family time.


The two Conference goals are:
(1) To provide all of us with important information and research that we must know to make our work more effective and to help unmask the mythology used to build the hysteria hinding us at every turn. (2) To examine strategies to bringing about the changes that we seek. We will examine what's working, what is not, and what might work.

REGISTRATION: Participants will need to show they are signatories or
non-signatory participants of RSOL or one of it´s 33 affiliated state
groups, or one of the approved sister national organizations.
They must provide full true names (which will be kept in
confidence by the conference committees), phone numbers (including a
cell where they can be reached during the conference), full postal
addresses and email addresses. Those who ask to be anonymous at the
conference will be known by their first name or email tag, but they
must give real identity to the organizers. There is a $20 voluntary fee (more if you can) for registrants. No-one will be refused because of inability to pay. Fees cover speakers´ transportation and housing, costs of conference meeting places, teleconferencing costs, and refreshments. We aim for 50-100 participants at each site. We need additional funding donations to cover the subsidies for low-income activists travelling from afar, and for representatives of other national groups.

Participants must pay for housing and meals, but efforts will be made to find the most inexpensive lodging possible (plan on $125 to $200 per night at hotels). Registrants should contact Paul Shannon, and make checks or money orders payable to him (not tax exempt). Pay-Pal is not available. Paul is a well-known peace educator who has organized many national conferences. Paul will forward Texas registrants to Mary Sue Molnar, contact for Texas Voices.

MAIL checks and registration information to
Paul Shannon, c/o Indochina Newsletter, 2161 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140. Alert him to your registration by email (pshannon@afsc.org) or telephone (617-497-5273).
See you in Boston or Texas!