Dear Colleague:

The ninth meeting of the Astronomy Department Chairs, organized biennially by the AAS, will be held at the usual venue: the Hilton Hotel at Chicago O'Hare airport on Saturday November 1, 2014. All chairs are encouraged to attend, or to send a representative. You will have to cover your own travel and lodging costs. There is an optional registration fee (we suggest $50) to cover snacks, lunch & refreshments.

Breakfast will be available from 8am Saturday and the meeting will end at 4pm.

We have confirmed that Jim Ulvestad, the NSF-AST division director and Meg Urry, AAS president will be making presentations regarding their perspectives on the current status of Astronomy and Astrophysics programs, both national and international.
One session be a round table with an opportunity for Chairs to report snippets from your school that would be of interest to other Chairs.

If people have other agenda items, please send them to Steve Zepf. Other items that have been discussed in previous years include issues related to the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, dealing with the administration, retirement and faculty renewal in times of shrinking budgets, program assessment, challenges in E/PO activities, and strategies for managing departments.

An agenda is posted here that may be updated before the meeting.

We have a block of rooms at the O'Hare Hilton at a rate of $99/night plus tax for Friday 10/31 and Saturday 11/1. You should ask Jeri Cochran of UIUC to make your reservation. Deadline has passed

If you plan to attend the meeting please register with Jeri Cochran at jcochran@illinois.edu. Please provide your name and institution.
It is too late to ask Jeri to book a hotel room for you, so you should make your own arrangements. If you did book a room through Jeri, she or the AAS should soon send your hotel confirmation number.

The registration fee of $50 can be paid at: https://members.aas.org/services/AAS_Member/Fundraising/Department_Chairs.aspx Contact Tracy Beale or Sherrie Brown if you need a registration receipt.

The Astronomy Chair's meeting is scheduled in conjunction with the annual MidWest Physics Chair's meeting, which will be held Sunday, Nov 2, 2014 at the same location as the Astronomy Chairs meeting. The MidWest Physics chairs meeting is open to all Astronomy Chairs, and is independently organized by Nick Giordano at Purdue University. Many Chairs will arrive Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon, allowing them to attend both the Saturday Astronomy Chairs meeting and the Sunday MidWest Physics Chairs meeting. Details regarding the Nov 2 Physics Chairs meeting can be found by contacting Nick Giodano.

Meeting logistics are organized by the AAS, with local help from Jeri Cochran. The e-mail list and this website are maintained by Jerry Sellwood.