We hope you will consider helping us with funding the conference.  Conference regulars know that we run the event on a shoestring budget.  CUNY donates services and offers reduced pricing on spaces, we donate our time, and all the rest must come from registration fees and donations.

It has always been a major goal of the conference to keep registration fees within the reach of students and junior researchers — they are the psycholinguists of the future and we need them to be with us.  But this means that there is always a shortfall to be made up by donations.

We are immensely grateful for the generosity of other universities and private companies which in the past have supported us, and hope you might be able to reach into your grant funds, or approach your administrators to see what they can offer. Contributions of any size are welcome. In the past, the conference has received contributions in amounts ranging from $300 to $5,000 from individual institutions. In return, the sponsoring institutions receive very public thanks on our website, in the printed conference program, and at the meeting itself.

We are very aware that helping us achieve this funding means work for you. To minimize your effort we can make available a draft letter with some suitable wording that you might find useful as you approach your administration. Please feel free to borrow some or all of it, or edit it to suit your particular situation. If there is any other way in which we can help you make your case, please let us know.

There are two other routes for drawing funds into the conference kitty:

• An important one is for participants to pay the corporate rate if at all possible, i.e., if a grant or a faculty travel policy will cover it. This rate reflects the true cost per participant, so it relieves the burden on other sources.
• Also, this year we are once again requesting individual donations to the conference fund. If you, or anyone you know, is fortunate enough to be able to give a hundred, or a few hundred dollars, we would be very grateful.

We look forward to seeing you in March, and we thank you sincerely for your efforts on behalf of the conference between now and then.