Many SIETAR Austin members were "recovering" from organizing and presenting at the fourth annual SIETAR USA Conference, which was held here in Austin on November 19-23.

Nearly 300 people attended from around the world, including quite a few SE
members.

The theme was "Seeking Middle Ground - Locally and Globally" and there were
many stimulating keynote and concurrent session presentations on this theme.

The keynote speakers were Leslie Mays of Royal Dutch/Shell; Dr. Jackie
Wasilewski of International Christian University-Tokyo (ably substituting for
Angeles Arrien, who could not come due to family illness); and Dr. Jose Limon of the
University of Texas-Austin.

The organizing committee also re-introduced the popular feature of an
informal, facilitated "fireside chat" with a noted interculturalist each afternoon.
Attendees were thrilled to hear the wisdom and humor of Dr. Ilya Adler, Dr.
Robert Kohls and Dr. Dotti Jones.

All in all, it has been a busy but very productive year for SIETAR Austin and
we look forward to an exciting 2004 when we have many new programs in store
and our leadership will change around mid-year.