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Pre-Conference Activites

SAFRIG Celebrates 30 Years
Monday, July 28th
Sociology of Agriculture and Food Research Interest Group (SAFRIG)
30th Anniversary Celebration

Field Trip:
To begin our day of celebration, please join us for a morning exploring the Agri-Culture system of Southern New Hampshire. We will visit local farms demonstrating the vibrant and diverse nature of the regions agriculture, learn about innovative agri-tourism enterprises, and hear about the success the state has had in developing new farmer programs, farm-to-restaurant relationships, and building agri-tourism markets. New England is famous for its dairy and small-scale fruit and vegetable production, much of which is organic.

Trip details:
7:15-7:30 AM ˜ The SAFRIG participants will board a bus at Manchester Radisson Hotel
7:30 AM ˜ Bus departs
Several stops at farms, agri-tourism enterprises and a farm-to-restaurant establishment
1:00 PM ˜ Bus arrives back at Manchester Radisson Hotel

Cost $40 per person
(includes transportation and lunch) For your comfort, please bring extra bottles of water, wear comfortable walking shoes, perhaps sun screen and sunglasses . There will be some gentle walking.

Afternoon Panels at the Radisson Hotel, Manchester
All annual meeting participants welcome to attend!

Panel 1
This special panel discussion in celebration of SAFRIG's 30th Anniversary will focus on the founding and history of SAFRIG, including an analysis of the theoretical perspectives contributing to its development and their collective impact on our understanding of agrifood systems. Participants will include founders of SAFRIG and others who contributed to its development in the early years.
Panel Chair: John Green
Panelist: Bill Heffernan, Bill Friedland, Larry Busch, Cornelia Flora, and Michael Schulman.

Panel 2
This second panel discussion in celebration of SAFRIG's 30th Anniversary will focus on the theoretical and applied impacts of the work of SAFRIG members on our understanding of agrifood systems, and the future of this area of study. Participants will include scholars from more recent "generations."
Panel Chair: Elizabeth Ransom
Panelist: JoAnn Jaffe, Leland Glenna, Mary Hendrickson, Patrick Mooney, Paul Lasley

The SAFRIG 30th Anniversary Celebration Committee: Anna Kleiner (chair), Ann Finan, John Green, Edith McMillen and Carolyn Sachs. For more information on the afternoon panels, contact Anna Kleiner at: anna.kleiner@selu.edu; for more information about the field trip, contact Ann Finan at finanas@whitman.edu.

NRRG Field Trip
Monday, July 28th

The Natural Resource Research Group has the opportunity of taking a field trip to the historic port town of Portsmouth, NH. The field trip will include presentations addressing a wide range of topics associated with the management and use of natural resources (i.e., water quality management, gentrification, working waterfronts and fishery management). The presentations will occur aboard the Victorian Era Replica Excursion Ship the M/V Thomas Laighton.

Immediately following the presentations, the field trip will continue with a narrated cruise that glides through the Portsmouth Harbor. You will see a unique working port with tugboats, tankers, the nation's oldest and active naval yard, the closed castle-like prison- "the Alcatraz of the East", a quaint Old Port waterfront, a famous grand resort hotel, 5 historic forts and 3 lighthouses proudly guiding mariners safely through the waters.

After the cruise the participants will have the opportunity to enjoy a lunch at deck side restaurants. There are nearly 100 restaurants to choose from within walking distance, many quaint shops too! Lunch is on your own.

Trip Details:
7:30-7:45 AM ˜ The NRRG participants will board a bus at Manchester Radisson Hotel
8:00 AM ˜ Bus departs
8:30 AM ˜ Arrive Isles of Shoals steam ship company, Portsmouth Harbor, board cruise ship
8:30 -10:00 AM ˜ Presentations on board cruise ship; light refreshments served.(Cruise begins at 10:00AM)*
1:00 PM (approximately) ˜ The cruise docks
1:00-3:00 PM ˜ Lunch on your own in Portsmouth
3:00 PM ˜ Board bus at Isles of Shoals steam ship company
3:30 PM ˜ Arrive back at Manchester Radisson Hotel

Cost $35 per person (includes transportation, cruise with light refreshments, and presentations)
Register on the Annual Meeting registration form.

Potential Speakers:
Madeleine Hall Arber, Fisheries Extension Specialist; MIT Sea Grant.
Natalie Springuel - working waterfront initiatives in Maine; Marine Extension Associate Maine Sea Grant College of the Atlantic.
Geoff Smith, The Nature Conservancy, Marine Program Director. Geoff's involved with the Downeast Groundfish Initiative.
Chris Feurt, Education Dept, Wells National Estuaries Research Reserve. Chris earned her Ph.D. from Tom Webler at Antioch New England and conducts water quality training with local community planners in Maine.
Coastal Enterprises, Inc - a non-profit community development corporation (CDC) with a Fisheries and Working Waterfront project; Portland, Maine.
Stephen Cole, Director--Farms, Fisheries, Forests, Environment & Community
Hugh Cowperthwaite, FISHTAG Program Director.

* Note: If the seas are inclement, we will cruise to the entrance of Portsmouth Harbor and then Cruise Inland to Dover Point and see the Great Bay Wildlife Refuge; and an active Buffalo Farm.

Community Interest Group
Habitat for Humanity Workday

The Community Interest groups will once again co-sponsor a Habitat for Humanity workday before the Annual Meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about our conference host community, to strengthen collegial ties, and to get in an honest days work! We'll provide transportation, tools, and priceless memories.

Habitat for Humanity International was founded by Millard Fuller and his wife, Linda. Habitat for Humanity is an ecumenical, Christian housing ministry that seeks to eliminate poverty housing from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. By having needy and affluent people work together in equal partnership, Habitat builds new relationships and a sense of community as well as new housing.

Habitat builds houses for working individuals living in substandard conditions. In addition to a down payment and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor ("sweat equity") into building their Habitat house and the houses of others.

Habitat is not a giveaway program, but is a joint venture in which those who benefit from the housing ministry are involved in the work at various levels. Each homeowner family is required to invest sweat equity hours into the construction of their home. This reduces the monetary cost of the house, increases the personal involvement of each family in their home, and fosters the development of positive relationships with other persons.

What to bring:
Appropriate clothes (cool and breathable) shirt with sleeves
Work gloves
Closed-toed shoes (tennis or work boots)
Hat
Sunscreen
Water bottle. There will be water on site, but bring more

Questions? Contact Kate MacTavish at:
kate.mactavish@orst.edu; phone: 541-737-9130.

Habitat for Humanity
Sponsored by: Community Interest Group

When: Monday, July 28th ˜ 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Cost: $10 (covers lunch)
           Students $5

Register: On the Annual Meeting Registration

Professional Development Workshop

When: Monday, July 28th

Time: 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Where: Radisson Hotel, Manchester

Workshop Title: "The Changing Nature of Survey Methodology"

Presenter: Don Dillman, Regents Professor, Washington State University and Past President RSS

Fee Structure: Student Members $50; Members $100; Non-Members $150.00

Workshop limited

Register: On the Annual Meeting Registration

Don Dillman will present a half-day short course about a variety of issues now facing users of surveys, ranging from why mixed-mode surveys are becoming popular, and in some cases necessary, and changes in survey practices that are necessary for them to work well. He will begin by discussing major sources of survey error and how to reduce them. He will also described the difficulties surveyors now face with reduced coverage for landline telephones and low telephone response rates. Also to be discussed will be the difficulties with getting web surveys to work for the general public and certain other populations. In addition he'll discuss the current interest in using addressed-based sampling methods for households, which may now provide a better sample source for general public surveys, than does random digit dialing. In this short course he will also draw on his experiences as a rural sociologist to discuss some issues of particular importance to rural and agricultural surveys.

Don A. Dillman is Regents Professor and the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Policy at Washington State University in Pullman. A longtime member of the Rural Sociological Society he is also an innovator in survey methodology, having contributed to the development of modern survey methods by mail, telephone, and the Internet. His book, Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method (1978) and its successor, Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method (2000; 2007) have influenced the conduct of surveys worldwide. The third edition of this book, "Internet, Mail and Mixed-Mode Surveys" will be available in September, 2008, and this workshop will focus in part on new material to be included in it. He maintains an active research and publication program on the influence of visual properties on answers to survey questions and their implications for designing and implementing mixed-mode surveys, and is an editor (with Edith de Leeuw and Joop Hox) of the International Handbook of Survey Methodology (The Taylor and Francis Group) published in January 2008.