Peter and fellow colleagues, 
 
As Sally said, a full newsletter will be coming out shortly that details all of the submission guidelines for this year's Teaching Symposium, including the criteria for review.  The Symposium will again be blind-peer-reviewed in an effort at fairness, quality and increased respect from our home institutions for the academic worth of pedagogy. 
 
We are, of course, most concerned about the quality and fairness of the selection process itself.  Evaluation of teaching excellence, however, like any review process, is inherently subjective.  We suspect that many of us have occasionally felt Peter's frustration over the process by which all of our work is rated, whether that work be pedagogical or more traditional research.  It is our hope that with each passing year that Teaching Symposium is blind-peer-reviewed, the criteria for review will become more specific and the submitter will become comfortable at how and why their proposals are decided upon.  The only way to ensure such progress is continued submissions from our colleagues.  As the last few threads on ALSBTALK have indicated, we, as an Academy, are devoted to teaching excellence.  We hope that you will make the investment in the Teaching Symposium to ensure that we can share that devotion in an organized and rewarding way at the National Conference. 
 
Happy Holidays,
 
Nancy Mansfield and Joan Gabel