Transport to Las Cruces, New Mexico


1. Fly into El Paso, Texas. It is only 45 minutes south of here. The airlines serving El Paso are 1.Southwest Air; 2. Delta; 3.American/America West; 4. Continental; 5. Frontier. (See the web site at obtc.org.com for additional travel information.)

2. Make a reservation on the Las Cruces Shuttle at 1-800-288-1784. This is a small town, we need reservations in advance to assure vans will be available. Also, tell them you are with the OBTC, to get the reduced round-trip fare. One way fare is $24 to either Garcia Hall campus dormitories or Sleep Inns/Comfort Suites. The round-trip fare is considerably less, at about $35.

3. You will have phones and air conditioning controls in your dorm rooms. All dorms are set up with two single beds, desk and closet, and vanity with sink. Every 2 rooms shares a shower with toilet. Every floor has bathtub rooms should you prefer tub baths. You will be supplied with sheets, pillows, bedspread, and towels and soap. There are lounges, TV areas, a kitchen, and an exercise room where we will be offering some polarity yoga classes. All rooms open onto a secure large central rectangular courtyard.

4. Weather: It will be hot and sunny and dry. In June the temperature could be a very comfortable dry 80s or up to 105 degrees, but even that is not very bad because it gets cool at night (up to 40 degrees cooler). Bring light layers for the cool evenings. It rarely rains in June, most days are clear and sunny (it is beautiful!).

5. Bring sunscreen, sunglasses, hats/visors, and insect repellant (for evenings). Although you will not have to walk far to sessions or the dorms, we will be spending a late afternoon and evening in historic Old Mesilla, so bring comfortable shoes. Again, light layers of clothing are recommended for breezy days and cool evenings.

6. Drink extra water while here. You probably won't notice it, but due to the altitude (nearly 4,000ft) and the dryness, you will need extra fluids. We will have lots of refreshment breaks, so take advantage of them.

7. For those planning on the Spiritual Mountain Walk in the Organ Mountains, we recommend a small backpack for extra water, sunscreens, hats, and an extra shirt or jacket for the cool morning air. Closed walking shoes will be best for the walk.

THE PROGRAM

There are several innovations in the program this year, which we hope you will enjoy. Below are descriptions of 4 new features on our program.

1. We have a new ending time of Sunday morning. Based on feedback that people wanted a bit more time for conference sessions, and that travel plans might be easier if folks stayed over Saturday night, we have extended our program. This extra half-day of conference time turned out to be especially needed this year, allowing us to accommodate more of the very large number of submissions we received. We saved some of the most powerful sessions for after lunch Saturday. We know you will not want to miss our special surprise late Saturday afternoon, and don't forget to bring your "talent" for Saturday night's talent show!

2. We at New Mexico State have created something we are calling "synergy sessions." In the past, conference organizers asked people with very similar proposals to join forces. We have taken this a step further. When we saw proposals on related subjects, we asked presenters to join together to seek synergies in their topics and approaches. As much as possible we allocated more time for the "synergized" sessions. These sessions will be topics of widespread interest, so we have attempted to focus this energy rather than allowing it to be scattered. Please watch for the many Synergy Sessions on your schedule. One will draw upon Parker Palmer's ideas in his book The Courage To Teach; another will show you how to partner to create international student teams as well as teaching teams with the internet.

3. We grouped submissions according to 8 "streams" (theme tracks). Each stream has no more than 2 sessions at any given time, except for Stream #5, Defining the Borders (or "mainstream" topics) which will have up to 4 sessions at once. Should you wish, you will be able to easily find all sessions relating to a given stream. If you want to attend all the sessions with Native American presenters, you will find they do not conflict with each other. Nevertheless, with 12 sessions occurring simultaneously, we are sure you will find at least 6 sessions at the same time, all of which you will want to attend.

4. Our Author's Showcase will feature over a dozen authors. Long-time OBTC supporter Steve Robbins will be there with several of his best-selling textbooks. There will also be hot new publications like Gallos and Ramsey's Teaching Diversity; Robin Patric Clair's Organizing Silence; Stephen Linstead's Critically Understanding Management; Boje, Gephart and Thatchenkary's Postmodern Mangement and Organization Theory; William Judge's The Leader's Shadow; Paul and Strbiak's Team Development Fieldbook; Bob Dennehy's Diversity; Haley, Haley, and Tan's New Asian Emperors; Howell and Costley's Leadership, and several more.

5. We will have a quiet room/meditation room all during the conference.

In addition to these innovations, we have 10 exciting pre and post conference sessions for personal and professional development. These are offered independently of OBTC, by the individuals noted as contact persons/organizers. The earliest to start will be the annual T-Group, organized by Dale Finn. We will also have Steven Taylor's Organization Drama workshop, a tour of a Mexican maquiladora (factory) in Juarez, a course in Transcendental Meditation, a workshop on the XB classroom-as-organization offered by Roger Putzel, the opportunity to rent a Harley Davidson, drumming for stress reduction in and out of the classroom, a day trip for a picnic in the mountains of Cloudcroft with former OBTC board member Jean Ramsey, and a Spiritual Mountain Walk to integrate the conference with body, mind, and spirit on Sunday morning. For a more detailed description and registration information, please see the web cite at obtc.org.com or contact us at obtc@nmsu.edu.

***PLEASE NOTE: Due to a late emergency, Kaylynn TwoTrees has had to cancel her Seven Directions Pre-conference Workshop. Any money already paid will be refunded.

MOVIE FANS: GET IN THE MOOD FOR NEW MEXICO!

Grace Ann recommends several movies to put you in the mood for New Mexico. All are available in your video stores. All are also very good movies.

1. Milagro Beanfield Wars--classic movie produced by Robert Redford, older but still quite relevant and just a great film.

2. Lone Star--by excellent director John Sayles, starring Kris Kristofferson, from just a few years ago, set in a border town in West Texas which is very much like our area (and very close by also). Shows contemporary social relations between Anglos and Mexicans and some of the history of how they got that way, and has a great murder mystery too.

3. Contact: recent film with Jodi Foster, nothing about the culture here but great scenery from just a few hours north of Las Cruces in Soccoro ---there really is a "Very Large Array" up there, just like in the movie.

4. I heard that Billy the Kid, with Kris Kristofferson, also shows a lot of our geography and history here. I have not seen this one, from what I hear it has more violence than I like to see in movies these days.

5. Another classic, Easy Rider, travels briefly through this part of New Mexico, if you are in a nostalgic mood.