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On behalf of the council, officers, and 2014 program committee, I would like to welcome you to the 44th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Decision Sciences Institute in beautiful Wilmington, NC. The program committee has put together an excellent program with 121 papers, panels and workshops in 42 regular sessions. I hope this year's meeting is a pleasant and worthwhile experience for you. I would personally like to thank the Program Committee for doing an outstanding job creating a compelling program. I would also like to thank the Council for giving me this opportunity to serve Southeast Decision Sciences Institute as your program chair. I hope this meeting will provide you an opportunity to renew old acquaintances and to meet new colleagues from universities, businesses, and other organizations throughout the southeast and beyond.
As part of the conference this year, Bob Andrews has once again organized a mini conference focusing on "Making Statistics more Effective in Schools of Business." These sessions are open to all conference attendees and will be held during the Thursday and Friday sessions. Joan Donohue and her team have organized our student paper competition which features 38 submissions that will be presented across all three days. Please try to attend some of the student paper sessions and support these future scholars and potential colleagues. And finally we will have the nation's leading publishers exhibiting their materials so please stop by their tables in the registration area to see what they have to offer. In order to facilitate attendance we've changed our annual business meeting to Thursday at 8:45, please grab your breakfast and come join us! We look forward to hosting everyone at the President's reception at 6:30 PM on Thursday February 20th. Also, please remember to attend the President's Luncheon on Friday February 21st at Noon. At the annual luncheon we will be recognizing the people who have contributed to the success of this meeting and also to the organization over the years. We will also recognize the winners of the Student Paper Competitions and the best papers in track. I would like to thank Drs. George Lowry, Chris Zobel, and Kellie Keeling for providing ongoing guidance and support. I would also like to thank all the track chairs, reviewers, and student paper judges for their hard work in making a high quality program possible. Many thanks go to Dr. Al Avery for his expertise with the Conference Management System and to Dr. John O'Malley for maintaining and updating the web site. I also want to thank all the session chairs and discussants for their participation. My special thanks to all the organizations and individuals that have provided financial support for the conference. I would not have undertaken this job without the support of my Dean Dr. Stanley Eakins, and my institution East Carolina University. I would also like to give special thanks to Dr. Drew Rosen for making the initial arrangements with the hotel, to Dr. Elaine Seeman as my Associate Program Chair, and to my mother, Sue Barton, for her assistance at the registration desk! Finally, I would like to thank to all the participants for making this meeting possible. Enjoy the meeting! Shanan G. Gibson, PhD 2014 SE DSI Program Chair |
Updated 02/23/2014