The conference, to be held on Saturday, November 11, 2006, at Friends School of Baltimore, is ready to roll with 39 workshops and two featured speakers! The cosponsors, Stony Run Friends and Friends School of Baltimore, are delighted that a full twenty-five of the workshops are out of the wider Quaker community. The topics cover: education (both classroom management and peace curricula), spirituality and peace work, religious education, peacemaking in the family and community, activism, mediation, and individual growth.

Special two-workshop segment on conscientious objection. J.E. McNeil’s workshop will present on military outreach and how to respond to it as well as the current legal definitions of conscientious objection. Fran Donelan and Sam Legg’s workshop will focus on small group discussions to facilitate the sharing of ideas and questions and cover the legal, moral and personal aspects of becoming a CO, as well as forms of conscientious objection not currently recognized by the government. Both workshops will review how to document and declare CO status. Individuals who are serious about exploring conscientious objection should consider attending both.

Elie Nahimana, General Secretary of the Burundi Quaker Yearly Meeting. We are very lucky to have Elie Nahimana, presenting on Healing from a Decade of Civil War: Quaker Peacemaking Work in Burundi. He is on a U.S. speaking tour and will also present at the First Day Forum the next morning at Stony Run Meeting (9:15 a.m.)

Overview of day: 8:00-8:45 a.m. registration and light breakfast. Keynote speakers: Colman McCarthy, former Washington post columnist and director of the Center for Teaching Peace, and David J. Smith, of the United States Institute of Peace, a non-partisan organization, similar to the Smithsonian, authorized by Congress. Participants can choose three 1 ½ hour workshops or a 1 ½ hour workshop and a 3 hour extended workshop. The conference ends at 5:00 p.m. There will be materials and resources handouts and purchases, and a networking lunch. Fees start at $50, with a student fee of $15, with amounts increasing after October 23, and again after October 30. Lunch may not be available for late registrants. Scholarships are available so that all who wish to attend may do so.

SPREAD THE WORD! Thank you for helping us get the word out to anyone who might be interested in this conference. For more information, call 443 703 2590. The full range of workshops along with registration information and answers to most questions can be found at www.StonyRunFriends.org/PeacemakingConference