I am truly honored and delighted to share time and information with the distinguished members of the European League of Stuttering Associations. I have known many of you only as an email address and an internet correspondent. It is wonderful to put faces with so many computer friends.

I have been invited to speak about public relations/outreach efforts in the United States by and for people who stutter, focusing primarily on a recent event which occurred in October 1998, International Stuttering Awareness Day and the ISAD online conference that I hosted.

With my time limitations I plan to simply share on paper, some of the outreach/public relations efforts about stuttering of four organizations in the United States (the National Stuttering Project, FRIENDS, the Stuttering Foundation of America, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association), and a new outreach tool, the Internet. For my presentation I will focus primarily on International Stuttering Awareness Day in general, and more specifically on the ISAD online conference held from October 1-22, 1998.

In the United States many organizations have focused on "outreach" to provide information and support to people who stutter and their families. Some of these organizations did excellent work for a number of years but are no longer in existence. Others have provided a sustained outreach for many years. And one is a new organization. What follows is a brief introduction to the public relations/outreach efforts of the organizations and individuals that are still functioning.

Many of these organizations have both a consumer and a professional component working together to meet the needs of people who stutter and their families.

National Stuttering Project

The National Stuttering Project (NSP) was founded in 1977 in California (USA) as a self-help organization for those affected by stuttering. Currently the NSP is America's largest self-help group for people who stutter with over 2,500 members. Although many more examples could be presented, a few of the public relations efforts in the past three decades are highlighted below.

In the 1970's early public relations efforts included NSP members Michael Sugarman and John Ahlbach attending the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) in 1978 and in 1979 the NSP did a mass information/fund raising mailing to ASHA members. Both of these events heralded the philosophy of cooperation between consumers and professionals.

In the 1980's an NSP member, Paul Castellano, supported by many other NSP members, lobbied for, and achieved a presidental proclamation National Stuttering Awareness Week. On April 13, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation for the period of May 9th through May 15 of 1988 as National Stuttering Awareness Week by Public Law 100-263. NSAW was at first intended to be a one time event. However, both the NSP and the Stuttering Foundation of America (SFA) continued the tradition of the second week in May as National Stuttering Awareness Week. The NSP through their newsletter "Letting Go" publicizes NSAW each year and sponsors events during this week. The SFA runs announcements in many national magazines and other publications celebrating this special week.

In the 1990's, a very successful public relations outreach was sponsored by the NSP when 1996 was designated as the "Year of the Child Who Stutters." Ten workshops throughout the United States brought together over 600 parents, children and teens who stutter, speech-language pathologists, NSP members and leading professional authorities in the area of stuttering. The effort was funded through a grant from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Consumer Affairs Division. As part of the grant, the NSP agreed to produce a handbook describing how to organize a workshop so that these efforts could be duplicated by other consumer and professional organizations in the future. A review by Eugene Cooper says, "This handbook is a practical guide to organizing a local or regional workshop. It gives the reader information about planning and

putting on your own workshop, conducting outreach, developing a budget and an agenda, securing speakers and preparing media releases. Sample forms, resources and materials for distribution at the workshop as well as suggested age-appropriate activities for children and teens are also included." The handbook, put together by Michael Sugarman is currently freely available on the Internet.. (http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/workshop/intro.html)

Currently NSP has a very active nationwide presence. There are 70 chapters which meet regularly and host regional and local workshops for consumers, professionals and students. A three-day national convention draws approximately 500 people annually. The NSP publishes a newsletter, "Letting GO," six times a year and is initiating a newsletter, "Stutter Buddies," for children. Other publications and books are available from the NSP, including To Say What Is Ours, The Best of Letting GO (which is currently used by several university professors as required reading in courses on stuttering). The NSP also has an attractive and informative website (http://www.nspstutter.org), an internet mailing list for chapter facilitators, and a toll-free telephone number (1-800-1NSP). They are also considering developing a core of volunteers to help staff a stuttering chatroom on the Internet.

Now as the year 2000 approaches, the NSP has among its stated public relations goals to "raise public awareness of the challenges facing people who stutter." Jim McClure, current public relations director for the NSP shared several of the highlights from the NSP public relations current goals and activities. The primary public relations goals are:

FRIENDS: The Association of Young People Who Stutter

Following "in the footsteps of Aaron's Associates," a non-profit organization formerly headquarted in Texas, devoted to support children who stutter, FRIENDS was established in 1998 by John Ahlbach, a high school teacher who is a person who stutters, and Lee Caggiano, a speech-language pathologist who is the mother of an adolescent who stutters. FRIENDS is an organization focusing on the needs of young people who stutter and their parents.

Their public outreach efforts include sponsoring an annual convention for young people who stutter and their parents. The first convention was held June 1998 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and next summer will be in Boston, Massachuetts.

FRIENDS also markets a poster of Famous People Who Stutter, is developing postcards young people can send to help others learn about stuttering, publishes a newsletter (Reaching Out), markets a book (Listen With Your Heart edited by John Ahlbach and Janice Westbrook) and has a web site (http://www.friendswhostutter.org). A "Stuttering Presentation Guide" has been developed to provide information and encouragement for young people to talk to groups such as in their classroom, about their experiences with stuttering. (http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/kids/ahlbachguide.html). FRIENDS also plans to produce a video "Message for Teenagers," and to sponsor several (3-4) workshops this year.

Organized in 1947 as the Speech Foundation of America, the Stuttering Foundation of America was founded by Malcolm Fraser, a successful US businessman who stuttered. The SFA is "the first non-profit, charitable association in the world to concern itself with the prevention and improved treatment of stuttering." Fraser's vision of creating a non-profit organization dedicated to helping others who stutter began with establishing a foundation to help fund research about stuttering. Within a few years, the foundation was providing direct "speech rehabilitation" services in a summer clinic and funding retreats for specialists in stuttering to improve the quality of service for people who stutter. This educational focus to help professionals improve their service delivery has grown to two-day symposiums focusing on what clinicians in the schools can do to be more effective with children who stutter and six-day to two-week workshops for specialists in stuttering. There are currently over 180 graduates of the two-week workshop from the US and 60 countries around the world.

SFA distributes brochures free of charge and sells numerous books and videotapes at below the cost of printing (free of charge to any library that requests them). Most of the twenty publications were written by leading authorities in the field of stuttering. Since its first publication, SFA materials have reached more than five million individuals and have been translated into 22 languages. Currently the SFA is sending out nearly 1000 information packets a week. The most popular books are If Your Child Stutters: A Guide for Parents, Stuttering and Your Child: Questions and Answers and Self Therapy for the Stutterer, written by Fraser. The Fraser book, now in its 8th edition, has reached more than 500,000 individuals, and has been translated into eleven modern languages including Finnish, French, Danish, Czech, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, German, Flemish, and Italian. The entire fifth edition, minus appendix and footnotes, was scanned from the original printed book by Olli Orkoneva of Finland and is available on the Stuttering Home Page - http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/TherapyWWW/selftherapy.html).

The SFA opened its website in 1998 (http://www.stutterSFA.com).The website features a catalog of the SFA materials which can be ordered online; the text of several brochures; and geographic listings of speech pathologists, intensive clinics, and summer clinics throughout the US and around the world for individuals seeking therapy services.

The outreach to the professional community also includes sending out catalogs and newsletters to 41,000 speech-language pathologists and maintaining a database of libraries and of allied medical professionals (pediatricians, family physicians and nurses), sending information annually. Educational booths are staffed at conventions of the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, Association of School Nurses, National Association of Pediatric Nurses, and Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners as well as American Speech-Language and Hearing and many state speech-language pathology conventions. One example that demonstrates the SFA's foresight in meeting unmet needs: the interest received from physicians prompted the SFA to design a brochure specifically for them. In 1993 "The Child Who Stutters: To the Pediatrician" was sent to 26,500 Board-certified members of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The impact of this public relations outreach effort is felt daily through the number of calls received from parents whose pediatrician referred them to the SFA for information.

In 1985, SFA began to focus on public awareness of stuttering by sending out press releases and by starting a toll-free hotline, 800-992-9392 (901-452-7343 for foreign access). The office currently received between 2000 and 3000 calls a month on the 800 line, with the ability to answer five calls simultaneously. Press releases about stuttering are sent to daily newspapers, syndicated columnists and magazine editors, which currently totals approximately 2220 people receiving information on various topics about stuttering, three times/year. This has resulted in hundreds of stories about stuttering in local newspapers. This kind of public awareness from publishers and journalists has paid off. For example, on June 17, 1998, a syndicated column by Ann Landers (estimated to have reached 90,000,000 readers) responding to a letter from a young woman from Russia who stutters, published the SFA's website URL, toll-free telephone number and address. The toll-free hotline received 13,000 calls in response to this column. This year magazines published, free of charge, more than 420 public service ads for the SFA, donating space worth more than one million dollars. In 1992 the SFA established the Media Award for Excellence in Reporting, which rewards writers of exceptional articles about stuttering.

In 1991 SFA began sending public service announcements (PSAs) to television networks and stations. Currently the PSAs are on six national networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, America's Health Network, and Kaleidoscope as well as 32 other local stations across the US. Also since 1992, nationally-recognized spokespersons (famous athletes and entertainers who stutter) have worked with the SFA to promote National Stuttering Awareness Week. Posters of these individuals and other famous people who stutter are available.

Malcolm Fraser's vision of reaching out to others who stutter and developing ways for them to receive better services, is very much alive in the work being carried on by his daughter, Jane Fraser, who provided the above information about the SFA in personal correspondence (January 25, 1999) and in her ISAD online conference paper.

ASHA is a US organization of professional speech-language pathologists and audiologists interested in providing speech therapy services to persons with communicative disorders. ASHA is the accreditation agency for training programs, certifies clinicians, and supports research, but also provides information for people who stutter and their support system, and employs an individual who stutters, Dr. Charlie Diggs, as Director of Consumer Advocacy.

ASHA formed a Consumer Affairs Division in 1988 to educate consumers about their communication disabilities and to advocate on behalf of consumer interests. The Consumer Affairs Division began by increasing consumer access to information about communication disabilities and to professionals who could provide evaluation and treatment. ASHA promoted its toll-free telephone number (800-638-2255) in newspapers and magazines, began expanding its free educational material (brochures, booklets, information packets, and fact sheets), developed a computerized database of audiology and speech-language pathology programs nationwide, and initiated a newsletter (Let's Talk) for professionals to give to consumers. Two of ASHA's brochures about stuttering are online: Talking with Persons Who Stutter (http://www.healthtouch.com/level1/leaflets/aslha/aslha028.htm) and Questions and Answers about Stuttering (http://www.asha.org/consumers/brochures/stuttering.htm)

In 1990, ASHA invited national, regional, state, and local consumer groups to a National Forum on Consumer Rights. Consumer dialogues are held semi-annually to review consumer needs and priorities. Among ASHA's other activities is awarding consumer grants to assist self-help groups in meeting their organizational goals. In 1996, the National Stuttering Project conducted national "Year of the Child" symposia (described above) with support from one of these grants. Consumers can join ASHA's Special Interest Divisions including Division 4, Fluency and Fluency Disorders. Consumers also serve on several ASHA Boards and Committees, including the new committee to develop specialty recognition in fluency and fluency disorders. ASHA has also established an increased presence at the annual meetings of self-help organizations in the US.

The ASHA website also features a "consumer section" to find information, therapy, and self-help organizations. (http://www.asha.org/consumers/consumers.htm)

One primary goal of any public relations effort of course is reaching those who stutter. That audience has some special characteristics that make public relations efforts difficult to evaluate. For example, it is not fully understood what motivates people to attend a stuttering self-help meeting. In the US, the vast majority of National Stuttering Project members do not attend the self-help group meetings. In fact, it has been observed that individuals who stutter may not actually contact the organization until several years after they find out about it. The NSP also reports still receiving calls in response to a Dear Abby column that appeared two years ago. A friend of mine carried a copy of a small newspaper article about a stuttering self-help organization in her purse for 20 years before she made contact.

Unlike consumers of other products and services, PWS may agonize for a long time about whether they are ready to look into a stuttering support group. The internet provides an anonymous, private opportunity for people to begin to learn about their stuttering. Personally I consider the Internet one of the most powerful public relations tools any organization with a focus on stuttering can have. I receive numerous email letters like the following. (I suspect those with websites could share many others. Each of the organizations listed above have web sites and email addresses)

The Stuttering Home Page was opened first as a gopher site on January 21, 1995, and transferred completely to a web-site in August 1995, (http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/stutter.html). It was the first major database on stuttering to be accessible via the Internet. Intended to be a global resource for persons who stutter, their friends, family and others who interact with them, as well as for professional speech-language pathologists in practice or in training, it contains a unique combination of contributions from the professional community as well as from individuals who have personal insight into stuttering. In the past four years, this ongoing project has brought over 127,000 visitors from all over the world to the Minnesota State University, Mankato web site.

The SHP is a continuously expanding resource. Visitors will find a broad range of information. The archive includes links to all known major web sites about stuttering throughout the world, including ELSA (http://www.europe.is/elsa/), and the European self-help organizations that have an internet presence, as well as a wealth of information within the site itself.

The Internet was the tool that made one of the events for International Stuttering Awareness Day possible.

In July 1998, the ISA designated Sugarman as chair of the ISAD committee, and Michael became the primary organizer of International Stuttering Awareness Day. The date was established as October 22, 1998.

The stated purpose of International Stuttering Awareness Day is "to promote awareness and understanding and to show appreciation for people who stutter and the speech language professionals who work with them." When one considers the accomplishments of the first International Stuttering Awareness Day, pulled together in about one year's time, it is truly amazing to witness the dedication, creativity, and determination of the world-wide community of people affected by stuttering either personally and/or professionally working to accomplish that stated purpose.

The January 1999 issue of One Voice, the newsletter of the International Stuttering Association (ISA), is online at http://caps.webcon.net/ov10/. Headlines of this issue read, "International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) A Great Success!" The issue features some of the world-wide participation. If you haven't read the entire report, I urge you to do so. Below are some of the highlights of the first International Stuttering Awareness Day from around the world, gathered from One Voice, from postings on a special Internet page put online to announce ISAD events, from email, and elsewhere. This is not a complete list, but it serves to reflect the enormous and creative efforts made by organizations and individuals around the world, on every continent.

The Argentina Stuttering Association activities included translating the ISAD Proclamation, distributing 2000 informational papers to schools and universities, churches, hospitals and clinics, and individuals, making and distributing ISAD posters for children and adults, and hosting a convention on October 22 at the Buenos Aires University.

The Australian Speak Easy Association combined ISAD with their annual Stuttering Awareness Week during which all states conducted individual awareness programs, including media outreach with radio, television, and newspaper articles.

In Austria Oesterreichische Selbsthilfeinitiative fuer Stottern hosted an open day in their office in Innsbruck on October 22 which was attended by Martin Bartenstein, the Austrian Minister for Youth, Family and Education Affairs.

The Belgium the VZW BeSt group hosted a full-day congress for professionals, students, and parents of children who stutter at the University of Ghent. They also printed informational booklets and worked to gain media attention, including sending a press release about ISAD to 300 journalists.

In Bulgaria, the National Association Self-help and Initiatives on Stuttering hosted a national seminar on stuttering October 24-25

In Canada The Canadian Association for People Who Stutter co-hosted a one-day symposium with the National Stuttering Project from the United States. The event was held at St. Catharines, Ontario. Speak Easy, Inc. of Canada publicized International Stuttering Awareness Day and provided information packages for ISAD events. (picture from One Voice)

In Denmark the Association for Stutterers in Denmark initiated a nationwide collection on October 22 to support the work of their association. Additional activities included open houses at the Stuttering Information Center, at speech clinics and parent interviews in the newspapers.

In Germany, the Bundesvereinigung Stotterer-Selbsthilfe e.V. hosted a congress in Berlin in mid-October, focusing on ISAD.

On October 22, three of the leading researchers in stuttering issued a press release, resulting in excellent media coverage. Dr. Hans-Georg Bosshardt, President of the International Fluency Association, and Thomas Krall, Chairman of the ISA Board of Directors, participated in an ISAD party on October 22. (picture from One Voice).

In Israel, AMBI, the Israeli Stuttering Association, held its first conference in Tel Aviv on October 22.

In Japan, as part of International Stuttering Awareness Day, twenty-four members of the Japan Stuttering Project (children and adults) performed plays for an audience of about 150 people.

New Zealand. "Air Flow," The New Zealand Speak Easy Association newsletter (Spring 1998) had a lead article, "Oct. 22 is World Day for Stuttering Awareness." Speak Easy also provided a series of three news releases to major daily papers about International Stuttering Awareness Day, and the scarcity of services for adults who stutter in new Zealand. Branch chapters of Speak Easy promoted ISAD on television, radio, newspapers, libraries, play centers, and public notice board. In Dunedin, an open house was held October 22 and the video, "The Young Stutterer," was shown.

South Africa - Speak Easy of South Africa provided posters to Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies and major state hospitals and clinics with an information letter. Presentations were also made at high schools and on national television and radio.

In Sweden, - Anita Blom reported the Sveriges Stamningfvreningars Riksfvrbund (Swedish Stuttering Chapters National Association) "contacted over 300 TV and radio stations and newspapers: the phone hasn't stopped!!! It was on the first news bulletin this morning and will be on almost every local station during the day." (She will report more about the outcome).

In Switzerland, VERSTA coordinated several appearances on television and radio, issued press releases, and opened an Internet website to celebrate ISAD. Regional self-help groups were encouraged to write personal accounts for their local newspapers, educating others about stuttering.

USA - National Stuttering Project co-sponsored a day-long seminar with the Canadian Association of People Who Stutter, held in St. Catharines, Ottawa, Canada. Individual NSP groups around the US also participated in ISAD in various ways, including hosting a workshop (Cincinnati, Ohio), an improvisational workshop (Cleveland, Ohio), and group participation in the internet online conference (Mankato, Minnesota).

In Brazil the Communication and Disorders Department - Medical School - Sao Paulo University organized a Seminar for SLP students, professionals and academic people which included many speakers and a video entitled "Stutterer's Personal Point Of View."

In Canada, the Audiology and Speech Language Program at University of Ottawa and the Stuttering Treatment Clinic at the Rehabilitation Centre in Ottawa, Canada, hosted "The Many Faces of Stuttering" October 22. Featured were brief presentations by clinicians, parents of children who stutter, and adults who stutter.

In India, the Swar Sudhar Society, the Indian Chapter of the international Fluency Association, initiated an ISAD celebration on October 22 that "saw parents of stuttering children sharing their views and experience." (The Hindu, India's National Newspaper, October 23, 1998)

In Korea, Moonja Shin's clinic hosted a meeting of people who stutter and professionals. They distributed Korean posters and a brochure for stuttering awareness.

In New Zealand Maxine Bevin, the manager of speech therapy services at Health Care Hawke's Bay, spoke at a Rotary luncheon about hospital-based therapy services for adults who stutter.

In the United States a half-day workshop "Its a Stuttering Thing" for kids who stutter, their parents, and speech-language pathologists was held in Lake Zurich, Illinois as an early beginning to the ISAD celebration. Hofstra University in New York sponsored a workshop, "Working Together: Families, Professionals, And Friends," for children, adults, families and clinicians as an early beginning to the ISAD celebration. The Berkshire Stuttering Center in California held a free half-day workshop on Saturday open to children who stutter, their parents and the speech pathologists who work with them. The purpose of the workshop was to create an environment of support and understanding by offering children and parents the opportunity to meet with others who stutter and their families. A treatment planning roundtable was held at the Stuttering Center of Western Pennsylvania. This free workshop was for speech-language pathologists in the Pittsburgh area, designed to give clinicians an opportunity to ask questions and get new ideas about how best help their clients who stutter.

Carolina Ayala of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, appeared on a major Toronto-area TV station at a breakfast interview on the morning of Wednesday, October 21, 1998.

Gregg Benedikt (USA) designed a special poster for ISAD and Amy Johnson (USA) helped distribute over 1700 posters around the world. Johnson reports distributing posters to Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, USA, and Venezuela as well as the Speak Easy International Foundation, Inc. in New Jersey, and the European League of Stuttering Associations, and to ASHA's Special Interest Division#4 which distributed the posters to its 575 members.

Gary Rentschler, a speech-language pathologist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a person who stutters, got the Mayor of Pittsburgh to proclaim October 22 as International Stuttering Awareness Day.

David Halvorson, Everett, Washington, and Richard Thamert, Owatonna, Minnesota, got their local newspapers to write up information about stuttering as part of International Stuttering Awareness Day.

Susan Finkenstadt, coordinator of speech therapy at the University Hospital in Syracuse, New York, arranged an interview with the journalist for the Healthcast program of a local television station. She and a former adult client were interviewed. In addition, Finkenstadt placed an exhibit in the hospital featuring SFA videos, brochures, and posters, about stuttering.

Molly Tami from Ohio, mother of a child who stutters, did a presentation at her son's school, explaining to 2-5 grade students why people stutter.

Cate R. from Gurnee, Illinois, and her mother, Pat, with help from Cate's speech therapist, Nina, did a presentation for her whole class on October 21, 1998, to help Cate's class learn about stuttering.

Monica Bennett of Christchurch, New Zealand, appeared on television and spoke on several radio stations and Steve Sutton and Susan Ellis did radio and television interviews about stuttering in Dunedin.

At 12:00 noon on October 22 individuals around the world were encouraged to participate in an ISAD World Demonstration called "A Moment of Speaking" by turning to the person next to them and educating that individual about stuttering. At the top of every hour of the 24 hours of October 22, International Stuttering Awareness Day, somebody, somewhere in the world, was learning about stuttering.

Plans for ISAD 1999 are currently underway and the theme has been chosen: "Think Globally - Act Locally." Information will be sent out during the summer and a flier will come from Jaan Pill about how to organize workshops locally.

Far from an "individual effort," 50 individuals were involved in presenting the first online conference on stuttering. The moderators for the conference were Judith Kuster and Michael Sugarman, and the technical component for putting it online rested with Judith Kuster along with support she received from Minnesota State University, Mankato. The following information is presented candidly and in detail to help people understand the challenges and the promises of this format. The entire conference remains online at http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad/isadcon.html

The first time I heard about International Stuttering Awareness Day was at the National Stuttering Project's convention in Atlanta, Georgia, in mid-June 1998 where Michael Sugarman passed around posters and a handout that contained "Tips for Education and Awareness," proposing ways consumers and professionals could get involved with International Stuttering Awareness Day, scheduled for October 22, 1998. Reading the seven ideas listed, two of them immediately caught my eye as something I might do as part of this effort: "host an ISAD workshop at your local speech clinic" and "organize an internet chat room to discuss stuttering." I had had experience with an online chatroom on The Stuttering Home Page, and envisioned something a little broader and more accessible than a chatroom. I also began thinking of a workshop format that would not be local, but global in nature. After much email correspondence with Sugarman, a plan developed, and Michael agreed to "co-host" the conference with me. But the concept, although a grand plan, needed a lot of immediate work if it would be ready by October. Since there would be pretty much the same amount of work involved for either a one-day online conference or a three-week online conference, it was agreed that the fruits of so much effort should be available for longer than one day, and the conference was scheduled to begin October 1 and culminate on October 22, ISAD.

The original goal was to have approximately 25 papers online for the conference. Each of the papers was to have a "threaded discussion" linked to it where anyone who read the paper could post comments or questions and the author of the paper could respond before the end of the conference.

Invitations were emailed in early July, giving a September 1 deadline to have a paper submitted. The response was very positive. Several answered immediately and enthusiastically. A few were reluctant, wondering what they might have to offer, but through further correspondence, agreed. Eight of the people contacted throughout the next several weeks (one three days before the conference was to open) declined the invitation, primarily due to a very busy schedule, but were very supportive of the idea.

Several people did not respond immediately, due to busy summer vacation schedules. Those individuals were re-contacted. Fourteen of the people or groups contacted did not respond at all. Perhaps their email address was incorrect, perhaps they were on vacation when the request arrived, perhaps they did not feel comfortable with English (8 who didn't respond were not from the US), perhaps they were too busy or simply not interested. I also learned later two were ill.

But it was not at all difficult to solicit the 25 papers for the conference. In fact, when someone declined, there was a long list of potential people to invite developed by Kuster and Sugarman. An attempt was made to keep a balance between professionals and consumers, having a variety of interesting topics, having both men and women, and having people represent the world-wide community. The papers were also to appeal to a general audience, including speech-language pathology students, school speech-language pathologists, private practitioners, university professors, and consumers from around the world. Every continent was represented by at least one individual or group, and serious attempts were made to invite additional non-US contributors. The final tally showed presenters from 15 different countries on six different continents: 1 from Asia, 2 from South America, 1 from Australia, 1 from Africa, 3 from a non-US North American country, and 13 from Europe. Although we attempted to contact several fairly well-known people who stutter, we were only able to get one American author (Marty Jezer) to participate.

There were 50 "presenters" for the 30 full-length, stand-alone papers (25 by a single author, 5 were co-authored) and 3 "panel discussions," where 9 individuals presented information about their self-help organizations, 2 presented information about some recent trends in stuttering therapy outside the US, and 4 presented information about their personal paths toward recovery.

Twenty of the papers and two of the panels had US representation. Ten of the papers and all three of the panels had non-US representation. Twenty-nine of the presenters were male and 21 were female. Thirty of the presenters consider themselves people who stutter. The other twenty, which included three who were a spouse, parent or child or a person who stutters) do not themselves stutter. Twenty-five were professionally trained in speech-language pathology or a related field (medicine, psychology). Four were currently students in training programs (three of those were people who stutter) and twenty-one had other training and were considered strictly "consumers" for this conference. (A list of the presenters and their papers is attached to the end of this paper).

One of the challenges was getting the information out about the online conference. Amy Johnson, Michael Sugarman and Judith Kuster found several ways to advertise the conference.

Johnson sent a news release about the ISAD online conference to members of ISA who had email addresses and included a copy of the news release with the posters mailed around the world. News releases were also sent to several Special Education Centers in Ohio. The conference was announced on several email mailing lists including stutt-l, stutt-x, stut-hlp, caps-news, cdmajor, and grndrnds. Prior to the conference, Johnson, Sugarman and Kuster placed announcements/articles about the conference in The ASHA DIV#4 newsletter (August 1998), International Stuttering Association (Spring 1998), ADVANCE (September 14, 1998), NSP's Letting Go (July/August 1998), ASHA Leader (September 22, 1998), IFA-GRAM (September 1998), Speak Easy's Speaking Out (Canada) (October 1998); and Minnesota Speech-Language-Hearing NEWS (September/October 1998).

Personal email invitations were sent to several individuals informing them about the online conference and a direct mailing was sent to speech-language pathologists in Minnesota on the Continuing Education (CE) list for Minnesota State University

I am also aware of several links to the conference that were placed on various websites. A web page describing the conference was placed on the Stuttering Home Page in late July. The NSP and CAPS web sites connected to this announcement, and the CAPS website also provided a link to the conference. The ISA website still maintains a link to the ISAD conference papers which are still online (http://www.xs4all.nl/~edorlow/isa.html) as does Bundesvereinigung Stotterer-Selbsthilfe e.V. (http://www.hsp.de/~bvss/), which also announced the conference and "Welttag des Stotterns: 22. Oktober 1998!" (http://selbsthilfe.seiten.de/wi982/wn981016_6.txt) and Voorstelling VZW BeSt. (http://www.semico.be/vzw.best/). One of the conference presenters, Martin Casey from Ireland, also provided a direct link from his web site (http://www.dmc.dit.ie/martin/index.html).

One challenge created by technology was acknowledged from the start as a challenge that could not be overcome entirely: the conference would only be available to those with Internet access. Any event that is highly dependent on technology is going to necessarily shut out people who are not technologically experienced, and those who live in places where technology is not readily available. That was considered beyond our control and I believe will be a diminishing problem in the future. However, to try to accommodate this, the conference was created to be accessible from any computer with access to the Internet. In other words, participants did not need an email account, a fast modem, or even their own computer. Several participants accessed the conference using a computer at their school or local library.

This potential negative was balanced by the fact that the technology also provided the opportunity to include people from around the world, many of whom may have very limited opportunity to attend or participate in such a conference. It also provided an excellent opportunity for fostering discussion between professionals and consumers, academics and clinicians, students and researchers, and demonstrated the positive implications for international co-operation and research. One individual commented that such "great diversity in topics and presenters would not happen unless you go to an international conference." Another added, "It was a good way to bring information that I think is important to a large number of people at relatively low cost (no airfare, no lost income)." A participant from South Africa added that the online conference was "an opportunity to exchange ideas with people in other areas of the world. Many people do not have the opportunity to discuss various aspects of stuttering with people who are very involved in stuttering. They don't go to professional or self-help conferences, therefore the new information that they get is limited to reading books which are not usually found in the local book store. This is a very user friendly way for non-professionals and students as well to get up to date information."

Another challenge posed by the technology is that some find reading on a computer screen to be difficult. To try to accommodate these potential problems, the papers were put online with a number 4 font size. Some reported they printed out the papers to read off-screen, making them easier to read.

The presenters worked hard and produced very valuable papers for the conference and I am aware of all the work people put in and am grateful for their substantial contributions. At the same time there were many challenges in receiving the papers and preparing them to put online. To make my job easier, I had prepared a template for the papers so they would all be uniform in format. I had also requested that the papers be between 1000-2500 words (4-10 doubled-spaced pages) in length, text-only with no pictures, graphs or tables and sent in ASCII format as regular email, not as an attachment, unless the presenter had html skills and was able to send me a finished product that would not require a great deal of my time to format for the web. When these instructions were followed, it was easy to insert the simple html tags that were part of the template I had created, typically taking me about five minutes to get a paper online after I had run it through a spell checker and proof-read it for content.

Most of the presenters accepted those constraints. But there were some instances of misunderstanding or ignoring my guidelines. For example, some papers were too long. One presenter sent what would have amounted to about 40 pages. I took a section of that paper, and re-did it, with the presenter's knowledge. Others were too short and I needed to diplomatically find ways to get authors to add information. I had failed to anticipate authors including external links to other websites which would lead people away from the conference site. I could easily replace the links with the actual URL in three papers that came with external links, but two others would have been too much work to change, so allowed the links. In the future, a decision should be made about allowing external links and that information should be provided to the authors with the initial instructions.

Some who didn't accept those constraints presented many, many technical challenges for me. Several wanted graphs, tables, and other unusual formatting. Typically these requests were from individuals who were relatively new to Internet technology and didn't understand the work involved at this end to meet their requests. In fact, when asked about what they had to learn about technology in order to participate in the conference, the answers ranged from nothing to having to learn how to get online. Several had had no experience with threaded discussions and one actually reported buying a computer for the first time two months prior to the conference and that email and the Internet were an entirely new experience. That combined with my relatively low-end technical knowledge created several problems that needed to be solved.

Here are a few examples of the technical problems: one individual attempted to send a table to be included formatted as three huge jpeg files, expecting that I would be able to open them and fuse them into one jpeg. One would not open. What I finally ended up doing was retyping tables, taking a screen dump to make a pict file, using a gif converter application to make the pict file into a gif file, adjusting the gif with Adobe Photoshop and finally adding it to the paper. That process prompted me to learn four new skills, but took me a lot of time. Other individuals from overseas sent papers using computer encryption systems not readily available to me. Although I requested numerous times that the paper be sent as regular email, not as an attachment, one individual refused. I spent three hours in our university computer lab one evening with a tech specialist who helped me search the internet, downloading many different unencryption methods before we found one that worked on this file. Another reason that I preferred text and not attachments was the potential for getting a virus on my computer. One of the files did in fact come with a virus which caused some added problems.

I should also add that two of the presenters were probably more expert at making web pages than I am and there were three others that sent their papers in html format; I had to make only minor changes to make these files fit into the template I had developed.

Another challenge involved proof-reading and learning to be diplomatic about information, grammar and spelling in negotiating what the writer really intended to say. I read all of the papers carefully and ran them through a spell-checker, corresponding with the writer before changes were made. A few of the papers submitted by persons that didn't use English as their first language needed extensive correspondence to determine what the writer intended to say.

An obvious though initially unanticipated problem was the need to learn how to read and translate for html code the various characters used in non-English languages. A related problem was that in transferring email from one computer to another sometimes strange characters appear such as =20's, =f45's, =F3's etc. These all had to be found, deciphered and changed.

One insightful presenter noted that changes in an article can be made fairly easily even after the article has been submitted and put online. This might tempt authors to be less than careful with the submitted paper since it is relatively easy to ask for corrections or changes to be made. This in fact did happen when several presenters re-read the paper they had submitted and wrote asking me to change wording or content. I was able to do that, but it required time.

Several of the presenters also did not practice with the private threaded discussion I had developed for that purpose. This became a problem for some during the conference.

Two weeks before the convention was due to open all of the thirty-seven threaded discussion pages I had created for the conference, disappeared from the university server after someone made a mistake in our computer lab - it took several days to get them back, which caused stress, anticipating that I would have to re-do them all.

Another technology challenge that was probably unnecessary for this conference involved putting a short video of Michael Sugarman welcoming the participants. It took many hours to learn how to convert the video and place the short clip online. It also required the end-user to have fairly sophisticated Internet access so may not have been viewed by many. And since the quality of the video clip I was able to provide was not that good, it was probably not worth the effort required to put it online.

Working on a deadline was stressful. I had to have everything ready by October 1 with several people asking for extensions on the September 1 deadline. On September 25, seven papers had not yet been sent. Two of those were my own fault - having responded to two requests from non-US people to consider adding their papers. I contacted them and made their presentation into a panel format, putting them, and myself, on a very short time-line. There were many last minute details three days before the conference was to open, including working with two individuals to get their papers in final html version and having one individual cancel. Since 30 papers had been advertised, I had a paper of my own prepared in that eventuality and it became part of the conference.

The ISAD online conference was placed on the Internet on Wednesday September 30 at 18:15 CST. It was already October 1 somewhere in the world! By the time the conference opened, the 25 papers first anticipated had grown to 30 with an additional three panels, which included six full-length papers around two specific topics and a series of short papers about several self-help groups around the world.

With just a quick look at the statistics I've gathered, it appears there were participants from at least 31 different countries involved in this online conference. Those countries ranged from A to Z (ae - United Arab Emirate to za - South Africa). Most non-US requests were from South Africa (3933), the Czech Rebublic (1244), Brazil (865), the United Kingdom (771), Australia (533) and Portugal (392). Most active in terms of different computers making requests were Germany (60), Canada (27) and Australia (19). There were 29 different K-12 computers, from elementary and secondary schools in eleven states in the US. The largest single provider access was from AOL users (1357). The busiest days, on average, were the three Sundays and the busiest single day was Monday, October 19. There were 124 different people (representing professionals, students, people who stutter and/or their family members, and some who have had little contact with the stuttering community up to this point who just happened by) who posted a question or response. Several that posted were not from the US. Although I am unable to determine addresses of all the people who posted questions, some identified where they were from, which included Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Israel, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.

The front page of the conference was opened up 3313 times during the 3-week conference period (that does not count any hits with the non-graphical browser Lynx and I know some people were accessing the conference that way).

Each paper was read by an average of 175 people (which would be a good attendance for any single paper at any conference!), with a range from 95 to 306.

From October 1 - October 22, the entire conference site had 23,585 requests for information with an average of 1025 requests daily.

183,417,872 bytes of information were transmitted during the summary period with an average of 7,974,690 bytes transmitted daily. So people from all over the world were taking a lot of good information off of the site. And they have continued to do that now that the conference has concluded since the information is permanently housed on the Stuttering Home Page. In fact, when I checked the counter on March 9, 1999, it read 4605. I am also able to check statistics for individual papers on a monthly basis, some of which have been linked to appropriate places on the Stuttering Home Page. All of the papers continue to be accessed, some more than 100 times/month. For example, in November, after the conference was over, Martin Casey's paper was opened 113 times, Hermann Christmann's 248, Luc DeNil's 180, and Ken St. Louis' 230. In December, Christmann's paper was accessed 130 times and St. Louis' 132.

The online conference was ready and opened, but there were to be three weeks of potentially unknown and unanticipated challenges to face. Many people had put in a lot of work on this event. Would anyone come to the conference? Would anybody respond to the papers or would there be so many responses that it would become a burden to the presenters? Would the presenters be consistent in responding to the comments/questions? Would anyone post graffiti or inappropriate comments? Would anyone attempt to use this forum to sell their own products or ideas, which could be misinformation. Would there be arguments?

I had many telephone calls and email requests from several participants requesting help in accessing the online conference. Although written instructions were available online, some still needed additional instructions on how to use the threaded discussions.

It appeared that many who were reading the papers were reluctant to post questions. In fact, presenters reported getting personal emails with questions and comments from persons who chose not to post in the public threaded discussions. This reluctance was anticipated and the thirteen individuals who were participating in the online conference for credit or continuing education units were required to post at least three questions/comments. Students in my graduate seminar in stuttering were also required to read at least three of the papers and in teams were required to post a question/comment to about twenty. In the end, all of the papers were responded to and although some papers had more response than others, none appeared to be burdensome for the presenters.

Several of the presenters had not practiced how to use the threaded discussion and made mistakes in posting, or wrote and asked for re-

instructions in how to post. There were some instances where I emailed the questions posted by participants to the presenter who would email the answers back to me to put online.

I asked the presenters to estimate how often each of them checked into the threaded discussions attached to their papers and how much time they spent answering the questions there. For the 21 days the conference was online, the range of times the presenters checked in was 5 to 44 and the range of time spent responding was from 30 minutes to 12 hours. The range reflected some presenters who had much to respond to and others who had less as well as the fact that several were responding in a second language for them. But the number of times they checked to see if there was something to respond to was a problem with some of the presenters and I sent several gentle reminders to many people. Some of the individuals who sent short statements about their self-help organizations and a few of the second authors on some of the papers did not participate further in the conference.

The threaded discussions attached to each of the conference papers were an entirely open format. Anyone could post anything. I felt a responsibility to the presenters, as any conference moderator would, that questions/responses remained cordial and in good taste. I put a disclaimer on the front page which included these words: "Also please ask questions that are relevant to the papers and refrain from developing a personal topic. It is expected that participants will remain cordial." The only recourse I had if anyone posted inappropriate comments or started to heckle or show disrespect to a presenter was to delete their messages. The co-chairs and several others agreed that one individual was posting inappropriately to one of the presenters and I deleted two of the posts we considered inappropriate. When deleting this person's posts, I also took the opportunity to "clean up" double and triple posts that appeared on other threaded discussions, test messages that presenters put online at the very beginning of the conference, blank messages, and a message that one presenter asked me to replace because of typos. In doing this I unintentionally broke the threads, making it impossible for anyone to post further questions/comments on four different threaded discussion pages.

Three days later, a participant in the online conference contacted me saying she was unable to post her comment on one of the threaded discussions. It was at that time that I discovered that four of the threaded discussions were not working. I spent about six hours re-doing threaded discussions that were broken, adding several posts which were still in the cache, but not visible on the pages. It was a glitch in the system that I was not previously aware of.

The deleting of what I considered two offensive posts escalated to the point that the person whose posts were deleted wrote to the chair of my department accusing me of censorship and posted to mailing lists questioning my censorship. It was then decided, with the consent of the presenter, to allow posts from this person which the presenter could choose to ignore. Other posts of a similar nature were subsequently posted under other names and we suspected that it was this same individual using aliases to post answers to his own questions which were being ignored by the presenter. In an open threaded discussion, there is no way to prevent such disruptions.

In March 1999 I received a FAX from a commercial company challenging one of the papers which reported on research using this company's product as well as their own program in treatment for stuttering. They requested strongly that I now delete the paper, five months after the conclusion of the conference. The results of the study reported in the conference were positive and the company's product was cited. After consulting with my university's Director of Research, Graduate Dean, and Director of Legal Affairs who read the paper and the correspondence, it was concluded that although the research design may have been weakened by using two different (though similar) programs, the paper in question was not designed to sell a particular product or compete with the commercial company, but to report positive results from this approach to therapy, including with the commercial product. The disagreements cited in the FAX are not directly related to the paper and need to be resolved between the company and the authors of the paper. Since the purpose of the conference was to provide a forum for discussion between professionals and

consumers and not to evaluate use/misuse or development of specific products, the paper remains a part of the conference. A disclaimer that is on the Stuttering Home Page was also added to the conference page and it is suggested that it be a permanent part of any online conference. The disclaimer reads: Contributors to the conference are solely responsible for the information they provide. We cannot be responsible for nor can we attest to the accuracy or efficacy of the information others provide. A version of the paper is also online on the author's own site.

At the conclusion of the conference, I put an announcement at the end of each of the threaded discussion pages instructing people not to post any more questions or comments, but to contact those presenters who were willing, directly with the email address provided. Two weeks later, after all of the presenters had had an opportunity to finish their responses, I broke all of the threaded discussions.

I also learned how to "burn" a CDROM in both Macintosh and PC versions, which I distributed to the 35 individuals who requested one. A copy of the CDROM is also a part of my handout to those at this conference. It contains not only the conference papers, but also all of the threaded discussions.

At the conclusion of the conference, articles about it appeared in print media, including Minnesota State University, Mankato, Reporter, (November 19, 1998); NSP's Letting Go (December 1998/January 1999); One Voice, ISA newsletter (January 1999); and ASHA DIV#4 newsletter (January 1999)

I also asked for feedback from those taking the it for CEU or univeristy credit and sent a questionnaire to all of the presenters, asking for their appraisal of the conference. 31 (62 percent of the total number counted as presenters and 75 percent of the presenters who actively participated) responded.

When asked if given the opportunity, would they present at a future online conference, of the 29 who responded to that question, 28 said "yes" and one answered "it depends."

Comments were made about the "excellent blend of professional and consumer ideas and knowledge," and how the online conference "strengthened the concept that consumers and professionals can work better together than apart toward the mutual goal of helping persons who stutter." Others added that "a lot of folks learned a LOT about stuttering" and that "conferences like this one can go a long way in continuing to change public perceptions."

Several commented on the opportunity to share their ideas about stuttering and liked the ability to interact with others through the threaded discussions as well as a format where participants "have a better opportunity to digest the amount of information available - they can read and re-read the papers and spend some time thinking about them before formulating a questions or comment - something that is not possible during a traditional oral presentation "

Professionals discovered the new forum had implications not only for sharing information, but also for how they shared the information.

Some of the presenters also shared how the online conference was significant to them in their personal/professional lives. One said, "My father went in and actually read my . . paper (which has become) a turning point in his understanding of me!" Another added, "It gave me a better understanding of the challenges faced by SLPs treating stuttering in the schools."

Many of those who participated in the online conference shared very positive responses, calling it "a groundbreaking effort," an " historic event," that has "added to the development of the international self-help network" and has "allowed the experts, the laymen, the fluent and the non-fluent to reach out and touch one another in a way that has probably never been done before." Another participant wrote that the conference was "the best learning experience on stuttering I have had." Another commented on how important it is for professionals and consumers to be learning from and with each other. "People who stutter have a lot of valuable insights to share, that's what makes this conference so interesting and important. . . . In many cases, we learn more from others who stutter than we do from professionals. In other cases, the professionals have important insights to share."

New connections were made. A self-help organization in Canada made contact with a presenter in southern Texas, USA, about how to run a summer camp program for children who stutter. A mother in Canada was directed to appropriate services for her son. A Patent Examiner in the UK Patent Office in pharmaceuticals connected with another individual interested in clinical trials. The editor of a newsletter for a self-help organization in Canada found several articles to publish. A person from Brazil interested in stuttering and bilingualism was able to connect with a person from South Africa interested in the same topic. More than one individual commented as this person did, that the internet "has also given the layman stutterer a chance to communicate with names they have so long heard about but otherwise would never have approached to ask questions." When the presenters were asked if they made any new contacts they expected to continue after the conference, 12 responded yes.

There were 5 people who were taking this conference for 1.0 CEU and 8 who participated and wrote a paper for 1 semester of credit. Their response was overwhelmingly favorable, not only about what they learned, but also about this method of delivering CEUs and credit-generating course material. Their feedback reported that the format worked extremely well and that they felt the content was excellent. They also liked being able to participate on their own time line and that the conference did not require out of town travel or overnight expense.

People who stutter gained insights - your paper "made me understand a lot of past emotions. . . . I am very grateful" and confirmation - "for the first time ever I have read something that tells the truth about stutterers and avoidances. The comments . . . hit the nail so squarely on the head that it shook me."

Clinicians gained insights and help for their clients from other professionals, "I plan to use (your good analogy) with the parents of children who stutter that I work with to explain how the environmental factors interact with the personal factors. Thank you."

Clinicians also gained very important insights and help for their clients from consumers. "I have shared your paper with a high school age student that I am working with. He was frequently skipping his sessions with me. I think your article touched a spot in him that I was unable to touch. He is now coming to his therapy sessions and says that he is ready to learn more about his stuttering. " And another example, "I just wanted to share with you a story about a former student of mine . . that was a fairly severe stutterer. We would often talk about the "emotional aspects" of stuttering, and the impact it had on his life. . . . One day this student came to his speech session and he was in an awful mood. He hesitantly opened up - the topic was girls. He was worried that his speech problems would mean that he would never have a girlfriend (or wife someday). Although we spent many sessions discussing this issue, I never felt he truly believed what I was telling him. And then came your article. Although I don't work with him this year, I sent him a copy. I wasn't sure what kind of reaction to expect. But the other day I got a letter saying, very simply, "Thanks- I guess things will be okay". Thanks for sharing how wonderful life can be with a person who stutters!

I believe the ISAD online conference was very successful, but could it have been even better? One always looks for ways to improve "next time." The presenters were asked, "What do you consider the problems/negatives of this format for a conference?" and "How could it be improved in the future." Their suggestions as well as some personal feelings and a few comments from participants provided several suggestions where improvements can be made in the future.

The two major "complaints" centered around the limitations of the technology and the time commitment.

There were a few problems and negative comments about the threaded discussion software used. The text box provided for writing the response was seen as too small, making it difficult to edit after the response had been typed. Several also had to retype their responses because the system for "posting" is not particularly intuitive. There is a "post" link at the top of the page and a "post article" link at the bottom of the page. If you type your message and hit the "post" at the top of the page, the article you typed disappears and must be re-typed. This difficulty is inherent in the design of the software available. Once it is understood, it is no longer a problem. In the future, the presenters need to be more consistent about practicing prior to the conference, and clear instructions need to be provided (and read!!) by all who participate. It needs to be emphasized that responding to questions should be first done off line and then pasted into the response box so that a print copy is available in case a mistake is made and the answer needs to be re-posted.

Two individuals commented that they would like to have some visual indication to show that they had already visited a paper. This feature was a part of the conference, but the colors chosen did not provide enough contrast. This can be remedied easily in the future.

A few commented on the delay in having questions answered and not knowing when to check in. One person who is very active in the self-help movement and attends many conferences, commented on an online conference vs. a live conference by teasing, "I didn't get any HUGS!!! :-)"

Some participants and presenters felt the time involved for the conference was a potential negative for them. A couple of those taking it for 10 hours of continuing education stated that they spent well over 10 hours on the conference. When asked how long they spent writing their paper for this conference, the presenters reported from one to eighty hours. Some of the papers had been prepared to be presented elsewhere in some form. Others developed their papers solely for the online conference.

One of the presenters that didn't use English as a first language commented that the only negative was " a problem of time for me because of the foreign language." Another presenter stated that the online conference was "more time consuming for the presenters - not only in terms of preparing the papers, but also in responding to the comments." He speculated that this could become an even bigger problem in the future "as such conferences become wider known and popular."

When asked, 18 of the professionals responded that they intended to count their paper and par-ticipation on their professional vita and two said they would not. One of the two that said he would not felt that "writing a paper for the con-ference almost took as much time as writing a good draft for a short manuscript for publication - unfortunately, while the conference presentation would not be counted as a scientific publication, the manuscript would - this may discourage some people from submitting papers to a conference like this."

For the conference coordinator, the conference was like having a baby - with a lengthy labor and a three week delivery (probably over 250 hours of work by me along with many hours of work by those who wrote the papers and those that helped me with technical problems). By the end of the conference many were asking if I would do it again next year. It is a well-known fact you don't ask a woman who has just given birth when she is going to have another baby. I needed time to recuperate and reflect on the process first.

Having one person in charge of "doing it" with another responsible for helping to advertise it and another as a sounding board worked well. Having additional technical assistance from someone knowledgeable would be beneficial. But having one person basically "in charge" with most of the decision-making ability was important, particularly on such a short time-line.

This may be a potential problem in the future. Who will volunteer all the hours to do this? Where will the conference be placed online? There a usually cost involved in server space and the software necessary to do what Minnesota State University allowed me to do at no cost to the conference. One person having the primary responsibility of doing the inviting and deciding provides a faster timeline in getting things done, but potential problems in the future. For example that person cannot know all the people who could provide very valuable papers.

Two people suggested that there be fewer papers and some suggested that the length of the conference be extended an extra week or two, perhaps limiting the amount of actual interaction time with the presenters to a few days, or the presenters responding once a week on a specified day. This is a good suggestion with the potential to make the presenters more accountable. It is also less of an intrusion on their time.

Good suggestions were also made for increasing awareness of any future online conference by using the global network of self-help organizations who could be encouraged not only to get the information out to their own members, but to find ways to advertise the conference in local newspapers as well as in the popular media to get greater exposure for the general public that needs to learn about stuttering. Newspapers often have columns related to Internet activity and this might be a way to advertise the event at no charge to anyone. Such information would need to be planned well in advance of the conference. I think this is an important suggestion since any increase in public awareness about stuttering, particularly through good information such as was provided on the Online conference, will have a positive effect on the general public's interaction with people who stutter. In my opinion, education, information and public awareness are very important components to improving conditions for people who stutter.

Another good idea that will be easy to incorporate in the future is to create an "Open Office Hours" threaded discussion for the duration of the conference where people could post questions that aren't related to the conference papers, which could be responded to by a designated group of consumers and professionals.

In the future, a chatroom could also be added at the request of the presenters where groups could meet at a designated time to discuss certain issues in more detail. The potential negatives of doing this however are that the chat software I have available and that I am familiar with requires a pretty sophistocated web browser and computer operating system, which restricts the number of participants. The discussion also does not become a permanent record for others to read and learn, like the threaded discussion format. Also, in an international forum, the difference in time zones would be a problem for some who may wish to participate in a chatroom.

Clearer guidelines could be developed that would assist the coordinator, the presenters and the participants. Presenter guidelines would include an agreed-upon deadline, format for submitting articles, agreement to practice with the threaded discussions and to participate in them during the conference including perhaps a protocol for responses and expectations of questioners, e.g., do questioners expect a response the same day, within 24 hours, not important, etc? how accepting are questioners of typo's in responses? How long should responses be? Should discussion be encouraged by asking questions back? Participant guidelines would include a strong statement about what is considered appropriate behavior and clear instructions on how the threaded discussions work. (Although both were included in this online conference, the message was either misunderstood or not seen in several cases).

Many of the efforts talked about in this paper, focus primarily on providing information and resources to people directly affected by stuttering: children and adults who stutter, their families, and the professionals who work with them. These efforts are vital in helping those individuals, and should continue and be increased. However, it is also vital that the general public become more informed about stuttering and how to be helpful to those who stutter. It is that outreach that will ultimately change attitudes which affect people who stutter in their everyday lives. Some of those ideas are found throughout this paper. It is ideas for that type of outreach I hope others will be expanding on and sharing in the future.

•Paths Toward Recovery, featuring a panel of Kristin Chmela (Illinois, USA), Geoff Johnston (South Australia), Walt Manning (Tennessee, USA) and Bob Quesal (Illinois, USA)

•Some Recent Trends in Therapy for Stuttering from Around the World, Barbara Dahm (Israel) and Alexander Wolff von Gudenberg (Germany)

•Self-help groups for stuttering around the world, featuring the British Stammering Association - Norbert Lieckfeldt (UK), along with a panel of self-help organizers - John Ahlbach, Friends (USA); Annie Bradberry, National Stuttering Project (USA); Martine De Vloed, Belangengroep Stotteraars VZW BeSt (Belgium); Stefan Hoffmann, Bundesvereini-gung Stotterer-Selbsthilfe e.V. (Germany); Mike Hughes, Speakeasy (Canada); Shinji Ito, Japan Stuttering Project (Japan); Jaan Pill, CAPS (Canada); and Benny Ravid, The Israeli Support Group for People Who Stutter (Israel).

•A Perspective on Summer Camps for Children Who Stutter: 1991 - 1998 by Ellen Bennett and Jenna Batik (Texas, USA)

•What Is Wrong With John Wayne's Stuttering Therapy? by Hans-Georg Bosshardt (Germany)

•Adolescents who stutter: the urgent need for support groups (A Parent's Perspective), by Lee Caggiano (New York, USA)

•Born with a Broken Tongue, by Martin Casey (Ireland)

•Stuttering and Communication: What Is Going Wrong? by Hermann Christmann (Denmark)

•The Impact of Identifying Preferred Treatment Outcomes on Conceptualizing, Assessing, and Treating Chronic Stuttering by Eugene B. and Crystal S. Cooper (Florida, USA)

•Consumer Self-Help and Professional Associations by Charlie Diggs (Maryland, USA)

•Some thoughts on the multidimensional nature of stuttering from a neurophysiological perspective by Luc De Nil (Toronto, CA)

•"Dysphagia" Wha? -- Do Stuttering Therapists Need to Study the Full Speech-Language-Hearing Curriculum? by Darrell Dodge (Colorado, USA)

•Stuttering Foundation of America -- Looking Back and Looking Forward by Jane Fraser (Tennessee, USA)

•Fluency and Fluency Disorders Lab by Claudia Regina Furquim de Andrade, (Brazil)

•Enhancements To Integrated Approaches For Treating Stuttering by E. Charles Healey (Nebraska, USA), Janet Norris (Louisiana, USA), Lisa Scott Trautman (Kansas, USA), and Michael Susca (Nebraska, USA)

•Stages of Coping: A Stutterer's Journey from Denial to Integration by Louise Heite (Iceland)

•Some suggestions for teachers of children who stammer by Cherry Hughes (United Kingdom)

•Speaking Is My Challenge -- And I'm Facing Up To It by Marty Jezer (Vermont, USA)

•Issues of culture and stuttering: A South African Perspective by Harsha Kathard (South Africa)

•Internet Resources About Stuttering by Judith Kuster (Minnesota, USA)

•The Birth of the YSP: Towards a theory on the Young Stuttering Person. by Anders Lundberg and Sara Strom (Sweden)

•Is there anything new in stuttering or are you still doing the same old things? by Walter Manning (Tennessee, USA)

•Low-Cost Video-Conferencing for the Provision of Remote Stuttering Intervention: Myth or Reality? by Richard McGuire (Iowa, USA)

•A Perspective On Neuropharmacological Agents And Stuttering: Are There Implications For A Cause As Well As A Cure? by Larry Molt (Alabama, USA)

•What is "successful" stuttering therapy by Robert Quesal (Illinois, USA)

•The Role of Self Help/Support Groups in Determining the Outcomes of Stuttering Therapy by Lee Reeves (Texas, USA)

•A Synopsis Of Cluttering And Its Treatment by Kenneth St. Louis (Virginia, USA) and Florence Myers (New York, USA)

•Relapse: A Misnomer? by C. Woody Starkweather (Pennsylvania, USA)

•A Model for Change from a Consumer's Perspective by Michael Sugarman (California, USA)

•The neuro-physiological perspective as the grounds for corporal workout with people who stutter by Beatriz Biain de Touzet (Argentina)

•Views From A Wife by Harriet Weiner (Michigan, USA)

•Outreach Initiatives with Children Who Stutter by Bonnie Weiss (New York, USA)

•Documenting Treatment Outcomes in Stuttering: Measuring Impairment, Disability, and Handicap by J.Scott Yaruss (Pennsylvania, USA)