BIG TENT UPDATE!!!!

A message about the Big Tent Meeting on Saturday..... for those of you outside the GTA who would like to participate:





Subject: Great News about our Meeting!

Today has been a busy day of pre-meeting preparation. We're happy to announce the following:

1. We WILL have an internet connection at the meeting, which will allow us to post a live blog about the event. We're also working on putting together a chat feature that may allow those of you who are out of town to communicate with us while the meeting unfolds. Here's the URL for the blog site (you'll also be able to find the link at the OAC website)

http://www.facebook.com/l/;thebigtentmeeting.blogspot.com/

2. We received confirmation today that Suzanne Lanthier, Executive Director of Autism Speaks Canada, will be joining us at the meeting. For those of you interested in lobbying at the federal level, this will be a great opportunity to hear about the plans that Autism Speaks is developing for more advocacy on the national scene.

3. We also have representatives who will be attending from a variety of other organizations: Autism Ontario, the Alliance for Families with Autism, and Autism Resolution Ontario. We're really excited by the wide-cross section of advocates who will be with us on Saturday.

4. Thanks to a generous contribution from Autism Speaks, we will be able to provide coffee and lunch for up to 50 participants. It's a simple box lunch--small sandwich, chips and a drink, but it allows us to keep everyone on site, which will save us a lot of time. As a result, we're tightening up the agenda so that we can end earlier. (See our website for the revised agenda)

5. We've had over 60 responses to our pre-meeting survey, and it's telling us that there is a very high level of consensus on the goals and objectives we should be working towards. Thanks very much to all of you who have taken the time to complete it. For those of you who haven't had a chance, we'd really appreciate it if you could try to do so before tomorrow night. Here's the survey link, one more time:

http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.surveymonkey.com/Home_Landing.aspx?sm=BpzUk%2bAef8VfWgkjHpJb0Q%3d%3d

Please remember to RSVP to this event if you haven't done so already. We look forward to seeing lots of you on Saturday, and we hope to chat on-line with those of you joining us from far away.

Peace,

Bruce & Laura