Accounting educators, students and professionals are invited to submit their work to the 2014 Western Region Meeting, to be held in Salt Lake City, UT on April 24–26, 2014. The theme for the 2014 Western Region Meeting is "Sustainability of the Accounting Academy: Expanding our community." How can we reengage senior faculty in continuing dialogs on teaching and research? How can we integrate professionally oriented faculty into the accounting academy? How can we keep faculty engaged in the face of scarce resources and increasing demands? Come to Salt Lake and join us in the discussion. Submissions will be accepted for the following sessions:

* Paper Sessions
* Dialogue Sessions
* Emerging Research Sessions
* Effective Learning Strategies (ELS) Poster Sessions
* Panel Sessions

The deadline for all submissions is 11:59 pm EST on January 30, 2014.

Paper Sessions
Paper sessions provide an opportunity for researchers to present and discuss completed working papers or cases. Sessions will include three or four research papers with discussant(s). Each research paper will have approximately 20-25 minutes for presentation and discussion. Completed working papers and case studies may encompass any topical area of accounting and may be theoretical or practice-oriented. Papers can have an academic, practitioner or pedagogical focus.

Papers accepted to Paper Sessions will be considered for the Best Paper Award, Best TLC Education Paper/Case Award (presented by the Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Section) and, if applicable, the Best Student Paper Awards for Undergraduate, Masters, or Doctoral students.

Dialogue Sessions
Dialogue sessions provide an opportunity for researchers to present working papers that are in a developmental stage. Authors should submit to Dialogue Sessions when they have specific issues or areas for further development they would like to discuss with fellow presenters and an audience. In addition to submitting the working paper, researchers should submit two or three carefully crafted questions that address specific issues of concern to the researcher. For example, is there another statistical technique that could improve the data analysis? Are there additional variables that might influence the statistical outcomes? Dialogue sessions will allow presentation and dialogue for five papers with each paper having 20 minutes for presentation and dialogue. The discussion will be facilitated by the Dialogue Facilitator and each presenter in the session will receive a copy of the other presenters' submitted papers for dialogue contribution. Presenters and audience members will be asked for suggestions to improve the working papers in the session. Papers and case studies submitted to the Dialogue Session may encompass any topical area of accounting and may be theoretical or practice-oriented.

Working papers accepted to Dialogue Sessions will be considered for the Best Paper Award, Best TLC Education Paper/Case Award (presented by the Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Section) and, if applicable, the Best Student Paper Awards for Undergraduate, Masters, or Doctoral students.

Emerging Research Sessions
Emerging Research Sessions are designed to allow faculty and doctoral students to submit well-developed proposals and receive feedback on their theory and research designs prior to collecting data. Proposals should have clearly stated research questions, well-developed theory and hypotheses based on the relevant literature in the area. These proposals will benefit from informed feedback on theory and guidance on how best to proceed when testing the hypotheses. Proposals can range from early stage development, where the research design is still being constructed, through advanced stage development, where the research design and statistical analyses have been determined.

Five to six presenters will give 10-12 minute presentations of their research projects consecutively. The 50-60 minute period of presentations is then followed by a 40 minute period of open dialogue in which the presenters, audience members, and Session Leader are free to engage in small group dialogues with each other. In addition to presenting their own proposals, each of the presenters will be asked to read and bring comments on the other proposals to the session for discussion. Emerging research proposals may encompass any topical area of accounting and may be theoretical or practice-oriented. Proposals can have an academic, practitioner or pedagogical focus.

Effective Learning Strategies (ELS) Poster Session
The ELS Poster Session showcases ideas, teaching strategies and education innovations that support learning in accounting. It offers an interactive format for presenters to engage colleagues and exchange ideas and resources. The ELS Poster Session will take place during the Friday night reception of the Western Region Meeting. Poster display sizes and display space will be determined at a later date and presenters will be notified directly of those specifications.

Panel Sessions
If you have an idea for a panel discussion and want to moderate that panel, submit your proposed topic, panel members, and brief description (up to 300 words).

Submissions to a regional meeting may have been submitted to the American Accounting Association National meeting or mid-year sectional meetings, but should not have been published elsewhere before the 2014 Western Region meeting.

Call for Volunteers
Please consider volunteering to support the 2014 Western Region Meeting. Click Here for descriptions of the open volunteer positions. Information on how to volunteer to be a reviewer, a Moderator or Discussant for the Paper Session, or a Dialogue Facilitator for the Dialogue Session, will be made available soon. If you are interested in being an Emerging Research Session Leader, please contact the 2014 Western Region Meeting Program Chair Elizabeth Almer at ealmer@pdx.edu by Monday, January 6. Professor Almer will contact you with further information about the Session Session Leader position by Friday, January 10.