Content Committee

Thank you for volunteering to be on the OTC’26 Content Committee!
I respect your time and will endeavor to keep this process efficient for you. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to OTC! Timeline/dates are a good approximation but could change.

This page is meant for committee members only, please keep the links to yourself. As we move forward through the planning stages, you will find the flexible timeline, processes, links to submit  keynote suggestions, and instructions for reviewing/scoring proposal submissions will also be found on this page (as time appropriate). If you have questions, please email me at thickey@palomar.edu. Thanks again!

Responsibilities of the committee: 

• Provide feedback on theme
• Provide feedback on the tracks
• Provide recommendations and feedback on pre-conference workshop topics
• Propose keynote topics and speaker recommendations, contribute to selection decision
• Review session proposals and select OTC’26 sessions 

Content Committee
Please see the table below for team assignments – the team number is in parenthesis with the Team Lead in bold. If your name is not included on the list and you responded with confirmation of interest/availability, you are an alternate and I will reach out to you in the event a position opens. Thank you for your support in both being a team member and an alternate just the same!

Alternates:

• Julia Seaman
• Karri Iaquinta Springer
• Kaydian Reid
• Tracy Schaelen
• Matthew Moore

Theme (Thru September 26, noon – closed, thank you for your feedback)

• Provide theme feedback

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Tracks (thru September 26, noon – closed, thank you for your feedback) 

• Provide tracks feedback

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Pre-conference workshops (thru October 15, noon – closed, thank you for your feedback)

• Provide feedback and suggestions

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Keynote Speakers (thru October 15, noon – closed, thank you for your feedback)

• Submit a Keynote speaker suggestion (view only)

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Call for Proposals (Official review is tentatively set for: February 1 – February 17, 2026)
The Call for Proposals opened September 30, 2025 and closed January 31, 2026.

Rubric
(note: the rubric was updated for OTC’25, will keep the same for OTC’26 and address in OTC’27 (every other year update pattern)

Rubric can be found here

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Members (including Team Leads):

• Receive and review ‘norming’ standards and rubric (to be done prior to you beginning the review/scoring): targeting February 5
• Instructions on how to access and use the scoring portal are scheduled to be emailed individually via Cvent to the entire committee: targeting February 6
• Committee members receive proposals for review: targeting February 6
• Committee members review/score proposals: February 6 – 20

Team Leads 

• Team 1: Yun-Pu Yang
• Team 2: Ryan Hitch
• Team 3: Tracy stuntz
• Team 4: Julie Gamberg
• Team 5: EJ Baldonado-Wilkins
• Team 6: Cynthia Hamlett
• Team 7: Sasa Stojic-Ito
• Team 8: Norma Jones

In addition to the Member responsibilities, Team Leads have these responsibilities:

• Be the ‘voice’ of and guidance for their team, (their point of contact)
• Schedule in advance your team meeting to go over proposals as a group: February 9-16
  • Notify Tiffiny of the meeting date/time: February 17 (I need the date so I can prepare and send you your team’s cumulative scores prior to your team meeting)
• Hold your team meeting to review and discuss proposals/scores: between February 25 – March 4
  • [If necessary] If team review included requests from submitter for more information and/or clarification, the team lead will reach out to the submitter directly to resolve: March 6-13
• Complete ranking and send results back to Tiffiny: March 6 (or before)
• Attend Team Lead meeting to review all proposals for a cumulative evaluation: March 16, tentative (Tiffiny will send Doodle poll for availability)
• Finalize selections: March 19 
• Notification to submitters is released: March 20 

Please note that being part of this committee/subcommittee does not prevent you from submitting your own proposals. In fact, we encourage you to submit and share the call for proposals with your colleagues! To keep the process equitable, we will exclude you from reviewing your own proposal should you be assigned to the group reviewing it.