Some Stuff about the Schedule

Many of you have been asking about the schedule. As of yet, our plan is to avoid releasing the schedule before BTFO 2009 begins. This is for a couple of reasons, the first of them being that we really don't know what the schedule is yet. Things are still in flux (and I'm sure will be up to the very beginning of the program). The other is that the common wisdom from a few generations of BTFO coordinators is that giving out the schedule in advance leads to people making snap decisions about what they will and won't attend, and booking other commitments around that. We would like to have you at least on campus for all of BTFO, wandering in and out of panels, and attending as much as you feel up to.

On the other hand, we're acutely aware that many of you do have other non-negotiable commitments (kids are what come to mind) and need to know things in advance. Here are a few broad brushstrokes that I hope will be helpful:

We have programming from 9:30am - 6pm every day. The exceptions to this are Monday, 8/24, when we begin in the afternoon, and Tuesday, 8/25 when we start at 9am with denominational breakout sessions. There are optional evening activities throughout the week after dinner.

Dinner is at 6pm every day. Lunch is at 12:30pm (except for Monday, when we only do dinner). We do not provide breakfast any day except for Tuesday, when we will have sparse baked goods and some coffee.

Chapel is at 10:30am every day (well, except for Monday), and will be followed by coffee "hour", which is a misnomer, since chapel will end at 11am and the next panel will kick off at 11:30am. This recreates the daily YDS experience, where chapel is at 10:30am every day and there's not quite enough time to enjoy coffee hour. We'll even try to not have your favorite kind of donut (are the chocolate-frosted really that hard to come by, Lindsay?!?).

Your family and friends are welcome at everything - with one exception. Thursday night we'll have dinner in various faculty and staff residences around New Haven. Because no one's dining room can really accommodate everyone and their mother, we will invite your mother to another dinner.

Finally, everything kicks off on Monday, 8/24 at 2:30pm. We'll be registering folks from 2:30pm -4pm, then introducing you to your small groups.

That's all I can really share at the moment. As we put together the schedule, we're attempting to mark which events we think will be most helpful for international students and second-career folks, as well as those we think it might be really great to bring kids and families to. We'll also be marking those events which we think are not to be missed -- as close to mandatory as we get.

-Kate