The Open Repositories Steering Committee seeks proposals from
candidate host organisations for the 2013 and 2014 Open Repositories
Annual Conference. Preference will be given to North American hosts
for OR2013, and to European hosts for OR2014. Proposals from all
geographic areas will, however, are given consideration.

IMPORTANT DATES

The Committee is accepting proposals to host OR2013 through October
28, 2011. Please submit initial expressions of interest by October 7,
2011.

Proposals for the OR2014 conference will be accepted until March 1,
2012. Initial expressions of interest are encouraged and should be
received by December 31, 2011.

Candidate institutions must have the ability to host a four-day
conference of approximately 350-500 attendees (OR2011 drew
approximately 315 attendees). This includes appropriate access to
conference facilities, lodging, and transportation, as well as the
ability to manage a range of supporting services (food services and
conference social events; conference web site; management of
registration and online payments; etc.). The candidate institutions
and their local arrangements committee must have the means to support
the costs of producing the conference through attendee registration
and independent fundraising. The OR Steering Committee can provide
further information on costs and fund-raising associated with recent
conferences, or a sample proposal, to sites that have a potential
interest in hosting the conference.

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

Organisations interested in proposing to organise a future OR
conference should follow the steps listed below:

1. The target dates for initial enquiries and proposals specified
above should be observed. Please direct enquiries and proposals to OR
Steering Committee Chair John Howard, john.b.how...@ucd.ie.
Preliminary enquiries to review requirements of proposals are
welcomed. Decisions on proposals can be expected within approximately
6-8 weeks of the submission deadline.

2. Proposals should include: identification of venue and facilities;
proposed management framework (local arrangements committee), a
preliminary budget and discussion of financial arrangements; a brief
summary of the proposed conference structure. It will be useful to
identify the host institution's engagement with the technologies and
substantive themes relevant to open repositories. Suggestions for
potential conference themes, presentation formats, and so forth are
welcomed. However, the focus of proposals should be on the suitability
of the site and ability of the host institution to manage a conference
that typically includes diverse presentation formats, workshops and
collaborative activities. Proposals should include specific dates for
the event, and note the scheduling of any other potentially
conflicting meetings within several months before or after the
proposed meeting date. Further, written commitments of financial
support from sponsoring institutions, if any, should be submitted in
the proposal.

3. The OR Steering Committee will review proposals and may seek advice
from additional reviewers. If the evaluation is positive, the Steering
Committee will tentatively accept the proposal and the proposer will
be asked to prepare and submit a detailed budget to the Steering
Committee.

ABOUT OPEN REPOSITORIES

Since 2006 Open Repositories has hosted an annual conference that
brings together users of open digital repository platforms. For
further information about Open Repositories and links to past
conference sites, please visit the OR home page: http://sites.tdl.org/openrepositories/.