Dear Friends and Members of ISCID,

The first year of ISCID's existence proved to be a remarkable one. To give you just one example of our progress, consider the following statistic. In its first two months of operation, ISCID's website averaged 81 unique visitors per day. As of the end of November, we are averaging over 450 unique visitors per day. That is an increase of over 555% in the total number of people who are using our resources each day. But enough about abstract statistics, let's look at some of the reasons for ISCID's phenomenal first year success.

I'll start off by highlighting some of our most important accomplishments this year and then indicate some of our goals for the upcoming year. I'll close by explaining several practical steps that you can take to help ISCID achieve these goals.

*Establishing A Strong Internet Presence*

ISCID's goal from the very beginning was to harness the power of the internet in as many novel ways as possible to establish a unique community of users with a global reach. Here are some of the ways we used the internet to further the goals of ISCID:

1. The Teleological Origin of Biological Information

• An online conference to investigate the prospects of teleological approaches in biology
• Participants included William Dembski, Michael Behe, Robert Koons, Guillermo Gonzalez, and others
• http://www.iscid.org/symposium-2002.php

2. Live Chat Events

• Online discussions with several prominent theorists in various academic fields.
• Guests included David Chalmers, Stuart Kauffman, Ray Kurzweil, William Dembski, Jay Richards, and Christopher Langan
• http://www.iscid.org/chat-events.php

3. ISCID Student Workshops

• Online workshops for high school and college students
• Workshop leaders included Jed Macosko, Paul Nelson, Michael Behe and others
• http://www.iscid.org/workshops.php

4. Brainstorms Discussion Board

• A unique online discussion board that encourages positive scientific "brainstorming"
• Participants include several well known professors from major universities
• http://www.iscid.org/brainstorms.php

5. Progress in Complexity, Information and Design

• A fully web based online journal for scientific exploration
• http://www.iscid.org/pcid.php

*Our Goals for 2003*

1. Host a second annual online conference and begin planning for a major Spring 2004 conference in Princeton, New Jersey

2. Host at least one live chat event per month with a scholar in a relevant discipline

3. Host a second annual online Summer Workshop for students and consider hosting a physical workshop in Princeton, New Jersey

4. Develop the online research bibliography to over 4000 entries

• Currently there are 240 entries
• http://www.iscid.org/bibliography.php

5. Investigate the potential of putting PCID into print or CD format for distribution in University libraries

6. Begin setting up research groups in various sub disciplines and consider funding opportunities for these research groups

7. Hire a part-time summer student intern to help with data collection, data entry and other various time consuming administrative tasks

8. Grow our membership base to 400

• Our current membership base is approximately 140
• Focus on globally diversifying membership
• Consider ways to better serve the global community (outside of the United States)

9. Broaden our reach and increase our exposure

• ISCID hosted some top-notch online events in 2002. Only a small fraction of potentially interested individuals were made aware of these events
• Pursue various marketing strategies to get the word out about our exciting events
• Extend beyond internet (e.g. email, newsgroups) marketing

10. Find additional sources of funding

• ISCID's goals are large while our resources are extremely modest
• Goals which cannot be satisfactorily accomplished without addition funding include hosting a major 2004 conference (1), hosting a physical student workshop (3), bringing PCID to print (5), establishing research groups (6), hiring a summer intern (7), and broadening our marketing exposure (9)
• Pursue foundation grants and private donations
• Currently, over 90% of our financial resources come from membership fees

ISCID is looking to develop a core group of financial supporters who are excited about the things we are doing and who want to help us maximize our effectiveness in reaching our goals. If you would like to discuss becoming either a one-time donor or an ongoing supporter of ISCID, please don't hesitate to send me an email: micah.sparacio@iscid.org

Thank you for making this a great year for ISCID and have a wonderful
holiday season.

Sincerely,

Micah Sparacio
Managing Director
http://www.iscid.org

PS. If you have any suggestions for how ISCID can improve in the coming year, please send us an email at info@iscid.org