We're so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight. We would especially like to welcome all of the members of the Illinois' law enforcement community who have chosen to join us here at the Renaissance Hotel at this time.

Most of the IONiC VIPEr leadership council is gathered in the Windy City to discuss future directions for our community. There is a standing policy that the entire LC can't be together in the same location, so Adam and Betsy didn't join us. The first day has been very busy with lots of great discussion about social media use, ways to encourage use of under- utilized features on the site and how we can continue to grow as a community and as teachers. It was a very productive day overall. Sure, there were some less productive moments ( Barb has been distracted by the incoming planes since our hotel is situated directly under the landing pattern for O'Hare today.). We were visited by local Twitter-star Kyle Grice and met a new friend, Iridium, who you will see below with Ane Bentley. We have one more day and a lot of work to do (NSF proposal deadline 1/10/17), but so good, so far.