As chair of the upcoming NCFR annual conference, I am very proud of the all that NCFR members and section leaders have accomplished over the past few months. Thanks to you, I think the upcoming conference promises to be a very meaningful experience for all who attend. I hope that you will travel to Vancouver, stay, and participate actively!

When I proposed the theme for this year, I did so with trepidation. "Conflict, violence and war" are not only weighty topics, but also politically sensitive and in many cases personally painful. For this reason, I also have worked with the section chairs and plenary speaker to emphasize the positive face of each element...

Not just conflict, but also connection.

Not just violence, but also empowerment.

Not just war, but also peacemaking.

And many of you have submitted conference presentations on these topics, which will be valuable inclusions on the program.

I intentionally chose the three words to represent the conference theme to acknowledge the multilevel nature of the phenomenon.

What children learn in their homes can set them up to engage in violence and war later in life; when war happens, it affects every level of society down to individual children. Having recently returned from a trip to Europe, Ann Frank's home in Amsterdam is a sad reminder of this truth. No matter what you study or teach, it is very likely that the conference theme is relevant to your work, whether it be bullying at school, harassment at work, or peacemaking in the community.

I'm very grateful to our plenary speakers for agreeing to share their perspectives with us. Each one brings a global reputation, and has a great deal to teach us.

The first day of the conference is Veterans Day in the United States, Remembrance Day in Canada, and a day of remembrance in many other countries. It will also be a day of remembrance at the conference. What better way to commemorate the day than to hear from David Finkel, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who was embedded for months in Iraq? His complex examination of the lives of service members and their families is almost ethnographic rather than journalistic in its approach and will, I believe, educate us all in the best spirit of multidisciplinarity.

• Mark Cummings is an outstanding scholar who has not only delved deeply into conflict within households and its implications for children, but is now addressing political conflict at the societal level in Belfast and Serbia/Croatia, and Israel.
• Lee Ann De Reus, a long-time NCFR member and leader, has taken her scholarship 'on the road' to Africa, helping women in the Democratic Republic of Congo who were raped as a weapon of war. The lessons here are not just about victimization, but also about empowerment. As a scholar, an educator, a feminist, and a mom, Lee Ann has much to tell us about praxis!
• Ann Masten will provide the last plenary of the conference, sending us hope with new insights about resilience. Her compelling book Ordinary Magic, reminds us that resilience is very much within the grasp of everyday functioning, and anyone who is interested in promoting positive outcomes should be sure to plan to stay to hear her remarks.

Perhaps even more than other family-related topics, diversity in our perspectives is essential to recognize in relation to this year's conference theme. I expect that everyone at the conference will have been touched by conflict, violence, or war. For some, these experiences will have been traumatic, and for some they may be very recent. This conference will be a very good opportunity to listen to and learn from each other. It will be a very good opportunity to support each other as we learn and reflect.

I hope the conference will be meaningful to you as researchers, as educators, and as citizens. I hope you will be educated, stimulated, provoked, challenged and motivated. I hope you will be changed!

One final note. I especially want to welcome students to the conference, and if you come, I want to challenge you to make the most of the experience. I hope you will commit to attending at least one section business or focus group meeting. If you want to learn how NCFR works, if you want to explore how to volunteer for activities that will build your vitae, if you want to meet others whose work you've admired — section meetings are where it's at!

I look forward to seeing you in Vancouver!