Halloween is an important celebration for SMT members with young children. For many years now, SMT national conferences have conflicted with Halloween, forcing parents to choose between attending the conference or celebrating Halloween with family. Even if traveling with family is financially and logistically feasible for an SMT member with a conference conflict with Halloween, it is still typically not an agreeable compromise for most families to celebrate Halloween in a foreign place, where children are unable to go trick-or-treating with their friends in familiar neighborhoods. Not to mention the various social and emotional tensions that may arise when one tries to juggle professional and family obligations at the same time, which might also make traveling with family to an SMT conference not an attractive option.

A few years ago, a few members from the Work and Family interest group in SMT informally suggested to the SMT administration that future conferences should avoid conflict with Halloween. However, our suggestion was declined for various fiscal and scheduling reasons. WorkFam would now like to re-open the same discussion with the SMT admistration in a more formal and serious manner, but to do so, we would like to first find out how much support we would have within the SMT community for our cause. Therefore, if you are an SMT member, and would support not scheduling SMT conferences during Halloween, sign this online petition. The deadline is 31 December 2015.