Welcome to the Roundtable on Options for Reform

[National Dialogue Moderator <moderator>]

Welcome to the third online forum in the National Dialogue
on Social Security.  The Roundtable on Options for Reform
includes a number of the most knowledgable people in the
field - Sam Beard from Economic Security 2000, Ann Combs
from William M. Mercer, Ron Gebhardtsbauer from the
American Academy of Actuaries, John Rother from AARP and
Gerald Shea from the AFL-CIO.  This lively panel will be
moderated Robert Rosenblatt from the Los Angeles Times.

The Roundtable will run for a two week period.  The first
week will involve discussions among the panelists, with
selected questions from the public dialogue being passed
to the panelists by the moderator.  The second week will
open up the discussion more directly to questions from
the online audience.

When you study the position papers submitted by this week's
panelists, I think you'll agree that they have provided
some of the most concise and insightful remarks that we
have seen in this forum.  I hope we'll be able to challenge
our guests with stimulating questions and that we will all
be able to get a better sense of what options for reform 
are likely to be considered as Congress moves to enact
legislation for Social Security reform.

Thanks again for your participation, and welcome to the
onling dialogue.

Bob Carlitz, moderator
Information Renaissance