Advanced Lab Consortium ``Conspiracy''

Advanced Laboratory instruction is a time-honored and essential element of an undergraduate physics education. But, from my vantage point, it has been neglected by the two major professional societies, APS and AAPT. At some schools, it has been replaced by ``research experiences,'' but I contend that very few of these experiences in the research lab, particularly in the junior year, deliver what they promise. It is time to focus the attention of APS, AAPT, and the NSF on the advanced lab. We need to create an Advanced Lab Consortium (ALC) of faculty and staff to share experiments, suppliers, materials, pedagogy, ideas, in short to build a professional network for those committed to advanced lab instruction. The AAPT is currently in serious discussions on this topic and my company stands ready with both financial and personnel resources to support the effort. This talk is a plea for co-conspirators.