Yeah, I did hear from them, and I can join the mass of folks who were kindly rejected by the vetting board.

It's probably better in the long run, because I'm looking over my July schedule and realizing that I have hardly any down time, much less time to plan and revamp a presentation.

Overall, the rejection was part disappointing, part impressive. Mostly impressive due to the thoughtfulness of the rejection letter - it was not too blunt (in a 'Your paper sucked, and we hate you. Ha ha!' kind of way) and not too florid. Heck, I had college application letters that weren't as friendly. So that was an upside, at least. :)