On Tue, 5 Sep 2000, Allen Thomson wrote: > The two obvious places to hold such an affair are Toronto or Austin. I'd > love to see such a meeting (NASOM I; WHSOM I ?) . > > As to how to organize it, it would be useful for the EUROSOM people who have > done it before to tell how they did it. The European Satellite Observers Meetings grew out of the regular meetings of the Belgian Working Group Satellites (BWGS). Eurosom 1 was held in 1994, in Genk, Belgium, with follow-up editions in Ghent, Belgium in 1996, and Edinburgh, Scotland in 1998. Attendance was about 25 (mostly Belgian) in 1994, 30-40 (quite international) in 1996 and 1998. Local organizing was done by the BWGS in 1994 and 1996, and by Alan Pickup/Russell Eberst in 1998. All three editions had significant financial support from the Belgian Astronomical Society (of which BWGS is part) and the Dutch Working Group Satellites (NWGS), totaling US $ 500-600. The third edition also was financially supported by the astronomical society of Edinburgh. Financial support was used to pay hotel fees of 2-4 invited speakers. Typical meeting was on a two-day weekend with about 20 talks (mostly contributed talks of 15 to 30 min) of variable duration, with some time for observing. Local organizers sometimes offered some free lodging before or after the event, coupled with some touristic activities, to make the trip more worthwhile for visitors from 'far away'. During the first few editions we started planning about a year ahead and contacted possible international speakers about 6-12 months before the actual meeting. The old Eurosom pages are still around at: http://www.satellite.eu.org/eurosom.html http://www.satellite.eu.org/eurosom3.html There usually was a registration fee of about $ 10 to 20 to cover audiovisual equipment and proceedings (Eurosom 1/2). Venues were hotels (1/2) and a local astronomical observatory (3). Lodging was in typically one hotel in which we block-reserved rooms months before. We had some tentative ideas to have the next meeting (ISOM?) in California in 2000/2001, but I lack the time for local organizing (not to mention how prohibitively expensive the SF Bay Area is). However, I'd be willing to help/advise anyone else who wants to organize it. Austin, Toronto, Washington D.C. all sound good to me. Given that most subscribers to SeeSat-L are from North America, I think it would be great to have the next meeting in the US or Canada. I agree with Jay that the nicest part of these meetings is meeting on-line friends with a common hobby. Cheers, Bart at bart@satellite.eu.org ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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