June 2005 (Volume 5 Number 2)
The
main news this month is the publication of the preliminary programme for
ETSG 2005, Dublin. As a result, most of the Newsletter concerns details
of the organisation of the conference.
ETSG 2005, Dublin:
The annual conference has grown in size every year since its inception
in Rotterdam in 1998 however the huge increase in submissions this year
took everyone by surprise. We received over 300 abstracts before the
deadline (and a few after that—which were not accepted). This number
challenges our established policy of accepting all papers that fall
within ETSG’s area of competence.
Our solution has been to increase the number of parallel sessions from
five to six and adjust the timing of sessions to admit an extra set of
papers each day. This comes close to allowing us to accept all papers
without reducing the presentation time allocated to each. As a result,
we have 274 slots, but slightly more papers than this. (The list of
accepted papers is here.)
We are confident that, given the inevitable drop-outs, all of the
papers listed will be accommodated in the programme. It is vital,
however, that accepted authors register for the conference, otherwise
your paper will not appear on the final programme.
Clearly, we cannot continue to accept every paper in future years if
numbers continue to grow. Should we experience a similar increase in
submissions for ETSG 2006, we shall have to introduce some sorting
mechanism. The Scientific Committee will be asked to discuss this over
the next year so that any system that is brought in does not undermine
ETSG’s goal of being as accessible as possible to all researchers.
The surge in submissions has prompted two further changes in the
organisation of this year’s conference.
Advance Registration:
In Nottingham, we face the continuing problem of a small number of
authors not turning up at the conference. This creates serious problems
for us. The programme has to be rigidly adhered to, so that participants
can jump between sessions. If someone doesn’t turn up, we end up with
awkward gaps in the midst of sessions. In order to minimise the
re-occurrence of this problem we need to ensure that presenters are
truly intent on turning up.
To that end, we now require everyone who plans to attend the conference
to register in advance. This includes those who have submitted their
papers for the conference. Indeed, if your paper has been accepted onto
the programme and you do not register, we’ll drop your paper from the
conference and re-allocate your slot! Please go to the conference
registration page (which will be activated in the near future) and
submit your details before the deadline of 26 August 2005. Should
you subsequently have to withdraw from the conference, please just let
us know (and we’ll keep a list of who doesn’t turn up without telling
us).
Peter Neary has alerted us to the fact that there is a big sporting
event (the All-Ireland Hurling Final) taking place in Dublin the same
weekend as ETSG. So, it would be a good idea to make your accommodation
bookings as soon as possible and then confirm this by submitting your
registration.
Registration Fee:
It has been ETSG’s policy from the start to operate a very lean and
efficient administration. We decided not to have annual membership fees
and have not charged conference registration fees. The local costs of
each conference have been paid by the local organisers who have
marshalled together funding from their institutions and other
benefactors. The almost 50 percent increase in projected numbers this
year makes undue burdens on the local organisers (and makes it harder
for us to find hosts for future conferences).
As a result, and not without some reluctance, we decided that it is
appropriate to ask participants to contribute something towards covering
these costs. We are, of course, very conscious of the difficulties that
might confront some participants if they had to pay fees comparable to
those charged by other conferences. Consequently, we have arrived at a
figure of €50 per participant. Clearly, this comes nowhere close
to covering even the marginal cost of each person so no-one is getting
rich out of this! We hope that this token contribution will not be an
insurmountable barrier to anyone’s attendance. No exceptions or
exemptions to paying the fee will be made, so please don’t ask.
The fee will be collected at the registration desk at the conference
site. In exchange for €50 cash (cheques other than those drawn on an
Irish bank and other currencies cannot be accepted), participants will
receive a name badge, entry to all of the ETSG events, and a receipt for
the registration fee.
ETSG 2006, 2007, and beyond:
We have gratefully accepted offers to host the conference in Vienna in
2006 and Athens in 2007 and have begun to think about the location of
the conference in 2008. If your institution has an interest in being a
host to ETSG, please contact us, either by email to Ian Wooton or at the Dublin conference.