February 26, 2005

from: Carilli
to: ASAC, Bachiller, Cernicharo
re: Current status of Pan-ALMA meeting, Fall 2006
cc: M. Terenghi, A. Beasley

To the committees,

A Pan-ALMA science meeting is planned for Fall 2006 in Madrid, Spain.
This international meeting is being hosted by the European ALMA
community.  The meeting is the second in a series of international
meetings to discuss ALMA science and up-date the community on ALMA.
The first such meeting was sponsored by NRAO in Washington, DC, in
1999. These international meetings are meant to be broader in scope
than regional informational meetings (eg. ESO/ALMA open-days).

Details of the meeting were discussed at the ESAC and ASAC meeting,
Feb 2005. Also, Dr. Cernicharo has provided details on the Spanish
venue and funding.  The plan is that once an official acceptence
letter has been sent to the Spanish community, the meeting
organization will transfer from the ASAC to the SOC/LOC.

Following are some notes on the current status. Action items are
listed (AI).

Chris Carilli
NRAO
Socorro NM USA

---------------------------

1. Organizational activity: 
Jan 05 - establish initial committee to discuss meeting, and
hold first telecon. Committee members: Carilli, Cox, Testi,
Wootten, Bachiller
Feb 05 - email exchanges, plus presentation, discussions
at ESAC, ASAC meetings in Garching. 

2. Venue: The ASAC has received an official invitation from the
Spanish ALMA national committee to host the meeting in Madrid, at the
campus of the CSIC (the Spanish equivalent of the French CNSR),
belonging to the the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia (MEC).  There
is a 300 person conference hall, plus smaller rooms (20 to 80 people),
if needed. The facilities are offered for free by CSIC, but we need to
make reservations for all rooms soon. The Spanish have suggested 
having the ASAC, ESAC meetings the same week at this venue. 
AI - Send official acceptance letter to Spanish committee,
with proposed dates (ASAC chair)
AI - SOC - decide on number/type of rooms needed.

3. Date and length: The ASAC suggests Oct 30 - Nov. 2,2006.  An
alternative would be Nov. 13-16. The meeting should cover 3.5 days.
Dates to avoid: Maryland meeting Oct 10-15; NRAO 50th Oct 16-19, 
IAU GA, Aug 2006.  
AI - LOC reserve hall

4. Format, content, and size: total length of 3.5 days, with mostly
plenary science talks (invited and contributed), with 1 day dedicated
to current ALMA status and review of eventual capabilities. We expect
about 200 people.
AI - SOC decide on the need for parallel sessions, topics, and 
invited speakers

5. Proposed organizing committees: 
SOC - Bachiller, Carilli, Cernicharo, Cox, Kawabe, Testi, Mardones,
C. Wilson, T. Wilson, A. Wootten, Yamamoto, + 1 more North America,
+ 1 more Japan
Proposed Chair - Cernicharo 
LOC - Bachiller, Cernicharo, + ?? 
AI - SOC Chair or ASAC - send formal invitations to SOC members 

6. Advertisement: ESO/NRAO EPO departments, LOC

7. Proceedings - Kluwer (?)
Proposed editor - Bachiller

8. Funding: (note - the US paid for Washington meeting)
CSIC Hall - provided gratis
CSIC - 4-6kE in addition  (confirmed)
OAN - 12kE (confirmed)
MEC - 12kE (confirmed)
RadioNet - 8kE (possible)
Registration: 120Ex200 - 24kE
ESO - possibly 10kE (possible)
Japanese - up to 10kE, if needed
The funds could go for dinner, coffee, infrastructure, travel support
for invited speakers, students, ASAC/ESAC, proceedings... 
AI - Transfer funding responsibility to LOC (Carilli, Cernicharo)

Note: the Spanish community has stated that hosting this meeting could
be a watershed event in Spanish ALMA involvement and have significant
(positive) impact on fostering support for the Spanish in-kind
contribution to ALMA, and possible Spain joining ESO. 

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