Dear all,
you will remember that we agreed in Toronto that meeting 2005/2 in Wroclaw (Oct. 29+30) should have a special format. We want to concentrate on the future and on a new strategy for TC6.
This appears to be more than necessary due to several developments of the past: - shrinking attendance of events - publication problems (an example: change of publisher from Kluwer to Imperial College Press (!) despite a valid contract without any notification!) - reduced information of Programme Committee members about the decisions on acceptance/rejection of manuscripts (together with questionable rejections/ acceptances and with corresponding negative impression on IFIP TC6 events - strategy for better visibility, e.g. by tutorials in developing countries - .... (many more problems)
The"normal" topics (attendance, officers, conference reports and planning,..) should be treated only very shortly at this particular meeting.
By the way: The number of working hours will be rather limited: - The meeting will start Saturday, Oct. 29, 9 a.m. and last - interrupted by a short lunch break - until 4.30 p.m. (thereafter we will enjoy some cultural programmes followed by a dinner arranged by our host, Adam Grzech; thank you very much, Adam, for that programme which should convince the still undecided delegates to attend the meeting. I know about the programme but maybe Adam should inform the delegates from his side or keep it as a secret until the time of the meeting). - On Sunday, Oct. 30, we will restart at 9 a.m. and finish by 1 p.m. since many delegates have a return flight on Sunday afternoon.
My desire: It would be excellent if each one of you would think about strategical and future issues of TC6 *** and if you could bring forward these ideas at the time of the meeting or (even better) in a written version well before the time of the meeting; such thoughts (even informally documented) would be included in the meeting documents and this would allow to discuss things much more constructively. Deadline: October 15.
Thus I invite you cordially to present your ideas well before the meetings. This holds also (and particularly!) for those delegates who cannot attend the meeting for whatsoever reason. We will take such reactions as a sign of activity and - to formulate it very clearly - we are not at all interested in ghost delegates who don't attend meetings, don't even send apologies and/or don't contribute by constructive ideas (even if those ideas may be controversial).
Best regards and see (most of you) soon Otto