==================================================== = = Chairperson Reminder = = MG11 = 11th Marcel Grossmann Meeting = on General Relativity = July 23-29, 2006 = Freie Universitaet = Berlin, Germany = = http://www.icra.it/MG/mg11 = mg11@icra.it = http://www.icra.it/MG/mg11/mg11parallel_chairperson.htm = ===================================================== Dear Parallel Session Chairpersons, This is just a program update.
1) PLEASE REGISTER. It is important that all chairpersons and the people they have invited to speak in their sessions (in advance of receiving abstracts from the registration process) should perform the first registration step to be inserted into the participant database. This is done on-line at the Meeting website. Please contact your invited speakers and urge them to register. Fee payment may be postponed until before the fee deadline of May 31, or the higher fee can be paid at the Meeting itself or dealt with in terms of possible financial support from the Meeting in those cases where it is possible. Requests for financial support should be explained in the registration form on-line.
2) ABSTRACT SUBMISSION. The second step in registration is to submit talk titles and abstracts using the MG11 Identification Number issued in the first step of the registration process. Those people who have already been contacted by chairpersons should be urged to submit these on-line themselves. [This material may be updated later by email to the Meeting email address with Subject Heading "MG11 Abstract Update".] Please send us a list of those speakers you have already contacted for your session. We hope you have been able to find 4 or 5 such speakers already.
3) RAPPORTEUR TALKS. A tradition of the Marcel Grossmann Meetings is that each parallel session should have at least one Rapporteur summary talk outlining the current state of the session topic. This may be given by the chairperson or someone appointed by the chairperson. Within reason, some topics may warrant a second long talk. These talks need to be designated by the chairpersons who need to inform us of the names of the Rapporteur speaker (themselves included if appropriate) who will enjoy this status (send an email to the Meeting email with Subject Heading: "MG11 <session name> Rapporteur"). Such designated long Rapporteur talks will have the same number of pages available in the proceedings as the plenary speakers. This designation is independent of the time allotments made by the chairperson in arranging the final talk timetable for a given session, although such summary talks would be expected to have longer talk times, keeping in mind that plenary talks are only 35 minutes.
4) SESSION WEB LINK A number of chairpersons have created a webpage to coordinate their session program and give more information than the title alone listed in the meeting session list. This is strongly encouraged. We will include a link to such a webpage in the site program immediately upon reception via email [Subject heading: "MG11 Parallel Session Web Link: <session tag> "].
5) REMINDER OF CHAIRPERSON ROLE
See the description of the chairperson role below.
We are looking forward to seeing you in July.
Our best regards,
Hagen Kleinert [mg11@physik.fu-berlin.de]
chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee
Remo Ruffini [ruffini@icra.it]
chairperson of the International Organizing Committee
Robert Jantzen [robert.jantzen@villanova.edu]
chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee
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There are 4 afternoons of parallel sessions: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Wednesday free for socializing/excursion.
A typical full parallel session has a 4 hour afternoon time slot for the chair to divide up in speaker time units as he or she sees fit. In the past when we received too many abstracts for a single session (both solicited by the chair and unsolicited independent submissions), we split them into 2 such sessions and when we received too few abstracts we combined sessions where possible. The thing to keep in mind is that the MG meetings try to give everyone a chance to make a verbal presentation if only for 5 minutes at the end of the session so people get face recognition for meeting each other for personal exchanges if they have mutual interests.
The pre-abstract-submission-deadline task of a chairperson is to line up a handful of people who are willing to make good contributions to the session. Later in the spring after the deadline for abstract submission, the chairperson will integrate all the abstracts together (which should include the people who have had advance contact from the chairperson) into a session program. The 4 hours of a single session may be divided up in unequal portions at the discretion of the chairperson. In the event that a very large number of abstracts are received, a session may be split into two sessions. Conversely, if too few abstracts are received, a session could be reduced to a half session or consolidated with another compatible session. With the number of parallel sessions over 70 this time, some coalescence must be expected, in which case we hope chairpersons can work together on the final program when such natural consolidations are made.
At least one longer "Rapporteur" talk reviewing the topic is traditionally given, either by the chairperson or by someone chosen by the chairperson, and this contribution to the proceedings will have a long page length comparable to plenary speakers. The chairperson may also have a few longer talks depending on the circumstances, and the full session time may be awarded unequally at the discretion of the chairperson. [To put the timing into perspective, all plenary speakers will have 35 minutes for their talks.] However, the MG meetings have a tradition of giving everyone a chance to present their work, if only in a series of short summaries at the end of the session so that people can see their faces for later individual conversation if they are interested. The name of the designated "Rapporteur" speaker (with the session name) should be forwarded to the Meeting email address so that the database can properly identify these contributors to the proceedings.
The MG meetings could not function without the active participation of so many people, but it does not have deep pockets. Every one who has some source of travel funds should exercise that option first. For those who need more help from nations that have national science organizations to which one can apply, this is the next line of attack for travel funding. In the USA a travel grant application has been submitted for air travel grants (distributed to roughly 15-20 some scientists, based on past experience).
Some shifting of conference fees can support some participants but this is traditionally used for participants from less economically fortunate countries. As a rule at the MG Meetings, parallel session invited speakers are expected to cover their own fees and travel expenses with the exception of IUPAP funds that are reserved for people from Eastern Europe and developing countries. In cases of absolute need an attempt will be made to extend some funding using support from German institutions.
After the deadline for receipt of manuscripts for the proceedings, each chairperson should look over the PDF contributions in his or her session on-line for quality control purposes, excluding papers whose contents do not meet international conference proceedings standards by not checking them to be included in the proceedings.