Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 09:53:48 -0400 From: "David Gil" To: "ALT Participants" Subject: ALT VI, Padang, 2nd Circular ALT VI 2nd Circular 11 April 2005 Dear ALT VI participants, Preparations are continuing apace for the ALT VI meeting in Padang. This circular contains a few updates, suggestions and requests. The schedule for the conference is still being modified. Following some participants' requests, the business meeting has now been moved to Saturday evening 1830 - 1930, and the closing ceremony brought up to Monday 1130 - 1230, which means we will be finished by lunchtime on Monday. Two post-conference excursions are being planned, one for the afternoon of Monday the 25th, and one for all day Tuesday the 26th. Details (recently updated) are available on the website, under "Other Conference Information". For planning purposes, it would be of great help if you could give us a preliminary and non-committal indication of whether you think you'll be joining the Tuesday excursion, by filling out the questionnaire available at http://jakartafield.hn.org:8080/FMRes/FMPJS?-db=ALT%5fExcursion.fp5&-layID=1&-token=25&-max=1&-format=newcss.htm&-mode=new&-findall (This is simply to give us an idea of how many busses we'll need to order.) Some participants have been experiencing difficulties making their hotel reservations at the Bumi Minang by email or fax. If all else seems to be failing, please contact Diana Safitri and she will make the reservations for you over the phone. Rest assured that there are more than enough rooms for everybody. Finally, you may have heard that Sumatra was recently shaken up by a couple of earthquakes, essentially aftershocks of the devastating December 26 quake. On March 30th there was an 8.7 Richter-scale quake near the island of Nias, and on April 10th there was a 6.8 Richter-scale tremor near the island of Mentawai. Both quakes were felt in Padang and caused a certain amount of panic, as people are understandably jittery after the terrible tsunami in Aceh. However, no damage or casualties were reported from Padang in either event, and my friends there report that life is slowly returning to normal. Again, if you have any questions regarding any aspect of ALT VI, or perhaps some constructive suggestions to offer, please do not hesitate to contact me: email: (will have limited email access until 27 April) phone: +49-341-3550321 (27 April – mid June) Looking forward to seeing you in Padang in July. David Gil (on behalf of the local organizers)