Discussion journal of the Mössbauer Community

[Frank Berry <berryfjz AT bham.ac.uk>]

Colleagues

I am writing because I am becoming concerned with the rhetoric of recent 
emails and the possible damage to the well-being of our community.

I recognise the strength of feeling being expressed and do not in any way 
wish to diminish  the validity of that feeling. I would also make clear that, 
after returning from MECAME on 6 June, I wrote to Frans explaining that, with 
regret,  I would not be able to attend ISIAME .

It seems to me that Frans has tried to fulfil the mandate given him to 
organise a successful ISIAME in a good location in South Africa but, at a 
crucial juncture , found the financial liability too great to continue. 
Colleagues who have made non-refundable financial commitments now face 
difficulties.  Krish indicated last week the possibility of an alternative 
venue. Would Krish be willing to explore this and , in collaboration with 
Frans, find a way forward so that ISIAME could be held in South Africa on the 
dates originally planned?

I  would also like to suggest that we as a community give support to Krish 
and Frans in their attempts to find a way forward. This will not be easy for 
them and compromise by everyone  might have to be accepted.  I do not think 
that further expressions of blame will be helpful and I  would encourage us 
all to act collegiately to resolve a situation which is difficult for many 
people, albeit in different ways. ISIAME  led by Massimo has a good tradition 
and it would be most unfortunate if the current difficulties led to its 
demise and fractures amongst our community.

With my kindest regards and best wishes

Frank



From: Raquel Richardson 
[mailto:raquel AT ap22ude.co.za]
Sent: 24 June 2016 10:59
To: 'Stanislaw Dubiel'; 
berryfjz AT bham.ac.uk;
 
kuzmann AT caesar.elte.hu;
 
edson AT cce.ufes.br;
 
haraldur.p.gunnlaugsson AT cern.ch;
 
sunhui AT dicp.ac.cn;
 
taozhang AT dicp.ac.cn;
 
wangjh AT dicp.ac.cn;
 
lazar.karoly AT energia.mta.hu;
 
aderbal47 AT gmail.com;
 
stevensjohng AT gmail.com;
 
robi AT ifd.uni.wroc.pl;
 
reissner AT ifp.tuwien.ac.at;
 
vpopov AT imp.uran.ru;
 
Guido.Langouche AT kuleuven.be;
 
mix AT lists.kfki.hu;
 
israel.felner AT mail.huji.ac.il;
 
gdzhbj AT mail.iggcas.ac.cn;
 
mosslab.kz AT mail.ru;
 
yoshida AT ms.sist.ac.jp;
 
Frans.Waanders AT nwu.ac.za;
 
lttt AT physics.by;
 
kbr AT saao.ac.za;
 
Lodya.Lodya AT sasol.com;
 
S.D.Forder AT shu.ac.uk;
 
kubuki AT tmu.ac.jp;
 
magnet AT uestc.edu.cn;
 
amulaba AT uj.ac.za;
 
klingel AT uni-mainz.de;
 
ksenofon AT uni-mainz.de;
 
massimo.carbucicchio AT unipr.it;
 
jean-marc.greneche AT univ-lemans.fr;
 
jumas AT univ-montp2.fr;
 
lippens AT univ-montp2.fr;
 
jakub.navarik AT upol.cz;
 
libor.machala AT upol.cz;
 
nagy.denes AT wigner.mta.hu;
 
Deena.Naidoo AT wits.ac.za;
 
Gerrard.Peter AT wits.ac.za;
 
Hilary.Masenda AT wits.ac.za
Subject: RE: ISIAME2016/Stanislaw

ISIAME Board Members

There seems to be a lot of emails, blame and personal issues being thrown 
around.  As a third party not prevalent to all the information, I stand to be 
corrected about ISIAME Cape Town 2016, but this is how the information is 
coming across.

From my initial discussions with Frans, it was mentioned that at the last 
ISIAME a vote was taken and majority voted South Africa with the provision of 
majority attending.  On this understanding, Frans set up ISIAME in Cape Town 
at the Lagoon Beach.  Due to economic downturn and currently the reduction of 
number of attendants at most conferences / events, he confirmed the numbers 
at 100 x delegates, which should have been pretty easy to obtain.

The concern is that not many people have registered or have shown an interest 
in attending.  The Lagoon Beach hotel, agreed to cancel the booking without 
any cancellation fees if done so by mid-June.  If Frans had not done so, 
there would have been cancellation fees into the hundreds of thousands of 
Rands… which I assume none of you would have been prepared to account for!  
Granted Krish has given an alternative venue, but there are numerous things 
to consider when hosting a conference, i.e. Affordable accommodation in the 
area?  Getting to and from the venue? Quality of venue, suppliers, safety, 
etc.    If South Africa is still a consideration, it is possible to 
re-evaluate the entire conference and see if its viable.

From my limited understanding, numbers are not the only issue here.  If you 
do not have quality and the correct quantity of abstracts and presentations, 
then your conference will not carry any value.  Only a limited number have 
been received.  As members of the ISIAME board, where is your cut-off point 
for the conference?

As for you Mr Stanislaw Dubiel, you mention below the lack of response to 
your registration, however you only registered on the  15th June at 18h57pm 
and Frans sent the email out to cancel the conference shortly after.

I’ve dealt with several conferences before and in my experience have not seen 
this type of disjointed animosity.  I would have assumed as the ISIAME board 
members you would all come together to try come up with a resolution that 
would work for all.

I am here to assist anyway possible with any travel / conference side of 
ISIAME.

Kind regards
Raquel Richardson
Ap22ude (Pty) Ltd
Cell: +27 82 509 6485
Tel: +27 11 475 2750
Fax: 086 593 7975
Web: www.ap22ude.co.za<http://www.ap22ude.co.za>

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From: Stanislaw Dubiel 
[mailto:Stanislaw.Dubiel AT fis.agh.edu.pl]
Sent: Thursday, 23 June 2016 9:28 PM
To: 
berryfjz AT bham.ac.uk<mailto:berryfjz AT bham.ac.uk>;
 
kuzmann AT caesar.elte.hu<mailto:kuzmann AT caesar.elte.hu>;
 
edson AT cce.ufes.br<mailto:edson AT cce.ufes.br>;
 
haraldur.p.gunnlaugsson AT cern.ch<mailto:haraldur.p.gunnlaugsson AT cern.ch>;
 
sunhui AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:sunhui AT dicp.ac.cn>;
 
taozhang AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:taozhang AT dicp.ac.cn>;
 
wangjh AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:wangjh AT dicp.ac.cn>;
 
lazar.karoly AT energia.mta.hu<mailto:lazar.karoly AT energia.mta.hu>;
 
aderbal47 AT gmail.com<mailto:aderbal47 AT gmail.com>;
 
stevensjohng AT gmail.com<mailto:stevensjohng AT gmail.com>;
 
robi AT ifd.uni.wroc.pl<mailto:robi AT ifd.uni.wroc.pl>;
 
reissner AT ifp.tuwien.ac.at<mailto:reissner AT ifp.tuwien.ac.at>;
 
vpopov AT imp.uran.ru<mailto:vpopov AT imp.uran.ru>;
 
Guido.Langouche AT kuleuven.be<mailto:Guido.Langouche AT kuleuven.be>;
 
mix AT lists.kfki.hu<mailto:mix AT lists.kfki.hu>;
 
israel.felner AT mail.huji.ac.il<mailto:israel.felner AT mail.huji.ac.il>;
 
gdzhbj AT mail.iggcas.ac.cn<mailto:gdzhbj AT mail.iggcas.ac.cn>;
 
mosslab.kz AT mail.ru<mailto:mosslab.kz AT mail.ru>;
 
yoshida AT ms.sist.ac.jp<mailto:yoshida AT ms.sist.ac.jp>;
 
Frans.Waanders AT nwu.ac.za<mailto:Frans.Waanders AT nwu.ac.za>;
 
lttt AT physics.by<mailto:lttt AT physics.by>;
 
kbr AT saao.ac.za<mailto:kbr AT saao.ac.za>;
 
Lodya.Lodya AT sasol.com<mailto:Lodya.Lodya AT sasol.com>;
 
S.D.Forder AT shu.ac.uk<mailto:S.D.Forder AT shu.ac.uk>;
 
kubuki AT tmu.ac.jp<mailto:kubuki AT tmu.ac.jp>;
 
magnet AT uestc.edu.cn<mailto:magnet AT uestc.edu.cn>;
 
amulaba AT uj.ac.za<mailto:amulaba AT uj.ac.za>;
 
klingel AT uni-mainz.de<mailto:klingel AT uni-mainz.de>;
 
ksenofon AT uni-mainz.de<mailto:ksenofon AT uni-mainz.de>;
 
massimo.carbucicchio AT unipr.it<mailto:massimo.carbucicchio AT unipr.it>;
 
jean-marc.greneche AT univ-lemans.fr<mailto:jean-marc.greneche AT univ-lemans.fr>;
 
jumas AT univ-montp2.fr<mailto:jumas AT univ-montp2.fr>;
 
lippens AT univ-montp2.fr<mailto:lippens AT univ-montp2.fr>;
 
jakub.navarik AT upol.cz<mailto:jakub.navarik AT upol.cz>;
 
libor.machala AT upol.cz<mailto:libor.machala AT upol.cz>;
 
nagy.denes AT wigner.mta.hu<mailto:nagy.denes AT wigner.mta.hu>;
 
Deena.Naidoo AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Deena.Naidoo AT wits.ac.za>;
 
Gerrard.Peter AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Gerrard.Peter AT wits.ac.za>;
 
Hilary.Masenda AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Hilary.Masenda AT wits.ac.za>
Cc: 
raquel AT ap22ude.co.za<mailto:raquel AT ap22ude.co.za>
Subject: ISIAME2016/Stanislaw

Hello everyone,

I do not know how Frans counts the paid-up attendees. In my case, I wanted to 
pay the fee several days ago (the deadline for the reduced fee is 1-st July) 
but no response received from Frans on the question on the bank account to 
which the money should be transferred.
I can imagine that this was not an exception. Furthermore, many people have 
funds just for one foreign conference, so they have to make their decision on 
the choice of the conference well in advance. Unfortunately, the organisation 
of the ISIAME 2016 was very bad i.e. Despite Frans had 4 years to prepare the 
conference it was not sure until recently whether or not the conference will 
take place at all. So I do not wonder that the interest in the ISIAME 2016 
was so low. Therefore, Frans is the only one who takes the responsibility for 
the failure. Now, instead of trying to co-operate with some people who want 
to solve the problem e. g. Krish, he buries his head into sand!
It seems that he is unable to organise the ISIAME, so I suggest that we ask 
people from the Czech Republic (Olomouc University) to organise this 
conference next year (The wanted to organizes this conference this year, but 
the decision of the  ISIAME Committee made in Dalian - 2012 - was 
(unfortunately) in favour of Frans).

Greetings Stanislaw Dubiel
Stanislaw M. Dubiel, MSc, PhD, DSc, FInstPhys
Professor of Physics
Faculty of Physics & Applied Computer Science
AGH University of Science & Technology
al. A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow
Poland
tel: +48 12 617 2973
fax: + 48 12 634 0010
e-mail: 
Stanislaw.Dubiel AT orion.fis.agh.edu.pl<mailto:Stanislaw.Dubiel AT orion.fis.agh.edu.pl>

>>> "Frans Waanders" 23.06.16 20:23 >>>
Thanks for your effort Krish
The venue is not the problem. Raquel even asked the price for 40 people and 
we had only 11 paid-up attendees at the time I had to decide.
 We have far to little abstracts and with less than 30 abstracts I still do 
not see the use of carrying on- I extended the deadline for abstracts with 1 
month with hardly any additional ones submitted.  Please do not blame me for 
this as I sent out various notes without response
Krish I think nobody will want to travel every day to Ithemba labs making 
attendance even smaller.
I am currently in Namibia at a mine with limited contact until 1 July
I only had limited support from all and rather now people angry with me than 
a hopeless undersupported symposium
Frans



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Krish Bharuth-Ram 
<kbr AT saao.ac.za<mailto:kbr AT saao.ac.za>>
Date: 06/20/2016 18:43 (GMT+01:00)
To: Frans Waanders 
<Frans.Waanders AT nwu.ac.za<mailto:Frans.Waanders AT nwu.ac.za>>,
 
raquel AT ap22ude.co.za<mailto:raquel AT ap22ude.co.za>,
 
berryfjz AT bham.ac.uk<mailto:berryfjz AT bham.ac.uk>,
 
kuzmann AT caesar.elte.hu<mailto:kuzmann AT caesar.elte.hu>,
 
edson AT cce.ufes.br<mailto:edson AT cce.ufes.br>,
 
haraldur.p.gunnlaugsson AT cern.ch<mailto:haraldur.p.gunnlaugsson AT cern.ch>,
 
sunhui AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:sunhui AT dicp.ac.cn>,
 
taozhang AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:taozhang AT dicp.ac.cn>,
 
wangjh AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:wangjh AT dicp.ac.cn>,
 
lazar.karoly AT energia.mta.hu<mailto:lazar.karoly AT energia.mta.hu>,
 
Stanislaw.Dubiel AT fis.agh.edu.pl<mailto:Stanislaw.Dubiel AT fis.agh.edu.pl>,
 
aderbal47 AT gmail.com<mailto:aderbal47 AT gmail.com>,
 
stevensjohng AT gmail.com<mailto:stevensjohng AT gmail.com>,
 
robi AT ifd.uni.wroc.pl<mailto:robi AT ifd.uni.wroc.pl>,
 Michael Reissner 
<reissner AT ifp.tuwien.ac.at<mailto:reissner AT ifp.tuwien.ac.at>>,
 
vpopov AT imp.uran.ru<mailto:vpopov AT imp.uran.ru>,
 Guido Langouche 
<Guido.Langouche AT kuleuven.be<mailto:Guido.Langouche AT kuleuven.be>>,
 
mix AT lists.kfki.hu<mailto:mix AT lists.kfki.hu>,
 
israel.felner AT mail.huji.ac.il<mailto:israel.felner AT mail.huji.ac.il>,
 
gdzhbj AT mail.iggcas.ac.cn<mailto:gdzhbj AT mail.iggcas.ac.cn>,
 
mosslab.kz AT mail.ru<mailto:mosslab.kz AT mail.ru>,
 
yoshida AT ms.sist.ac.jp<mailto:yoshida AT ms.sist.ac.jp>,
 
lttt AT physics.by<mailto:lttt AT physics.by>,
 
kbr AT saao.ac.za<mailto:kbr AT saao.ac.za>,
 
Lodya.Lodya AT sasol.com<mailto:Lodya.Lodya AT sasol.com>,
 
S.D.Forder AT shu.ac.uk<mailto:S.D.Forder AT shu.ac.uk>,
 
kubuki AT tmu.ac.jp<mailto:kubuki AT tmu.ac.jp>,
 
magnet AT uestc.edu.cn<mailto:magnet AT uestc.edu.cn>,
 
amulaba AT uj.ac.za<mailto:amulaba AT uj.ac.za>,
 
klingel AT uni-mainz.de<mailto:klingel AT uni-mainz.de>,
 
ksenofon AT uni-mainz.de<mailto:ksenofon AT uni-mainz.de>,
 
massimo.carbucicchio AT unipr.it<mailto:massimo.carbucicchio AT unipr.it>,
 
jean-marc.greneche AT univ-lemans.fr<mailto:jean-marc.greneche AT univ-lemans.fr>,
 
jumas AT univ-montp2.fr<mailto:jumas AT univ-montp2.fr>,
 
lippens AT univ-montp2.fr<mailto:lippens AT univ-montp2.fr>,
 
jakub.navarik AT upol.cz<mailto:jakub.navarik AT upol.cz>,
 
libor.machala AT upol.cz<mailto:libor.machala AT upol.cz>,
 
nagy.denes AT wigner.mta.hu<mailto:nagy.denes AT wigner.mta.hu>,
 
Deena.Naidoo AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Deena.Naidoo AT wits.ac.za>,
 
Gerrard.Peter AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Gerrard.Peter AT wits.ac.za>,
 
Hilary.Masenda AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Hilary.Masenda AT wits.ac.za>
Subject: Re: AW: ISIAME2016


>>> "Krish Bharuth-Ram" 2016-06-20T19:43:22.080483 >>>
Dear Frans
Following the email from Guido and Michael perhaps you may wish to 
re-consider the decision to cancel the conference.
I had long ago suggested iThemba LABS as a venue, where we could have got the 
auditorium (able to seat 200) at no cost together with good space for poster 
sessions, as well a conference secretariat.

I could call the Director tomorrow and discuss availability, etc.

Please let me know asap.

Kind regards
Krish.

On 2016/06/20 06:52 PM, Michael Reissner wrote:
Dear Frans,

I am sorry, but I cannot confirm that I understand your decision to cancel 
the symposion. A cancellation 1 year in advance might be ok, but not 10 weeks 
before the start. For you the cancellation might be the easiest way, but you 
forget that people have paid a lot of money in advance, which they will not 
get back. E.g. I have paid the flight for me and my wife, who I wanted to 
take with me, some months ago. I cannot cancel this flight. I also booked the 
hotel for us. Hopefully we can cancel this. As this would have been my first 
time in South Africa, I have booked a pre-conference tour for us, which I 
also cannot cancel without loosing a lot of money. I am sure that I am not 
the only one who has such problems.

I do not know what you have expected. In my opinion I have expected in best 
case 60 participants. What about the South African Mössbauer community? Are 
they not involved or interested in this conference?

In principle such small conferences are much easier and cheaper than a 
conference with 200 people. A small lecture hall at the university or even a 
seminar room at the institute is enough. Coffee can be prepared and served by 
students or secretary. This all is usually for nothing. By the way ISIAME at 
Budapest was organized very well in that way. I never understood, why 
organization of conference are nowadays always given to some agencies and are 
hold in hotels, where you have to pay a lot for the infrastructure.

You wonder that you have only 11 registrations up to now, but I have to 
remind you that the deadline even for the early bird registration is July 
1st.  You had a long list of invited talks. I suppose that everyone has 
confirmed to come. A cancellation of 2 is not large number.

I am not astonished that you could not find sponsors for this small meeting. 
I only wonder that you seem to have calculated with sponsorship money. Such 
money should never be part of the budget calculation. If it comes, it should 
be used to support people to come to the conference.

In 2009 I have organized ICAME. We expected , due to preregistration 400 
participants. Due to the economical crisis 2008, all sponsors and a lot of 
colleagues cancelled their participation. At the end we had ca. 250 people. 
Nevertheless we could run the conference, because with some reductions and 
because in my budget I have only assumed 150 full paying participants. More 
serious was ICAME 2011 in Japan, because after Fukushima nobody wanted to 
come. For the organizers it was very serious, but they never thought on 
cancellation of the conference.

It is also a very bad sign for future conferences. If one cannot trust, that 
the organizer will do everything that the conference can take place, many 
will be very cautious to plan a partizipation, even when invited.

I understand that you are disappointed about “no interest”. But there are 
some people who were interested, who are now alienated. I would have expected 
that you cancel your contract and look on really cheap solution, eg. at the 
university, which can be covered by the registration fee.

Only to mention, there was a few weeks ago msms conference with only 30 
participants. But people say it was very good program and interesting 
discussions.

I hope this is not the end of the series of ISIAME conferences.

Best regards

Michael

Asoc.Prof.Dr.Michael Reissner
TU Wien
Institute of Solid State Physics
Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10
1040         Wien
AUSTRIA

Phon: +43 1 58801 13772
FAX: +43 1 58801 9 13772
Email: 
reissner AT tuwien.ac.at<mailto:reissner AT tuwien.ac.at>




Von: Frans Waanders 
[mailto:Frans.Waanders AT nwu.ac.za]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 16. Juni 2016 20:58
An: 
raquel AT ap22ude.co.za<mailto:raquel AT ap22ude.co.za>;
 
berryfjz AT bham.ac.uk<mailto:berryfjz AT bham.ac.uk>;
 
kuzmann AT caesar.elte.hu<mailto:kuzmann AT caesar.elte.hu>;
 
edson AT cce.ufes.br<mailto:edson AT cce.ufes.br>;
 
haraldur.p.gunnlaugsson AT cern.ch<mailto:haraldur.p.gunnlaugsson AT cern.ch>;
 
sunhui AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:sunhui AT dicp.ac.cn>;
 
taozhang AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:taozhang AT dicp.ac.cn>;
 
wangjh AT dicp.ac.cn<mailto:wangjh AT dicp.ac.cn>;
 
lazar.karoly AT energia.mta.hu<mailto:lazar.karoly AT energia.mta.hu>;
 
Stanislaw.Dubiel AT fis.agh.edu.pl<mailto:Stanislaw.Dubiel AT fis.agh.edu.pl>;
 
aderbal47 AT gmail.com<mailto:aderbal47 AT gmail.com>;
 
stevensjohng AT gmail.com<mailto:stevensjohng AT gmail.com>;
 
haflidi AT hi.is<mailto:haflidi AT hi.is>;
 
robi AT ifd.uni.wroc.pl<mailto:robi AT ifd.uni.wroc.pl>;
 
reissner AT ifp.tuwien.ac.at<mailto:reissner AT ifp.tuwien.ac.at>;
 
vpopov AT imp.uran.ru<mailto:vpopov AT imp.uran.ru>;
 
mix AT lists.kfki.hu<mailto:mix AT lists.kfki.hu>;
 
israel.felner AT mail.huji.ac.il<mailto:israel.felner AT mail.huji.ac.il>;
 
gdzhbj AT mail.iggcas.ac.cn<mailto:gdzhbj AT mail.iggcas.ac.cn>;
 
mosslab.kz AT mail.ru<mailto:mosslab.kz AT mail.ru>;
 
yoshida AT ms.sist.ac.jp<mailto:yoshida AT ms.sist.ac.jp>;
 
lttt AT physics.by<mailto:lttt AT physics.by>;
 
kbr AT saao.ac.za<mailto:kbr AT saao.ac.za>;
 
Lodya.Lodya AT sasol.com<mailto:Lodya.Lodya AT sasol.com>;
 
S.D.Forder AT shu.ac.uk<mailto:S.D.Forder AT shu.ac.uk>;
 
kubuki AT tmu.ac.jp<mailto:kubuki AT tmu.ac.jp>;
 
magnet AT uestc.edu.cn<mailto:magnet AT uestc.edu.cn>;
 
amulaba AT uj.ac.za<mailto:amulaba AT uj.ac.za>;
 
klingel AT uni-mainz.de<mailto:klingel AT uni-mainz.de>;
 
ksenofon AT uni-mainz.de<mailto:ksenofon AT uni-mainz.de>;
 
massimo.carbucicchio AT unipr.it<mailto:massimo.carbucicchio AT unipr.it>;
 
jean-marc.greneche AT univ-lemans.fr<mailto:jean-marc.greneche AT univ-lemans.fr>;
 
jumas AT univ-montp2.fr<mailto:jumas AT univ-montp2.fr>;
 
lippens AT univ-montp2.fr<mailto:lippens AT univ-montp2.fr>;
 
jakub.navarik AT upol.cz<mailto:jakub.navarik AT upol.cz>;
 
libor.machala AT upol.cz<mailto:libor.machala AT upol.cz>;
 
nagy.denes AT wigner.mta.hu<mailto:nagy.denes AT wigner.mta.hu>;
 
Deena.Naidoo AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Deena.Naidoo AT wits.ac.za>;
 
Gerrard.Peter AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Gerrard.Peter AT wits.ac.za>;
 
Hilary.Masenda AT wits.ac.za<mailto:Hilary.Masenda AT wits.ac.za>
Betreff: ISIAME2016

Dear all
It is with regret that I have to cancel the upcoming ISIAME2016 symposium 
that was to be held in the Lagoon beach Hotel Cape Town

The main reason to me is the lack of interest;
We have at the deadline for abstracts (today) only received 27 abstracts of 
which 7 are to be presented as posters. I have extended the deadline for 
abstracts with a month and only a few extra abstracts were submitted, mainly 
in the last 2 days.  Some of the Invited speakers have not yet sent any 
abstract and others have sent more than one but due to financial constraints 
only one person can come and 2 Invited speakers have canceled their 
contributions due to legitimate reasons. I used the mix email as well as some 
180 names I had on the lists of persons that attended ISIAME in the past of 
which only a handful responded and I am trying to answers each person that 
has sent an email regarding ISIAME2016
At this stage we only have 11 paid registered persons for the conference.

The next problem is funding:
Some people suggested that the conference venue is very expensive but the 
request was made  in China that we should hold it in Cape Town and both 
Raquel and myself looked for the cheapest option and clearly from the 
registration fee it is not that expensive.  For the Pittsburgh Coal 
Conference (to be held in August 2016 in Cape Town) the registration fee is 
$800 and we have over 200 participants already from all over the world.  We 
wanted more than 300 for this conference but clearly the economic atmosphere 
must play a role.

Sponsorship:
A successfull conference or symposium is based on sound sponsorship.  I have 
obtained sponsorship from my own university (euro800) and from Sasol the same 
amount and I used some euro3000 from my own research funding and did not 
receive any sponsorship from overseas or Moessbauer industrial persons.  I 
paid the initial deposit with this money and today was the deadline of paying 
the next deposit or we will incur fines. We spoke with the people from the 
venue and they were prepared to not charge us a fine for cancellation and 
even suggested we reduce the amount of delegates to 40 without additional 
costs and cheaper rates - thanks to all the efforts by Raquel.

I had many discussions with Raquel who assisted me on the whole organization 
of the symposium and it is her experience and my believe that with 11 
registered delegates to date we will not have even have 40 people in the next 
month or so to have the symposium going further - let alone in the next day!

I am thus very sorry for people who have already payed or booked flights but 
the registration fees will be paid back as soon as possible

I am very sad to have made this announcement but I am not prepared or able to 
carry any extra costs and I trust that everybody will understand my reasoning 
and final decission
Frans

Prof Frans Waanders Pr Ing. Pr Sci. Nat.
Professor en Direkteur
Skool vir Chemiese en Mineraalingenieurswese
NWU
Tel: (018) 299 1994
Faks: (018) 299 1535
www.nwu.ac.za<http://www.nwu.ac.za/>

Vrywaring:
http://www.nwu.ac.za/it/gov-man/disclaimer.html

Error! Filename not specified.


Prof Frans Waanders Pr Eng. Pr Sci. Nat
Professor and Director
School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering
NWU
Tel: (018) 299 1994
Fax: (018) 299 1535
www.nwu.ac.za<http://www.nwu.ac.za/>

Disclaimer: http://www.nwu.ac.za/it/gov-man/disclaimer.html



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