Coral Reef Symposium

[Ellsworth LeDrew]

Good morning, a belated response to John's imaginative solution: Some 
of us cannot use our grant money (as per in Canada) to attend 
conferences unless we present science papers related to the grant. 
Unless we are invited to the global ICRS in this scenario, we could 
not attend.  This would create a division of have's and have not's.
Personally, I thought the Bali conference was excellent.  There are 
always difficulties, but having organized a few myself I know that 
these cannot be avoided and the best result is for a positive science 
or management experience for the majority.  There is a lot of science 
being done and it is not unreasonable to expect a large number of 
concurrent sessions to accommodate that; that is a measure of the 
success of the community!  Personally I found something interesting 
at all times which is more than I can say for some of the other 
conferences in my other fields.  On top of this I did have time to 
review the posters that I found interesting.  To restrict the 
offerings of papers is to restrict our choice of participating in 
interesting work and I think that would be counterproductive.
Many thanks to the organizers.
Ellsworth LeDrew

>One approach to limiting the ICRS would be to focus on having regional
>conferences the year before, and have only invited papers (and posters) at
>the global ICRS. The =93Regionals=94 could be staggered so that the global
>organizers could attend and select. One could emphasize producing a balance=
>d
>and representative global program, thereby minimizing the feeling that a
>paper not chosen was not =93good enough=94. There have, at least in the pas=
>t,
>been national/regional ICRS in Australia and Europe. Perhaps a few more
>could be added. I would push them up to the year before, so as to maintain
>currency and avoid concurrency with the ITMEMS.
>
>
>John
>
>_________________________________________________________
>
>John W. McManus, PhD
>Director, National Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research (NCORE)
>Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS)
>University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
>Miami, Florida 33149.
>jmcmanus at rsmas.miami.edu
>Tel. (305) 361-4609
>Fax (305) 361-4600

-- 
Dr. Ellsworth F. LeDrew
Professor of Geography
University of Waterloo
On Sabbatical Leave from September 1, 2000
to August 31, 2001
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1 Canada
ells at watleo.uwaterloo.ca
See my web page for info on research
http://watleo.uwaterloo.ca/~ells/