[Coral-List] Postdocs too RE: 12th ICRS registration fee query

[Sarah Frias-Torres]

Not just the students, but also the postdocs, who pay an early bird registration of AUD $990 or US $ 1,066, twice the rate I paid to attend ICRS-Fort Lauderdale.
If coming from the Americas, (for my calculations, Miami), attending this conference is about US $5,000. And that is a bare-bones trip, where you depend on the kindness of friends or strangers to take you to and from the airports, you eat only airplane food or what is served in the conference, you walk or somehow teleport yourself from the hotel to the conference site, you limit your conference-related social activities to the welcome and poster receptions and you don't attend any of the scientific field trips. Because if you add all the things I excluded in my estimate (and some could say they are essential to take full advantage of such an important meeting, specially the part of eating some food), then the cost goes up to about US $10,000.
Still, this might be once in a lifetime opportunity. Not just for the scientific exchange, and the chance to make an impact and improve the future of coral reefs, but also for the chance to go SCUBA diving in the Great Barrier Reef, perhaps even joining the same scientists that are doing research right there! I mean, that's  the "gist" of any marine scientist studying coral reefs.  
If we cannot attend, then we'll have to wait another 4 years for the next ICRS. And I wonder how many coral reefs will be alive in 2016. 

Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D. Schmidt Ocean Institute Postdoctoral FellowOcean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) 1420 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce, Florida 34949 USA Tel (772) 467-1600http://www.teamorca.orghttp://independent.academia.edu/SarahFriasTorres


Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:09:47 -0400
From: rginsburg at rsmas.miami.edu
To: littlepaul77 at hotmail.com; coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] 12th ICRS registration fee query

Thanks Paul  for the  bad news  from  down-under.  Paul  and  
colleagues  how  sad  that only a few students   will  be  lucky  
enough   to  find
funds.  Maybe  we should  consider organizing our  own  meeting in  
2014  with  a focus  on  student  participation?
 
 
Robert  Ginsburg
 
On 7/12/2011 7:02 PM, Paul Jones wrote:
>
> Dear listers,
>
> I received a brochure today for the 12th International
> Coral Reef Symposium, to be held in Cairns, Australia in July 2012.  I am saddened to say that while my enthusiasm
> for attending the event remains high, my probability of participation took a
> bit of a nose dive once I saw the registration fees.
>
>
> Four years ago, in Fort Lauderdale, the early bird registration
> fees were:
>
> Member/Non-member  - $495 / $545
>
> Student member/non-member - $275 / $295
>
>
>
> For the 12th ICRS, the early bird fees are (converted
> to US$ for correct comparison):
>
> Member/Non-member
> -  $995 / $1050
>
> Student  -  $700
>
>
>
> At a time when funding is tight and grants are scarce, I am
> a little disheartened to see that the registration fees have doubled (and almost
> tripled for students). Obviously I have never been involved in organizing an
> event such as this, but does anyone have any information as to why the fee is
> so high this time?
>
>    		 	   		
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> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
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