Dear Commission B Official Members,

The main purpose of the present letter is to invite proposals to organise the 2007 URSI Electromagnetic Theory Symposium ( referred to as the 2007 EMTS ). As a reminder I mention that the recent previous Symposia in this series were held as follows:

1989 Stockholm, Sweden

1992 Sydney, Australia

1995 St Petersburg, Russia

1998 Thessaloniki, Greece

2001 Victoria, Canada

and the 2004 EMTS will be held in Alexandria, Egypt. It is generally felt that additional lead time is needed for the organisation of these symposia and therefore we are now planning to make the decision concerning the 2007 EMTS before the 2002 URSI GA

As decided by Commission B during the Toronto GA, the proposals received as a result of the present invitation will be reviewed by an ad hoc committee. The task of this ad hoc committee is to select two proposals, whose authors will be invited to submit augmented proposals. Those two proposals will then be subjected to a vote by e-mail amongst the Commission B Official Members. In that vote, the site of the 2007 EMTS is decided by simple majority of the votes received.

In view of the above, the description of the proposals in the first round should be limited to at most three pages and they should be sent by e-mail to me, not later than March 1, 2002.

1.1 Proposed location and time ( preferably May or August, try to relate to other

pre-scheduled conferences of interest to Commission B )

1.2 How to reach the proposed location: nearest airport, other means of travel,

travel times etc

1.3 Requirements on the conference facilities:

1.3.1 One large auditorium seating ~ 400 persons ( for opening of the

Symposium, general lectures, etc.)

1.3.2 4 - 5 lecture halls that can seat ~100 persons, adjacent to each other, for

parallel sessions.

1.3.3 Adjacent Poster Session areas

1.3.4 Offices for Comm. B chair and for the Local Organising Committee ( LOC )

1.3.5 Appropriate audio-visual equipment in all lecture halls ( including projectors

for computer presentations )

1.3.6 A suitable number of terminals with free internet connections

1.3.7 Nearby lunch facilities capable of serving 300 - 400 persons within an hour

1.3.8 If you propose to use a commercial Conference Centre, its home page

address is useful

2.1 Availability of a sufficient number of nearby hotels and their price ranges (estimates are enough )

2.2 Availability of low rate university dorm accommodation or similar; give rates and

approximate number of rooms available

2.3 Is public transportation available and convenient or are you going to arrange with

shuttle bus services ??

A Commission B Young Scientist Award ( YSA ) at an EMTS consists of a cash

award and in addition the registration fee is waived. Commission B aims at having

some 15 - 20 YSA at each EMTS ( and Commission B spends essentially all of its

funds for this purpose ). A substantial contribution from the LOC is needed in order

to reach those numbers ( note: the cost of waiving the registration fee shall be born

by the LOC for all the YSAs ).

In your proposal, state your contribution to the YSA programme !

Give a rough estimate of the budget needed to realise your proposal, leading up to a

round number for the registration fee, based on different assumptions concerning

attendance.

Essential items in a budget are likely to be:

a ) rent of conference venue and use of commercial conference organiser, if

applicable

b ) printing costs: Call for Papers, Preliminary Programme, Final Programme,

Proceedings

c ) social functions: coffee and refreshments, banquet

d ) Industrial and other sponsorship that you expect to obtain

e ) your YSA support

f ) Abstract and manuscript management

Please state if you expect to be able to obtain a financial guarantee from your

university or research institute.

A LOC should be identified by giving the name of the Chair and a few additional

key members, together with their affiliations.

By the time of the 2007 EMTS, electronic submission and manuscript handling can

expected to be fully established. In these matters the LOC will probably be asked

to collaborate with the Technical Programme Committee ( TPC ), chaired by the

Commission B chair at the time. In the proposal, the LOC should indicate what

facilities, such as a dedicated website for submission and review of Abstracts, that

they can provide.

I look forward to a number of interesting proposals!

I also take this opportunity to remind you about the deadline for submitting proposals concerning incoming Commission B vice-chair at the 2002 URSI GA in Maastricht, which is January 1st, 2002. For the relevant info concerning this important Commission B matter, see my Letter no 6 from October 22, 2001.

Best wishes, Staffan Ström

Chair of Commission B