Hello everyone,

We’re looking forward to the annual meeting in Lisbon next month. In the meantime I have some important information about our annual lunch meeting. The lunch sounds delicious and affordable, and this being Europe several kinds of alcohol are included. It will less rushed than last years, which should give  more time for chatting and announcements from the floor as well as some brief but exciting SIG updates and our annual book auction.

In a departure from previous practice, the lunch is NOT being paid for at the time of registration. Instead you will pay directly at the restaurant. This gets us much better value than with hotel provided catering (where a pizza buffet can cost more than $40 each as it did last year). This is a change by SHOT itself rather than our initiative, but it’s one I support and hope future local arrangements staff will be able to follow this example.

Most of you will have registered before the lunch date was fixed. If you did not check the box for the SIGCIS lunch on the registration but would like to join us then please let me know. Likewise, if you did checked the box but will not actually be able to join us then please let me know. I will collate any changes and forward them to the local organizers so that we have the correct final number for the restaurant.

October 13 - Monday at Sabores do Atlantico : it will allow the group to have almost total privacy in an area located on the upper floor of the restaurant.  The menu price for groups is 25, 00 Euros. It includes a welcome Port wine, codfish cooked in the oven – bacalhau à lagareiro- , desert, drinks (wine, beer, soft drinks, water, sangria) and coffee.

I have not seen the full list of dates for the various SIGs but believe that we managed to avoid clashing with the Mercurians and Promethians.

I will follow up later with more details, including the location of the restaurant. Hope to see you all there,

Tom