EXTRAGALACTIC STAR CLUSTERS

IAU Symposium #207

Date: Venue: Host: Contact:	March 12 - 16, 2001       Hotel del Lago, Pucón, Chile       Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile       starclus@mpia-hd.mpg.de

IAU Travel Support

       The IAU has kindly allocated CHF 25,000 of travel support. This travel support is primarily intended to help attendees from economically disadvantaged countries and young researchers without other means of support. IAU travel application forms have been circulated among the pre-registered participants and are available on-line.

       The deadline for submission of the forms was Oct 20, 2000. 26 applications were received, requesting a total of CHF 68,774 in IAU travel support. Hence the oversubscription factor was 2.75. The applications were passed on to the IAU Assistant General Secretary. Notifications were sent out to all applicants on Oct 31, 2000. Funding was awarded to 12 persons (46% of the applicants) from 9 countries comprising 7 men and 5 women. First priority was given to invited speakers and young scientists from economically disadvantaged countries with a track record in the area of extragalactic star clusters. Since there were many more applications from qualified scientists than funds were available, the allocation of grants was a difficult decision. We regret that not everyone who applied could be funded.


Other Funds

      Symposium organiziers are expected to obtain additional funds from other sources to supplement travel funds and to cover all other expenses that arise from the organization of a meeting.

      We are pleased and grateful that all the large observatories in Chile have pledged financial support. In addition, Universidad de Concepción and Universidad Católica will support the meeting. Most donors have meanwhile transfered the pledged funds. We warmly thank all of our sponsors.

      In addition, we have applied for financial support from funding agencies such as Comite Mixto and Fundación Andes. Unfortunately both decided not to support the IAU Symposium. We therefore have less funding for travel available and were forced to cancel the Teachers' Workshop planned for March 17. We thank all those who volunteered talks in Spanish for this educational outreach program and regret that it can't take place. However, the LOC has meanwhile managed to obtain additional funding from Fundación Andes to make the participation of more Chilean students and postdocs possible.

      Further support for travel was made available through free airtickets on airmiles. Six tickets were obtained this way.

      CTIO, ESO, and Universidad de Concepción helped us by mailing the conference poster to astronomical institutions worldwide.


Registration Fees

      Registration fees are another important source of financial support for the Symposium. In accordance with IAU rules, the early registration fee is US$ 150. The IAU has given permission to increase the fees to US$ 175 for late registrations (after Jan 15, 2001). These funds allow us to support additional participants from economically disadvantaged countries.

      We are grateful to those invited speakers who paid their registration fees even though they were waived.


Financial Sponsors: