ASTRO2010 Townhall Meeting Announcement

We are planning an ASTRO2010 Town Hall meeting in Cambridge, MA, on March 20 (Friday) 2009 at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (see www.amacad.org for directions and further info on the venue). The meeting is nominally scheduled for 10am-3pm, but the time may be extended somewhat if interest warrants. Lunch will be provided on site. All interested parties in the Boston vicinity are invited to attend. Please see http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/Astro2010_Town_Halls.html for more info on the format, purpose, and suggested questions and topics for discussion at the town halls.

We anticipate (hope for!) substantial interest, and so in order to fairly accommodate all local attendees who wish to speak there will likely be strict time limits. Nominally each speaker would be limited to 5 minutes (just like an AAS talk), and a single one page, single sided printed handout.

If you wish to speak, please register on line by March 13 2009, here. The web page will ask for a title and invite you to submit a ONE page handout, .pdf format only. We will provide B/W copies of the handouts for all attendees, and will also arrange a speaking order. Please register early to reserve your speaking slot. We do anticipate having a 30min 'open mic' session at the end, but this will be first come, first serve.

Please spread the word! Quoting the ASTRO2010 committee, 'it is your survey', so please do participate.

Sincerely,
Michael Garcia (Smithsonian), Deepto Chakrabarty (MIT),
and Jonathan Grindlay (Harvard),
and Alicia Soderberg (CfA Hubble Fellow), your local hosts