Twelfth Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are happy to announce that we are progressing quite well now with the preparation of the Proceedings of the 4th IOTM, even if more slowly than planned. The list of the processed manuscripts, with their current status of revision, is attached. The first six manuscripts have been already submitted to the publisher, the Kasparek Verlag. Every corresponding author will receive author's proofs to correct typo mistakes and small errors.

We would appreciate if you could let us know if any of the submitted manuscripts is missing. We might not have received it or lost it.

Thank you in advance.

With all the very best wishes

Tomas and Patricia

Eleventh Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We just had a conversation with Dr Max Kasparek of the Kasparek Verlag in Heidelberg, Germany.

The Kasparek Verlag will publish the Proceedings of the 4th IOTM as a separate publication (and not in the series "Zoology in the Middle East" since most of the articles are not related to the Middle East).

We are very happy about publishing in the Kasparek Verlag which is well-known for its seriousness and its very interesting and well-noted publications in the field of Zoology, among others.

Up to now, we received about 15 manuscripts and a few more are expected in the next few days. Most of them have now been revised and are ready for publication. The editing is, a you can imagine, quite a lengthy procedure, all the more since other professional and private obligations kept us from working faster. We are sorry for this delay, but we are convinced that these “Advances in Earthworm Taxonomy IV” will be a success.

The finalized manuscripts will be sent to the Kasparek Verlag beginning of March 2010. We could still accept some articles if they reach us before January 31, 2010.

With all the very best wishes

Tomas and Patricia

Tenth Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We hope you came all safely back home. Surely you had a lot to report to your family, to your friends and colleagues about the 4th IOTM and your stay in beautiful Mesopotamia.

We must thank you all, Delegates, Local Organizers and Sponsors, for making  of this conference such a success!

Have a look at the Photo Album on the website! You will see a lot of smiles !

This album is not completely finished yet and we will probably add some more pictures. Keep looking at it (there is a RSS feed). If you have some more good pictures that you would like to put on the album please send them to us (maximum 5 photos).

Please don't forget to send us your manuscript for the Proceedings. Deadline: 30. August 2009 (very strict!!!). The Proceedings will most probably be published by the Kasparek Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany.

Güle güle !!!!

Tomas and Patricia

Ninth Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As announced in our 8th Circular, we have been looking for other possibilities of accommodating all the Delegates in one location. We think that we found in the Turistik Otel in Diyarbakir a good alternative. You'll perhaps not have the advantage of being so near to nature as in the campus guest house, but you will have the advantage to be in the historic part of the city of Diyarbakir.

Two last tips before you take off:

• Don't put your lecture or poster in the checked luggage, take them with you in your hand luggage. Sometimes, the checked luggage take another plane than the passenger!
• Don't forget to purchase a travel insurance.

We are waiting for you ! Have a nice journey !

Patricia and Tomas

Eigth Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We believe that it is slowly time for you to think of what you will put into your suitcase for Diyarbakır.

TRAVEL

Allow us to give you a few travel tips:

• Check if you need a visa for Turkey.
• For those who are flying via Istanbul: At the airport in Istanbul you will have to change from the International terminal to the Domestic terminal. Count at least 20 minutes to go from one section of the airport to the other. Count also that the queue is usually quite long at the immigration police control at the exit of the International area. If you have to wait long time at the Istanbul airport for your connecting flight to Diyarbakır, we advise you to go to the Divan restaurant on the 1st floor. It is very comfortable and the food is good. Free Internet connection is available in all the airport.
• Since a large number of the delegates will take the same plane arriving in Diyarbakır on April 19th at 21:05, you will have the opportunity to speak about earthworms already at the airport and during the flight.
• You will of course be fetched at the airport/railway station/bus station in Diyarbakır, according to the schedule you gave us.
• It might be useful to give us also your mobile phone numbers.

ACCOMMODATION

Since the number of participants to our Conference exceeds our expectations and a large number of single rooms are required, we might have to move to another location than the one announced (guest house of the Dicle University). We are presently checking the possibilities in Diyarbakır itself and will inform you immediately if a change is decided. Our wish is that all delegates can stay together (and not in different places), in order to foster the exchanges of ideas and experiences and create a nice atmosphere.

SOLIDARITY

We would like to thank those who answered our call for solidarity. One prominent scientist more will attend the 4th IOTM !!!!

"THE WORM HUNTERS"

Have a look at our new page on the website !

PROCEEDINGS

Please send us your full-fledged articles as soon as possible. Submission deadline is August 31, 2009. Please see the instructions for authors here. We would like to publishthe Proceedings in 2009. For this we really need to have the manuscripts very soon because the editorial work takes a very long time.

We shall have a nice time in Diyarbakır!
With all our best wishes

Patricia and Tomas

Seventh Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Today we would like to appeal to your generosity and solidarity.

As we all know biologists do not usually belong to the richest and that some have even to struggle hard for having a decent life. We know that some of our finest taxonomists will not be able to attend the 4th IOTM, just because they could not get any financial help from their employers. We have tried our best to get financial support for this conference, but to no avail yet, apart from Turkish Airlines.

What we would like you to do is to check if you could not help these scientists. Look if you cannot find some 50-100 Euros or more at the bottom of your drawers, of your pockets, of your bank account, so that we could help finance the participation of these scientists at the 4th IOTM.

We know that we (will) all suffer from the global economic crisis, but sometimes a simple good heart can do a lot.

Please be numerous to write to us:  I am willing to contribute with  ...... Euros/Dollars  to  the  "4th IOTM solidarity fund".  I'll pay this amount at the 4th IOTM or will transfer it to the 4th IOTM account in Diyarbakır.

The allocation of the collected sum will be decided by our Scientific Committee, the criterion being scientific achievements in the study of Oligochaeta.

With all our best wishes

Patricia and Tomas

Sixth Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Just a few words to announce you that the provisional programme of the conference is now on line and that we have added some abstracts on the web version of the Book of Abstracts.

We would like to remind you of the possibility to join Diyrabakır by train from Istanbul or Ankara (or even further away !), as Sam James suggested. You will find some useful links on our Travel page.

Please consider the subjects dealt with in the Fifth Circular as urgent !

With all our best wishes

 

Patricia and Tomas

Fifth Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We just got the news that Turkish Airlines will grant our delegates a discount of 10 % per Turkish Airlines ticket bought in a Turkish Airlines official bureau. This applies only to the international part of the flight (the parts Istanbul-Diyarbakır or Ankara-Diyarbakır are domestic flights). To get the discount, the delegates have to refer to the special note BB686.

Arrival/Departure: please inform us as soon as possible about your arrival and departure time (with flight number). It would be also useful for us to have your mobile phone number.

Rooms: please let us know if you need a single or a double room. If you are accompanied by another person, please register this person, using the registration form.

Diet: if you need a special diet, please let us know. We will do our best to arrange special meals for you.

Payments: we have not received all registration fees yet. We would be grateful if you can send the amount for your registration as soon as possible to the account given on the Fees page. The payment for the field trip can be made in Diyarbakır.

Photos: we have not received yet all the photos for the Delegates page.

Abstracts: some delegates have not sent their abstracts yet, making it very difficult for us to prepare the programme and the paper version of the Book of Abstracts. Please hurry up!

Soon we will all be in Diyarbakır!

With all our best wishes

Patricia and Tomas

Fourth Circular

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

A quick reminder:

December 31, 2008 is the deadline for the submission of your abstracts (submission page). The electronic version of the Book of Abstracts is now already online.

December 31, 2008 is the last day for you to benefit of the Early Bird reduced registration fee (see here)

Accompanying persons: how many? If yes, please register the accompanying persons and pay the registration fee as soon as possible.

Day of arrival and day of departure: we need this information for the guest house. If you have already your flight schedule, please give us the data.

Visa: Check if you need a visa. You can find a good overview on visa requirements on www.turkishconsulate.org.uk/en/visa.htm and especially on www.turkishconsulate.org.uk/en/visa.htm#touristvisaforall.  Turkey has a very differentiated system (17 cases !) for visa requirements. For instance some  passport holders of countries of the  European Union need a visa, some not,  they are different ways to obtain a visa, certain passport holders have to pay a fee, some have to show a certain amount of money for their stay, etc. …).

Sponsoring: we are trying a lot of ways to find sponsors for the conference. Please do the same so that we can help some  persons who would  like to participate in the 4th IOTM, but have no means to finance the registration fee and the travel. Maybe you can for instance find a grant for a co-author (this can open up very interesting opportunities for you in other countries!) or you know about some company, even a small one, we would like to sponsor us.

With all our best wishes

Patricia and Tomas

Third Circular

 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Soon it will be the end of the year, which means the approaching of a few deadlines for the 4th IOTM:

December 31, 2008 is the deadline for the submission of your abstracts  (submission page)

December 31, 2008 is the last day for you to benefit of the Early Bird reduced registration fee (see here)

We remind you that we can send you a proforma invoice. You just have to give us your affiliation address and the amount you are going to pay. If you want to include the post-meeting excursion, please note that the price of this excursion (trip, meals) will be of € 50.-  per day. We are planning the field trip on two days (Saturday April 25th and Sunday April 26th) with return to Diyarbakır on both evenings.

Please do not forget to register also the accompanying persons and to pay the registration fee accordingly. We have been asked by the guest house to give the "rooming list" as quickly as possible, which means that we should know very soon on which day you will arrive in Diyarbakır and on which day you will leave, and also whether you want to stay in a single or a double room. Please give us these  details as soon as possible.

We are very glad that the newly elected Rector of the Dicle University of Diyarbakır, Prof. Dr. Ayşegül Jale Saraç, gives her support to our conference. She will among others deliver the keynote speech, offer an opening reception and take over the printing of the Book of Abstracts. We are trying to get more support from other sponsors.

The Proceedings of the 3rd IOTM are now available and we have sent copies to the participants/authors of the 3rd IOTM.  You can find the Table of Contents here. We would like to encourage you to order more copies of this book for colleagues, for your library, etc. and to make publicity for it.

With all our best wishes

Patricia and Tomas

Second Circular

Dear Colleagues,

Time is running quickly and the date of the opening of the Fourth International Oligochaete Taxonomy Meeting (4th IOTM) is nearing. You can make out from our web site that the number of Delegates has rapidly risen. We can only be satisfied with the increasing echo this conference is having in the scientific world.

Together with the organizers in Diyarbakir, we are working on the programme of the conference in order to make it as attractive as possible for you. The meeting should be the opportunity of high level scientific exchange of information, but also enable you to discover a beautiful and culturally most interesting region. A provisional programme can already be found on the website. It will have of course to be updated regularly. The page Diyarbakır will give you some information about this amazing city. More information about the region will be added soon.

We would like to take note of the following:

Registration: Please register with the form you will find on the Registration page. Most of you have already done it.

Abstracts: Please fill up also the subsmission form for your abstract. You will find it here. We remind you that the deadline for submission of abstracts is December 31, 2008. However an earlier submission of abstracts is welcome. Some titles of abstracts are already on the web site under this page.

Payment: We also encourage you to pay the registration fee before December 31, 2008 to take advantage of the reduced Early Bird fee. All details about payment are to be found under Fees. Please calculate the exact number of days you will be staying in in Diyarbakir, taking into account your arrival and departure day, and your possible participation in the post conference field trip (payment for this optional trip at the beginning of the conference).

Proforma invoice: If you need a proforma invoice, please let us know.

Visas: Check also if you need a visa for your coming to Turkey. You will find some useful addresses on your Travel page. You should also be informed that we cannot influence the decisions of the Turkish authorities as regards the granting or rejecting of a visa.

Sponsors: We are of course trying to get sponsors for our conference in order to be able to offer you the maximum for your stay in Diyarbakir, but also to help delegates who would need a financial support to participate in the meeting. If you have any idea of some organisations we could approach for sponsoring, please let us know.

Publicity: We have printed some A5 leaflets that can be used as small posters to announce the 4th IOTM. We would be happy to send you some copies to help us making publicity for the conference.

Proceedings of the 3rd IOTM: We just got the information that the printing of the Proceedings of the 3rd IOTM will be completed by November 15th. The price of the Proceedings has been fixed at 30 €. Participants of the 3rd IOTM will receive automatically a free copy. Please let us know if you wish to receive one or more copies.

Have our best wishes

Patricia and Tomas

First Circular

Dear Colleagues,

We are very happy to announce you that the Fourth International Oligochaete Taxonomy Meeting (4th IOTM) will be held in Diyarbakır (Turkey) under the auspices of the Dicle University, at the Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Biyoloji Bölümü (Science and Art Faculty, Biology Dept.), Diyarbakır,

from Monday, April 20 (morning) to Friday, April 24, 2009 (morning).

You will find already a lot of details about the Meeting on our web site

4thiotm.tomas-pavlicek-biologie.net

The web site will be regularly updated and completed. Please do keep an eye on it.

Our choice for the Diyarbakır venue was dictated among others by the fact that the Faculty of Sciences is able to provide excellent conference facilities and that the Guest house provides a high standard accommodation. Last but not least, we found at the University of Diyarbakir, a young and dynamic institution, a very warm welcome and a very collaborative and enthusiastic assistance, especially in the person of Prof. Dr. Yüksel Coşkun, the head of the Department of Biology.

We could keep the conference fee at the same level as for the 3rd IOTM, that is to say between 330 and 410 Euros. This fee includes the accommodation, the conference itself, the daily meals, the mid-conference excursion, the Book of abstracts, and the Proceedings. A one or two day post-conference earthworm collection trip is also planned (costs separated).

Applicants should initially register their interest in attending the 4th IOTM by filling in the Registration form by October 30, 2008, preferably earlier.

Applicants are also required to submit an abstract of their proposed paper or panel per December 31, 2008. Instructions for the submission of abstracts can be found on the website. As the number of presentations is limited, selection will be carried out by the organizing and scientific committees based on the quality of the abstracts received.

In addition to the participants, a number of student observers will be permitted to attend presentations.

Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you.

Do come to the beautiful Upper Mesopotamia in April 2009!

Dr Tomáš Pavlíček
Convenor of the 4th IOTM