Colleagues - I have been following the responses to my previous email regarding the site of the ISAC congress in 2006 with interest. And I am very pleased to see that it is possible to evoke some response from the ISAC community with regard to ISAC activities. I think it is important that the membership of ISAC be considered when society activities are considered and have had responses from the leadership that the potential concern that I raised had not been considered previously by council to see what potential impact there could be on the congress in question. We are fortunate to have a very open group and forum to be able to raise concerns for consideration. I agree that the internationalism of ISAC is valuable and should be protected. I do not want my original email regarding the site of the congress to be misconstrued as otherwise. However, I am also a realist and recognize that the majority of the ISAC membership is US based. This does not indicate my desire that ISAC remain "US-centric" - it is just the observation that it is. According to the latest numbers from ISAC headquarters, membership from the following areas are: North America 58.6% (55% US, 3.3% Canada, 0.3% Cuba/Mexico/Iceland) Europe 21.71% Asia 6.04% Scandanavia 3.97% Austrailia/New Zealand 3.44% Middle East 2.46% Eastern Europe 2.24% South America 0.9% Africa 0.35% I agree that we must do what we can to increase world-wide membership. And we must balance that with maintenance of the member-base that we already have. It is definitely possible that the additional number of members who can attend the meeting if held in Canada will out-number those from the US who cannot attend and the overall member-base of the society will be unaffected. I expect that our society leadership will assess all concerns, if brought to their attention. Best wishes, Julie Julie A. Auger Director, Office of Shared Research Facilities University of Chicago, Biological Sciences Division 007 Kovler Lab 910 E. 58th Street Chicago, IL 60637 e-mail: jauger@flowcity.bsd.uchicago.edu telephone: 773-702-9212 lab 773-702-9261 office fax: 773-702-7195
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