Dear friends,
The end of the year is approaching and we have decided with Lela that it was a good time to publish and distribute another ALAGE Bulletin. You must have noticed that we did not do much in this respect over the past years, thanks to Lela’s work most communications and news were forwarded through Email to the National Representatives, who in turn I think also did a very good job in distributing them to their local members. I agree that it may have happened that some missed some information, particularly those in countries where there is, or was, no official representative, but we think that this inconvenience was greatly superseded by the rapidity and frequency of the communications. Lela also made sure that any Email communication got immediately added to the list in the Announcements section of the ALAGE web page
The next thing I would like to do is to remind everybody that the XI COLAGE in Buenos Aires is coming up! The COLAGE web page is up and working for already some time, http://www.iafe.uba.ar/colage11/index.html , and I urge you to try and register as well as submit your abstracts through it as soon as possible, as I did this same morning after realizing that I had not yet done it! The meeting is shaping up, I have seen the excellent list of invited speakers that the chair and members of the SOC and the sessions conveners have been assembling, and the rest is up to all of us the participants to create the right active working atmosphere with plenty of (friendly!) discussions and new projects and collaborations. After the COLAGE, we shall also host one more school of the series that ALAGE has successfully been carrying out in collaboration with SCOSTEP and other organizations under the leadership of Abe Chian and the local organizers ( see http://www.iafe.uba.ar/colage11/school.html ). Of course last but by no means least, you can also come prepared to enjoy your visit to Buenos Aires, that with pride and an evident lack of modesty I personally qualify as a very nice cosmopolitan city with many places to see, where to eat a good meal (not just “asado”!) or simply spend a nice afternoon enjoying the Sun and drinks at a terrace of a café, either downtown or close to the river. But please just try to do all this after the sessions! By the way, the weather in April will be good, just after the heat of the summer and before the winter’s cold.
Besides sharing scientific results and social activities there will be a few other very relevant activities during the XI COLAGE, besides the Ruth Gall and Roberto Manzano awards, it will be the first time that the Mario H. Acuña Prize will be bestowed to a distinguished scientist whose work has been outstanding in creating scientific infrastructure for research and space science in the region, a very appropriate recognition to Mario’s legacy to be given in his own country (although we here joke that he was in fact “Cordobés” rather than Argentinian). It makes me very happy to say that we already have an impressive list of candidates, that is being handled by the ad hoc selection committee led by Marta Zozzi. Terms and conditions to propose candidates for all awards can be also found in the ALAGE web page ( http://www.alage.org/?q=awards ). The XI COLAGE will also be an excellent time to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of its de facto predecessor, the CLARC (Consejo Latinoamericano de Radiación Cósmica, see the COLAGE – 25 years booklet).
Finally I would like to stress the need to have a well attended Assembly of ALAGE members. Besides electing the board members that will accompany Juan Alejandro (Alejo) Valdivia, our President Elect, we will also review what has been done, and not done, since Cusco, and hopefully discuss and decide a few relevant matters regarding ALAGE’s future that may make Alejo’s as well as his successors life easier and more profitable in terms of achieving ALAGE’s goals. Among some of these are the finances, including a substantial increase in membership fees (currently at 10 US Dollars/year), and the possibilities of finding additional sources of support, a matter that has proven to be much harder than what we had anticipated, in some way associated with the itinerant character of the ALAGE “home base” and the lack of a legal figure (like those of e.g. the IAU, COSPAR and SCOSTEP secretariats, to name some other international organizations), and a matter I have discussed with people associated with ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions) and others versed in legal aspects.
This is all for the time being, we may add more in the version to be published in the upcoming Bulletin, and in the mean time in preparation of the holiday season I want to wish you all a good time and all the best for 2018!
Sincerely,
Marcos