Re:routing belgrade meeting

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

dear friends,

i have been offline over the weekend to get some breath - apologies for
delays, but i needed to eat and sleep.

there are plenty of questions regarding what was going to be the syndicate
meeting in belgrade in april. i will respond to some of them from my
perspective - let's try and come to some sort of conclusion in the next
days.

for instance, michael benson wants to join. he, and anybody else, is very
welcome.

caius and the kinema-ikons from arad are asking whether we are still
planning on going there, and as i said in an earlier mail, i think that
under the current circumstances it might be better to postpone the friendly
invitation and wait for better 'weather' in the region ... the invitation
stands, and if people want to go there individually, they will doubtlessly
be welcomed in arad and oradea. planning an excursion to arad under the
current circumstances seems too much to me.

honor asks:
>as you probably know, the helpb92 crew in amsterdam are desperately
>under-staffed and under-resourced, and really need some expert help.  with
>the syndicate meeting now looking increasingly unlikely to take place at
>the scheduled time, i wondered whether i might suggest possibly re-routing
>the gathering to amsterdam, to help with the Helpb92 crew for a couple of
>days.

this is not a good idea, because it would mean having to get visa and more
expensive travel for several people. the syndicate meeting can also not be
a helpb92-help-meeting - even though the need for support there may be an
important issue for discussion and action.

adele writes about the possibility of doing a public event in budapest on
14-15 april; to be honest, i am against changing the dates of the syndicate
meeting which were fixed ages ago; for me, a change of dates would cause
problems, and i guess that the public event could be done independently of
the syndicate meeting?

i feel that the urgency for getting together and trying for discussing some
of the situation would be very good, and i suggest that we take up the
c3-offer to host a meeting in budapest. i would be in favour of sticking
with the original core dates 22-24, with the possibility of early arrivals
and late departures, so that we can maybe plan to be at c3 from 21-25.

i had news from APEX saying that they were going to give a grant to
CyberREX for some travels to belgrade, and that we could also use the money
to meet up in budapest. i don't know whether these are grants for specific
people or a lump sum which we could share between the needy - i'll find
that out hopefully tomorrow.

best wishes from wind-swept rotterdam,
-a