Dear Colleagues,
Internet2 is aware that many of you are beginning to make your travel arrangements for the Spring 2011 Internet2 Member Meeting, which will be held from April 18-20, 2011. We wanted to alert you as soon as possible to some significant changes to the traditional schedule of the member meeting from previous years.
In the past, Internet2 has held Internet2 Governance meetings on the Monday of the Spring Member Meeting. This year, the Governance meetings, which include both open and closed council meetings, will be held on Wednesday, April 20. Meeting track sessions will be held on Monday, April 18 and Tuesday, April 19. The welcome evening reception will also move from Monday to Tuesday, April 19. There will be no change to the meeting's General Sessions, which will still be held on the mornings of Tuesday, April 19 and Wednesday, April 20 respectively.
Another highlight and change for this spring's meeting will be the location and date for the Emerging National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) meeting. Internet2 is honored to be holding this meeting at the World Bank offices in downtown Washington D.C. on Thursday, April 21. Additional details on this meeting will be posted to the Spring Member Meeting website soon.
Internet2 understands that the member meeting overlaps with the Jewish holiday of Passover. On behalf of the entire organization, we sincerely apologize for this very unfortunate schedule conflict. Internet2 is committed to ensuring that the diversity in our community is both respected and celebrated and we can assure you that similar scheduling conflicts will not occur again in the future. While not ideal, it is our hope that the resultant meeting changes will help some that are impacted by this schedule conflict. We also believe these changes reflect an overall positive direction for the program format for future Internet2 Member Meetings. Internet2 plans to solicit further feedback from the community on these changes following the conclusion of the Spring Member Meeting.
Internet2 has and will continue to explore a number of other ways to help accommodate attendees that are celebrating Passover. While these options can't possibly take the place of spending time with family and loved ones on this holiday, we would like to make every effort to provide as many resources as possible. A Passover resource page has been posted to our member meeting website with the accommodations we have developed so far: http://events.internet2.edu/2011/spring-mm/passover.html.
In addition, several Internet2 members and staff have suggested that Internet2 facilitate holding an Interfaith Passover Seder that would be open to any interested meeting attendee on the evening of Monday, April 18. If you would be interested in participating in this event, please contact Traci Downey at
Registration for the meeting will be available very soon and more information about the new general schedule has been posted on the Spring Member Meeting website: http://events.internet2.edu/2011/spring-mm/.
We want to thank the community for the tremendous number of high quality submissions to the Spring Member Meeting program, which promises to be one of the most compelling with sessions spanning many hot topics of community interest. Internet2 appreciates your participation in our member meetings and looks forward to seeing you in Arlington for another productive and engaging community gathering.
Sincerely,
Dave Lambert
Internet2, President and CEO
Ana Preston Hunsinger
Internet2, Executive Director, Member Relations and Communications
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