Dear Yasmin and Maria-Luisa,
I very much regret not being able to come to the MELCOM meeting, and in particular to hear Ulrich Marzoph's lecture. However, I wanted to add to Geoffrey and Paul's responses to say that I was dismayed to see that we would be obliged to pay £25 in order to attend. This is a quite new departure for MELCOM and one which I think should be discouraged, coming now at a time when both institutions and individuals are feeling the pinch!
If you were thinking that SAALG and NCOLR (maybe other library groups too) make nominal charges, we should bear in mind that in those cases, unlike MELCOM, a whole day of lectures is arranged, especially designed for the attendees. A small fee for a day conference seems very reasonable, to cover speakers' travel expenses and a sandwich lunch, but the offer of participating in breakfast and sessions on The Middle East in Global Perspective I and II is a nonsense for MELCOM members who are not attending the whole conference and who have to travel to Brighton during peak hours.
Could we not always in future arrange MELCOM meetings through libraries? Was the University unwilling to host a meeting for us? They have relevant collections so it would be quite logical to have met there. Forgive me if you already explored these possibilities, I am the first to admit I know nothing about the background!
I hope, despite this, that the meeting and the lecture in particular, go well. However, I think the whole question of finance needs revisiting,
Ursula
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Ursula Sims-Williams
Curator of Iranian languages
British Library
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