Groups St Andrews 1997 in Bath groups97@dcs.st-and.ac.uk Arrival Day: Saturday July 26th Departure Day: Saturday August 9th Conference website: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~masgcs/gps97/ +-----------------------------------------------------+ |Conferees are reminded that the discount deadline for| |conference accommodation and registration is May 31st. | |_____________________________________________________| Watch the web site http://www.bath.ac.uk/~masgcs/gps97/ ------------------- 1. Lecture course titles. 2. Advice on contributed papers. 3. Accommodation information. 4. Schedule and social information. 5. Discount deadlines and lunches. 6. Support from the LMS, RS and the University of Bath. 7. Things to bring. 8. Want to stay in Bath before or after? 9. Vegetarian or dietary restrictions? ------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Lecture course titles: Note that Cheryl Praeger and Aner Shalev have co-ordinated Their lectures to avoid overlap, despite the similarity in the titles. These lecture courses will be held in the first week of the conference, and consist of 4 or 5 lectures each, and no more than one lecture of each course on each day. Laszlo Babai `statistical methods in algorithms for finite groups' Martin Bridson `Non-positive curvature in group theory' Chris Brookes `Group theoretic applications of non-commutative toric geometry' Cheryl Praeger `Matrix groups, algorithms and probability' Aner Shalev `Groups and probability' ------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Advice on contributed papers: As far as possible, we urge contributors to try to conform to the following advice (from Roger Astley of C.U.P.). You will make the editors lives easier by trying to follow these ordinary LaTeX specifications. We are happy to accept revised LaTeX versions of papers from helpful contributors who are willing to make appropriate changes to papers which are already submitted. If you are prepared to help the editors by polishing your paper to these specifications (even after the conference!), that would be very helpful, though please let us know what you are doing to avoid duplication of effort. Fonts should be 12pt or 10pt scaled up (magstep1). Textheight (excluding running heads and page numbers) should be 215truemm. Textwidth should be 138truemm. Also important: Diagrams should either be integrated into the articles, or spaces should be left in the articles, of the appropriate size for the diagrams, if we are to do any redrawing or pasting in. The rest is not strictly necessary as we can fix it, but it is preferable: Running heads should be centred and italic if possible, page numbers should be at the top of the page, flush left for even numbers and flush right for odds. (If this is too difficult then just do away with page number altogether) I also prefer the parskip to be set to zero and the parindent to be set to something like 16pt. -------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Accommodation: There is no shared accommodation available on campus now. We are running low on Option B singles in week 2, but we have plenty left in week 1, and some supplies of Options A and C singles in both weeks. If you know anyone who is planning to try to apply to the conference very late, please encourage them to contact G.C.Smith@bath.ac.uk now. -------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Schedule and Social Information: This information is subject to revision, but this is the best guess now. Sat July 26th Arrival day. Reception desk (follow the signs) in Bath University Senior Common Room 13:00 -> 23:00 (if you arrive later, go to `security'). Sun July 27th Conference starts. Morning meeting of accompanying persons to learn of campus facilities and to arrange co-ordination of social activities (Rita Miller in the chair). Tue July 29th evening: Torchlit tour of the Roman Baths Wed July 30th afternoon: Bus trip -- Wells Cathedral, Glastonbury Tor and Cheddar Gorge. Wed July 30th evening: Banquet in the Bath Assembly Rooms Sat Aug 2nd afternoon free. Sun Aug 3rd rest day Mon Aug 4th Burnside Day (co-ordinated by Efim Zelmanov) Tue Aug 5th evening: Cricket Match -- no experience necessary. Please bring as much white clothing as you can if you wish to play. Competent and healthy players will form a team called `Australia' (Capt. J. R. J. Groves) and the rest will be `England' (Capt. G. C. Smith) in order to simulate real playing conditions. Wed Aug 6th afternoon: Bus trip -- The Wye Valley, Tintern Abbey, The South-Wales former mining valleys and Cardiff city centre. Thu Aug 7th Lyndon day (Co-ordinated by Chuck Miller) Sat Aug 9th Departure day --------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Discount deadlines and lunches: The accommodation and registration discount deadline is May 31st. If you accidentally miss that date by a few days, don't worry. The lunch deadline is July 1st. This is an absolute deadline for placing orders. _______________________________________________________________ 6. Support: Thanks to generous support from both the London Mathematical Society and the Royal Society, there will be a large number of participants from the former Soviet Union. We also acknowledge support from the Edinburgh MAthematical Society, the University of Bath initiative Fund and donation of resources by the School of Mathematical Sciences of the University of Bath. _______________________________________________________________ 7. Things to bring: The campus has exensive sporting facilities which will be available to conferees for a small fee (possibly zero -- it depends how the coonference finances are looking). These include one of only 11 50m pools in the UK, squash courts, tennis courts, badminton courts, athletics track, weights rooms etc. If you need equipment for your sport, please bring it. Campus kitChens come fully equipped, but bringing small quantities of minor consumable items (salt, herbs, soap powder etc) would be sensible. There is a campus food shop, and large supermarkets (Sainsburys and Waitrose) in Bath. ________________________________________________________________ 8. We have access to some cheap and nice (suitable for families) accommodation in Bath before and after the conference. Contact G.C.Smith@bath.ac.uk for more details. ________________________________________________________________ 9. The Conference Banquet on Wednesday 30th July (week 1) has a default Chicken main course. If you are a VEGETARIAN, VEGAN, or cannot eat chicken for whatever reason, please let me know. The caterers are prepared to entertain suggested alternatives -- so email G.C.Smith@bath.ac.uk with your dietary restrictions, and suggested substitution.