Overview The IVS will hold a technical meeting, called the General Meeting, every two years. The purpose of the meeting is to assemble representatives from all IVS components to share information, hear reports, and plan future activities. The meeting also provides a forum for interaction with other members of the VLBI and Earth science communities.

All IVS Associate Members, representing all of the IVS components, are encouraged to attend the General Meetings. Non-IVS members are cordially invited to attend the meeting. The content of the meeting will be of interest to a broad spectrum of IVS members as well as to the wider VLBI and Earth science community.

The location of the meeting is the town of Kötzting in the Bavarian forest of Germany. The location of the town and the nearby Fundamentalstation Wettzell are shown on the area map .

The meeting will be held in the Haus des Gastes (Guest House) in Kötzting . Haus des Gastes is marked on the town map of Kötzting as "(1) Tourist information" which is also located there. You may order tourist brochures about Kötzting directly from Tourist Information using their order form .

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Pictures from the Meeting

Pictures taken at the meeting have been posted on the IVS Coordinating Center's server.

• Tom Clark's photo gallery
• Bruce Thornton's photos
• Nancy Vandenberg's photos

Last Information for Travelers

1. Emergency Phone . In case of getting lost or being delayed for any pick-up service, please inform us directly about your expected arrival dates or at least about your delay. The emergency phone number of the LOC is 0170-3632893 (inside Germany).
2. Airport Meeting Point . Shuttle busses are scheduled on Sunday, February 20, which depart at 11:00 and 18:00. The meeting point for IVS shuttle users will be at the Meeting Point at area Z (central area). Shuttle users should watch out for the IVS-logo or "IVS"-signs. BKG-staff Mr. Armin Boeer and Mr. Uwe Hessels will be looking for shuttle users, beginning at 9:00. In case of any delay which is relevant for the departure of the shuttle buses, please give an information to Mr. Hessels at the airport directly 0170-5330869 (mobile phone) or to the emergency number above.
3. Arriving at Kötzting with the Shuttle Service . The bus from the airport to the hotels at 11:00 departing at Munich Airport will stop first at each hotel. The arrival time will be about 13:00-13:30. It is advised to have some lunch soon after arrival, since the kitchens might do a pause in the early afternoon. After lunch the participants may register at Haus des Gastes. Besides the "Landhotel Miethaner" and the "Hotel Am Steinbachtal" the other hotels/residences are located in walking distance from Haus des Gastes.

   Participants at Miethaner may use a shuttle service for the registration/receiption preferably during the afternoon up to about 16:00. After that time two vehicles will be needed for the evening airport shuttle. Detailed informations on When and How to get to Kötzting and back will be provided at Landhotel Miethaner.

4. Registration . The registration desk will be opened on Sunday afternoon, beginning at 13:00 local time. It will be closed during the receiption by the town of Kötzting from about 18:30 until 19:30 and reopened after the official event. It will be closed at 21:00 at Sunday evening. Those who are interested in an earlier registration should do so in order to minimize the peak in the evening hours.
5. Registration Fee . The registration fee for the complete meeting is 270DM or 150USD. The fee has to be paid in cash money at the registration.
6. Posters . Posters should be brought to the registration and fixed on the specific location on Sunday or Monday morning. The posters will be located during the meeting in the entrance hall outside the conference room, so that many people will see them!
7. Weather Conditions (2000-02-15) . In the moment the temperatures range from -5 deg C to +8 deg C. Today there is no snow at Kötzting or Wettzell, it is overcast and rainy. We hope for sunshine next week!

   The LOC wishes everyone a safe trip to Kötzting. See you soon.

   Program The goal is to provide an interesting and informative program for a wide cross section of IVS members, including station operators, program managers, and analysts. The program will include reports, tutorials, invited and contributed papers, and poster presentations.
   

   Meeting Program

   Program with Abstracts

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   Paper Submission Poster and oral papers may be contributed for presentation at the General Meeting. Contributions are not restricted to IVS Associate Members but may be contributed by anyone attending the meeting. The contributed papers, invited papers, and tutorial talks will be printed in a proceedings volume. The deadline for submitting paper titles has been extended to December 1, 1999. Full text papers for the meeting proceedings will be due at the time of the meeting. The format specifications will be provided soon.

   Poster Papers .    Any IVS component may contribute a poster about the status and activities of their component. This material may form part of your submission to the IVS Annual Report for 2000, which will be due on March 1, 2000. The poster board size is 120 cm high by 84 cm wide. Scotch tape will be provided to attach paper to the poster boards.

   Oral Papers .    Oral papers are requested on the following topics:

   • New data acquisition and auxiliary equipment technology. This topic includes new technology not already in wide use, such as the Canadian S3 system, real-time systems, new water vapor radiometers, met sensor packages, etc.
   • New VLBI stations. This topic includes any new stations to be brought online in the new few years.
   • Observing program overviews. This topic includes papers giving an overview of current geodetic and astronomical observing programs, such as CORE, EUROPE, NEOS, and astronomical programs.
   • New correlator technology. This topic includes new correlators not already in wide use.
   • Contributions to IVS analysis tasks. This topic includes the IVS analysis activities of combination, comparison, documentation, new products, or promotion of products.

   The Program Committee will review the contributed papers. Please note that we may not be able to accept all contributed papers, due to time or space limitations.

   How to Submit .    Please submit the title and author list for your paper electronically by using the web form (preferred) or via e-mail. Indicate whether you wish to present a poster or oral paper.
   

   Go to paper submission form.

   The deadline for submitting a paper title has been extended to December 1, 1999 .

   If you cannot use the web form, please e-mail your paper title and other information to ivs-submit@ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov

   Meeting Program

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   Proceedings The proceedings of the meeting will be published in a printed volume and on the web. Authors of invited papers, contributed oral papers, and contributed poster papers are requested to submit manuscripts for publication in the proceedings.

   Authors are requested to follow the instructions for preparation of manuscripts .

   Registration Please use the registration form to register for the meeting.

   Go to registration form.

   The deadline for registration is January 15, 2000 .

   If you need to revise your registration information, please fill out the form and submit it again. The new registration will overwrite the old one. Matching is done on your name so please use the same spelling exactly for your new registration.

   The registration fee is 150 USD (US dollar) or 270 DM (Deutsche Mark). For participants who stay only one day the fee is reduced to 60 USD or 100 DM. The fee for an accompanying person to attend the IVS dinner is 100 DM.

   The conference fee will be collected at the registration desk at the meeting. Only cash in DM or USD can be accepted.

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   Travel to Kötzting The location of the meeting is Kötzting, Germany, which is close to Fundamentalstation Wettzell.

   Arriving at Munich Airport .    The two airports closest to Kötzting are Munich Airport (Flughafen München) and Nuremberg Airport (Flughafen Nürnberg), each about 200 km distant. Since there are more international flights arriving at Munich the LOC decided to organize an IVS shuttle service from Munich airport, departing from the airport on Sunday, February 20, 2000, at 11:00 and at 18:00. If you want to use this service, please indicate it on the IVS registration form .

   The Meeting Point for the IVS shuttle service will be the meeting point in area Z (central area) of the airport. This meeting point is located next to a self-service restaurant and a newspaper/bookstore. It has a letter box where you might find messages regarding the shuttle service. The LOC will put messages under "I" (for IVS) in case your arrival is delayed. Area Z is shown on the airport terminal map .

   All IVS shuttle service busses will stop at each of the hotels.

   Information about connections to and from Munich Airport can be found at the Munich Airport home page (English version).

   If you are arriving at Munich and decide not to use the IVS shuttle service to Kötzting, you will have the following options:

   • Option 1. Use public transportation (bus and train) to get to the Gotteszell railway station, and continue with IVS shuttle service "Gotteszell->Kötzting",
     • From Munich airport please go by bus line MVV 635 to Freising railway station (Bahnhof). Buses leave from the central area (Z) of the airport every 20 minutes according to the bus timetable .
     • The busline 635 ends at the railway station where you go by train via Plattling to Gotteszell . Refer to the German railroad timetable for details. To use the query form, in the "from" box enter: Munich Aeroport T [or München Airport ]. In the "to" box enter: Gotteszell . Enter your travelling date and time in the next two boxes. Then click twice Search connections (ignoring ambiguities with Gotteszell). You will get a list of connections according to your inputs. Click on Itinerary or Itinerary-Plus to get a detailed itinerary schedule! Print it out and take it with you. Notice that in Plattling you will have to change trains!
     • From Gotteszell the LOC will have a pick-up service about every two hours to Kötzting. Therefore we will need to know your itinerary schedule in advance. Please indicate your train arrival time on the IVS registration form . Traveltime between Munich airport and Gotteszell/Kötzting is about 2.5 hours, 200 km in distance.
     • Alternatively it is also possible to travel from Munich Aeroport T directly to Kötzting by train, however the trip takes about 4-9 hours depending on the time of the day. The LOC recommends that you go instead to Gotteszell which has more frequent connections to Munich Airport.
   • Option 2. Rent a car and find the way to Kötzting on your own.
     • You are advised to order a rental car with winter tires in advance! February is winter season. In Kötzting and in the Bavarian Forest winter tires are necessary. Munich can be without snow but at the same time we might have up to 50 cm snow in Kötzting.
     • Find the route description under Travelling by car .

   Arriving at Frankfurt Main Airport Germany's largest airport is Frankfurt Main Airport. There are hourly connection flights to Munich at Terminal A (Lufthansa). As an alternative to flying to Munich and following the above described procedure, it is also possible to continue travelling by train from Frankfurt Main Airport via Nuremberg (Nürnberg) and Cham (Oberpf) to Kötzting. This option takes about 5 hours, while the flight to Munich and the continuation to Kötzting might also result in about 5 hours travelling time.

   Follow the instructions Travelling by Train below for finding trains between Frankfurt Main and Kötzting.

   Travelling by Train Kötzting has a railway station which is connected with a local train to Cham (Oberpf). From Cham are frequent trains to Nuremberg (about 2h travel time). The railway station Kötzting is walking distance (10 minutes) from the hotels in Kötzting.

   Alternatively you can take the train to Gotteszell and use the bihourly IVS shuttle service Gotteszell->Kötzting.

   Find your most convenient train connection with the German railroad timetable .

   Railway tickets can be bought at

   • Munich airport, at the "Deutsche Bahn" counter in area Z.
   • Freising railway station, at the entrance.
   • Frankfurt airport, at the "Deutsche Bahn" counter near the railroad tracks.
   • From the train conductor. Please contact the conductor for the ticket before you enter the train or shortly after the train's departure. Have DM in cash available.

   At the moment there is a "Happy Weekend" program in Germany. Up to five persons sharing the same direction are allowed to travel on one "Wochenend-Ticket" for 35 DM (restrictions: Saturday/Sunday only, no rapid Intercity trains, 2nd class). Most of the trains between Freising-Gotteszell are not Intercity trains and can be used with the Wochenend-Ticket. Ask for the "Wochenend-Ticket". The normal ticket would cost about the same: 36 DM/per person (one way). If you can find other IVS members to travel with, you can save money by sharing a Wochenend-Ticket.

   Travelling by Car Refer to the area map for local road numbers.

   From West (Munich Airport):

   • Find highway A92 between Munich and Deggendorf.
   • Follow the signs to Deggendorf.
   • At the end of highway A92 in Deggendorf after two tunnels continue on road B11 to Patersdorf.
   • Near Patersdorf enter B85 towards Cham and Viechtach (left turn).
   • In Viechtach you leave B85 and follow the signs to Kötzting.

   From North/South (Frankfurt Airport, Austria):

   • Find highway A3 between Regensburg and Passau. (A3 also passes Frankfurt Main Airport. Via Würzburg, Nürnberg you approach Regensburg-Passau.)
   • Leave A3 at exit 106, Straubing, Cham.
   • Go on the B20 in the direction of Cham.
   • In Cham you leave B20 and you follow the signs to Kötzting on B85.
   • In Miltach leave B85 and follow the signs to Kötzting.

   From East (Czech Republic):

   • Find Prague and from there go westwards.
   • Cross the border at Furth im Wald.
   • From there follow the signs to Kötzting.

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   Accommodations

   All meeting participants will be accommodated at reasonable rates in hotels in and near Kötzting. The LOC made block reservations at hotels and has assigned individuals to hotels. Every effort was made to honor your hotel preference, but in some cases the LOC could not do so and they kindly ask for your understanding. There is no need for the meeting participants to contact the hotels directly to make reservations. The list of final hotel assignments is now available by clicking on the button below or downloading the reservation file. The hotel information is the same in both lists.
   

   Reservation list file

   Travel details file

   Accommodations for the meeting are at the following locations:
   
   

   Code	Hotel/apartment	Price	Breakfast	Payment
   Ambe	Hotel "Amberger Hof" Torstraße 2 D-93444 Kötzting Phone +49-9941-9500 Fax +49-9941-950-110	79,- DM single 62,- DM double per person	breakfast included	Credit cards accepted
   Post	Hotel "Zur Post" Herrenstraße 10 D-93444 Kötzting Phone +49-9941-6628 Fax +49-9941-2604	79,- DM single 62,- DM double per person	breakfast included	Credit cards accepted
   Miet	Landhotel "Miethaner" Höllenstein 12-13 D-94234 Viechtach Phone +49-9941-9530 Fax +49-9941-953199	65,- DM single 55,- DM double per person	breakfast included	Credit cards accepted
   Regen	Residenz am Regen Am Regen 2 D-93444 Kötzting Phone/fax +49-9941-1015	70,- DM single 100,- DM double	breakfast not included	Credit cards NOT accepted, please pay in cash
   Kurp	Apartements "Am Kurpark" Klara Kollmaier Bahnhofstrasse 22 D-93444 Kötzting Phone/fax +49-9941-90 54 00	70,- DM single 100,- DM double	breakfast not included	Credit cards NOT accepted, please pay in cash
   Birk	Ferienhotel "Birkenhof" Auf der Rast 7 D-93479 Grafenwiesen Phone +49-9941-1582 Fax +49-9941-4961	70,- DM single 100,- DM double	breakfast not included	Credit cards NOT accepted, please pay in cash
   Stein	"Hotel am Steinbachtal" Steinbach 2 D-93444 Kötzting Phone +49-1694 Fax +49-9941-8212 e-mail: alfons.hartmannsgruber@t-online.de	70,- DM single 100,- DM double	breakfast not included	Credit cards NOT accepted, please pay in cash

   
   
   How to get cash in Kötzting . The expression "ATM-machine" is unknown in Germany. Please ask for "Geldautomat", or for a bank ask for "Bank" or "Sparkasse". The Sparkasse Kötzting is right next to the post office in walking distance (2 minutes) from Haus des Gastes. The Sparkasse offers:

   • A cash automat ("Geldautomat") which accepts VISA and Mastercard/Eurocard together with PIN-Code of the cardholder. This service is available round the clock.
   • At the bank counter (business hours Mo-Fr 08:00-12:30, 13:30-16:30) they accept Mastercard/Eurocard together with passport of the cardholder. Note: Visa is not accepted at the counter.
   • Everybody can cash traveller cheques (in DM, USD, other currencies) at the bank counter together with passport of the cheques holder during the business hours of the bank.
   In order to avoid problems at the moment of departure at the accommodations that do not accept credit cards, the LOC recommends that you pay cash. Please get your cash during the conference from one of the banks in Kötzting. The LOC is sorry for this inconvenience and thanks you for your understanding.

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   Invitations Although IVS cannot provide financial support for attendance at the General Meeting, IVS will send a letter of invitation to attend the meeting as a means of support. If this would be of assistance for your travel plans, please contact the IVS Chairman Wolfgang Schlüter to request a letter.

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   Program Committee Members of the scientific/technical program committee for the first General Meeting are:

   Marshall Eubanks Hayo Hase Ed Himwich Yasuhiro Koyama Chopo Ma Arthur Niell

   Axel Nothnagel Hans-Peter Plag Wolfgang Schlüter Rich Strand Nancy Vandenberg Alan Whitney

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   Local Committee Members of the local organizing committee are:

   • Wolfgang Schlüter
   • Hayo Hase

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   General Information

   Planning your itinerary Everybody using shuttle service on her/his arrival will be brought back to her/his pickup place. The detailed organization will take place during the General Meeting.

   Remember that you must be at the airport at least one hour before departure of your return flight.

   Clothing February is the coldest month of the year in Germany. In February the temperatures range between -20 degree C to +10 degree C. It is strongly recommended that you have a warm winter coat, gloves, hat and long underwear at least in your suitcase. However Kötzting has several shops which can supply you with the missing items.

   Hotels and the meeting room will be heated to about +20 degree Celsius. There will be a wardrobe in the entrance where you can deposit your coat.

   German Umlauts The German alphabet has seven additional characters that are not part of the standard 7-bit ASCII character set. If you have problems finding them on your keyboard you may transcribe them according to German standards in the following way:

   Character	Transscription	Example	English
   Ä, ä	Ae, ae	Äpfel = Aepfel	apples
   Ö, ö	Oe, oe	Kötzting = Koetzting	Koetzting
   Ü, ü	Ue, ue	München = Muenchen	Munich
   ß	ss, sz	Paß = Pass	passport

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