Dear BGA Member:

The 1999 meeting of the Behavior Genetic Association will be held in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Kerry Jang <kjang@unixg.ubc.ca> is Local Host, and Dick Rose <rose@indiana.edu>, President-Elect of the BGA is Program Chair. Drs. Rose and Jang have been working with Norm Henderson and Nick Martin to confirm plans for the conference, and we can now make a formal announcement of the results. The web page for the conference will be at http://www.bga.org/1999/ but we will keep you apprised of any important news through this e-mail list.

From the Program Chair:

The 1999 BGA meeting is scheduled for Sunday, July 4, through Wednesday, July 7, at the Coast Plaza Hotel, Stanley park, Vancouver, BC, Canada. The 1999 meetings will overlap those of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID), which meets July 5-9, at the same hotel. BGA will organize a three-day program of scientific sessions July 4, 5, and 6; a plenary scientific session scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, July 7, will be jointly organized and sponsored by BGA and ISSID. BGA will have a welcoming reception the evening of Sunday, July 4th, on the 35th floor of the hotel, overlooking the city and its harbor. The annual banquet will be held on Tuesday evening, July 6.

The local host for the 1999 meeting is Kerry L. Jang, in the Department of Psychiatry at UBC. Kerry describes the Coast Plaza Hotel as a minute from the beach/park area; sailing is 15 minutes away, Rocky Mountain or Coast mountain hiking but 40 minutes distant.

Meeting with ISSID will offer the same advantages of this year's back-to-back meeting with ISTS. BGA members can receive discounted hotel rooms from July 3 to July 10, and you may wish to begin planning an extended stay to attend ISSID meetings and/or enjoy the Vancouver area during fine July weather.

Dick

Richard J. Rose
Professor of Psychology
and of Medical Genetics
Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47405-1301
Phone:+ 812-855-8770 Fax: + 812-855-4691
Twin Studies Office: + 812-855-4101

Note that staying over the Saturday night (July 3) before the meeting might save considerably on airfare. Here is a report of my own research for your edification and amusement.

Method: I have used http://www.travelocity.com/ (SABRE affiliate) to check for lowest airfares and I've found that it's very good at picking out the best prices. Anyway, it will give prices only 330 days in advance, so it wasn't able to check for next July, but I did a test for April 1999 to see what I'd get.

Results: The price to fly round trip from St. Louis (STL) to Vancouver (YVR) for April 3-6 (staying over Saturday night) was $504, but to do the same trip from April 4-7 (*not* staying over Saturday night) was $1060.

Discussion: These data support the hypothesis that staying over Saturday night may save a lot on airfare. You'll have to check the correct dates and departure city.

Conclusion: We have the hotel a day early, so think about spending an extra day in Vancouver before the conference.

Regards,

Mike

Michael B. Miller, M.S., Ph.D., M.P.E.
Department of Psychology
210 McAlester Hall
University of Missouri--Columbia
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: (573) 882-5671
Fax: (573) 882-7710
e-mail: mbmiller@taxa.psyc.missouri.edu
web: http://taxa.psyc.missouri.edu/~mbmiller/

This page was prepared by BGA Webmaster Mike Miller. Send suggestions and corrections to him at mbmiller@taxa.psyc.missouri.edu