Re: SVP in Old Mexico

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

Chris Brochu wrote:

> I will only add that Mary is one heck of a dancer.
> And those of you who skipped out from fear of Mexico
> City missed the best SVP in years, hands-down.  The
> symposium on missing data was wonderful, the food and
> libations were excellent, and the host committee did
> a remarkable job of organizing the whole thing.

And a special thank you to my dance partners, who included Chris (who was 
much in demand) and Pete Buchholz, who owed me a dance from Denver.  I have 
targeted Scott Hartman for Bozeman :-).  The tradition of dancin’ 
paleos after the banquet, started last year in Denver, seems to be a popular 
addition to the closing festivities.

Thanks also to Michael Skrepnick, who reminded me that Tom Carr won the 
Lanzendorf award for scientific illustration.  

As Chris said, despite warnings of danger, I only heard of one incident--a 
request for the time of day which ended up being a request for money.  This 
happened in the environs of the anthropology museum, but I was there at 
approximately the same time and no one bothered me.  It was unfortunate that 
so much of the museum was being renovated while we were there.

I know that a few people got sick at the meeting, but what bothered me the 
most was the Coca Cola, ironic since I am from Atlanta.  Many of the meeting 
attendees avoided the salads and ice cubes, drank bottled water or stronger, 
and did fine.  I too caught the common cold that Tom mentioned.

The auction was one of the highlights of the meeting, and Brent Breithaupt 
and Ralph Chapman (and assistants) were in their finest form for raising 
$16,000, even with the limited number of donated items (the items had to be 
brought with the attendees rather than being sent ahead to the hotel).  A 
funny auction item was the “sale” of Brent to dress as his 
favorite (male) paleontologist next year.  Paleo Barbie made a special return 
appearance, with the winning bid coming from some dinosaur mailing list 
co-owner who plans to counsel B about picking a profession and sticking to it.

There were some complaints about the space allotted/size of each poster area. 
 Some ended up as wrap-around posters or had to be cut to fit the spaces, 
which tended to be either portrait-oriented or on odd walls such as behind 
the vendor booths.  Gerald Grellet-Tinner won the student poster award for a 
study on titanosaurid eggshells.

Hopefully we can get some pictures posted for those who could not be at the 
meeting this year.

Mary
mkirkaldy@aol.com