Re: Vertabrate Paleontology-SVP review

["Cunningham, Betty" <bcunning@nssi.com>]

  From what I saw at the one I attended as a fan, last year, paleontologists 
mostly wear beards. ;]  Many wear sweaters and suit-jacket things, and most wore
what would be appropriate for a teacher or student in a university classroom.  
During the day.  Lots of dino t-shirts.
  In the evening events, more suits and dresses came out.  Paleontologists also 
wear more hats than most modern folk.  They all apparently need pockets in their
clothes so they can pull things out of them to show people.
  The SVP does not deal exclusivly with dinosaurs.  There are more programming 
events on mammals and fish and (now) even on genetics than dinosaurs.  I thought
this was cool, anyways, but do not be surprised if more want to talk about cat 
teeth than dinosaur phalanges.
  The daytime programming events are TEACHING seminars.  They run all day long 
with few breaks, and last year the double track of programming kept me running 
from one seminar to another. I ended up missing much that ran at the same time. 
The special symposium (lat year it was marine reptiles) had me in one chair for 
a very long time taking in LOTS of 15 minute long lectures, one after the other.
 As I understand it, the symposium is separate from the SVP programming. 
   The three major highlights for me were the Dinosaur Society's artist room 
(where dinosaur artists were invited to display and sell their work and many 
paleontologists hung out and argued with each other, the dealer's room (where 
many USEFUL books were sold, and of course t-shirts), and the poster room (where
the lecturers were required(?) to post some visual references of the stuff they 
spoke about in their lecture.  Things like photosites of digs, photos of 
fossils, sketches of skulls, diagrams of speeds or whatever, and other cool 
things like that.
   Also, last year, before and after the actual meeting, there were off-site 
field trips to points of interest to a paleontologist.  I went on a dig with 
some paleontologists and we found lots of Paleocece mammal stuff.  I was 
way-delighted about it.  This was set-up before hand and needed reservations and
extra fees.
   The auction was an evening event and was off-site but they bussed us all out 
to it.  Much wierd stuff was displayed and auctioned off (I saw my first walrus 
baculae last year going for some big bucks).
  Small kids will love it for the first couple of hours and then get kinda 
bored, but anyone that reads at a college-level about dinosaurs will be rivited.
Bring money to spend on books.

-Betty Cunningham   

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Vertabrate Paleontology
     
            I have a question about The Society of Vertebrate
       Paleontology's annual meeting to be held in Pittsburg, Pa. 
       on Nov. 1-4th. What is the appropriate attire for the event?
       Is it formal,( suit and tie etc.) or casual dress? I will be  
       attending with my son, who hopes to major in vertebrate 
       paleontology when he starts college next year.