>> We have had a page online where individuals could request a Letter of >> Invitation for meetings well in advance of the meeting. For some >> reason the link to it vanished from a Meetings page, but AMS is >> working to get it restored. > > It would be really nice if we could avoid repeating the attendee visa > issues of this meeting in Dallas. (I know of a number of ID authors/WG > participants who are unable to attend due to their visa's not coming > through in time.) sadly, this is far from a new issue, and we have not done very well on it (four years os having the 'asian' meeting in north america). for this meeting, the impact on the nomcom seems to have finally drawn enough attention to it that we have an opportunity to change things (thanks michael). we really need to focus in the visa issuue when choosing venues. and not just the november venue. we really need to change the system so that prople can get help with the visa issue, e.g. invitation letters, much earlier. from many countries it is a long process. it would be good to hear from those having, or who had, visa issues what they think we could do better. randy