Here are several things you should know about the upcoming OASIS
UBL TC meeting in Menlo Park 2001.10.29-11.01.
Hotels
The reservations we had at the Garden Court have expired, but
the hold on rooms at the Sheraton and the Westin have been
extended to Friday, 12 October. See
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl/200110/msg00000.html
for negotiated rates at the Sheraton and the Westin as well as
pointers to lists of other hotels convenient to the meeting
location.
Registration
Under OASIS TC rules, anyone who wants to be an initial voting
member of the TC *must* register their intent with me no later
than 15 days before the meeting (29 October). Earlier I gave
12 October as the cutoff date because I wanted people to get
this to me by the end of the day Friday rather than going into
the weekend, but in actual point of procedural fact you have
until the end of the day Sunday 14 October to tell me that you
are going to attend the meeting. I will probably accept
requests made after that date to attend the meeting as an
observer, but under the rules you cannot be an initial voting
member if you don't register with me by COB 14 October.
Note that subscribing to the UBL mail list is *not* the same as
notifying me that you are going to be at the meeting. If
you're in any doubt about your status, please refer to the
current registration list at
http://oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/200110/reg.htm
If you are not on that list, then you are not registered.
Meeting Location
Since names continue to come in, I'm still not exactly sure
which room we will need to accommodate everyone who will be in
attendance at the plenary sessions on Monday 29 October and
Thursday 1 November, but I can tell you for sure that the
subcommittee meetings 30 and 31 October will be in the big Sun
campus in Menlo Park, at the foot of the Dumbarton Bridge, and
that the chances are very good that the plenary sessions will
be held at the same place. There is a steadily decreasing but
still nonzero probability that the plenaries will end up a few
miles away in Palo Alto in the same room we used for the UBL
Group meeting last April. This uncertainty should not affect
your choice of hotels; the ones that would be most convenient
to the Palo Alto location would also be the ones I would pick
for Menlo Park, so you should go ahead and book your room based
on the information referred to above.
Given the current economic climate and the fact that UBL is not
being supported by any rich vendor consortia, there won't be
any official receptions or dinners or catered lunches, but both
the Palo Alto and Menlo Park locations are just steps away from
large, very well provided corporate cafeterias that carry a
wide range of dishes to accommodate different diets, so meals
during the day should not be a problem. You're on your own at
night, but if you followed my advice about where to stay in
Palo Alto, you will find a number of excellent restaurants
within walking distance of your hotel.
Membership Following the Meeting
A number of people have asked me whether they can join the TC
even if they can't attend the initial meeting. The answer is
yes. Any OASIS member can join any OASIS TC. The only catch
is that the process interposes a waiting period to prevent
special interest groups from trying to "stack" a TC in order to
influence particular votes. If you want to join the TC after
its first meeting, send me mail (not now, I'll just lose track
of it) certifying your OASIS eligibility and telling me of your
intention to join, and after three more TC meetings or 60 days,
whichever comes first, you will automatically be added as a
voting member.
(In earlier mail I said "two meetings or 60 days." I should
know better than to rely on memory for procedural details. If
you have any questions about the OASIS TC process, it would be
a good idea to refer to the current policy at
http://oasis-open.org/committees/process.shtml
rather than relying on me to remember the details correctly.)
Jon Bosak
Chair, UBL Group
Designated Chair, OASIS UBL TC
