If you received financial aid
A limited amount of financial aid is available to help to pay for attendance of the ADASS'98 conference. Financial aid is provided to participants based primarily on the merit of their presentation (oral, poster, or demonstration). The decision on the dispersal of funds for financial aid has been made and the the people who have applied have been informed. Unfortunately, due to the large number of requests and limited funds, we were unable to support some requests.
For those who have been informed that financial aid has been granted, you need to fill out a registration form. Fill out the form completely, but do not select any payment. When you press "submit" a page with a dollar amount (probably for the banquet and tutorial) will be returned. Your form will be processed by a real person who has a list of recipients and you will not actually be charged anything.
Financial aid for aid transportation is being provided from the ADASS conference directly and for a few people from the European Southern Observatory. Those supported by ESO have been informed by email. For those sponsored from the conference, your airline ticket will be delivered in a few weeks. For those supported by ESO, tickets will be available at the airport ticket counter. Details for pickup will be provided to ESO-supported participants via email.
Regardless of the source of financial support for the air fare, all people receiving financial aid will be supported the same way upon arrival. You will be met at the airport when you arrive and brought to one of the conference hotels. The rooms have been reserved and should not make personal hotel reservations. You will be given on arrival cash for a food allowance. You conference fees, (including registration, tutorials, demo and banquet) are waived. You will be provided transportation back to the airport on your departure. In order to save money, most people will be sharing a room at the hotel.
A fax of the financial aid acceptance letter has been sent to a few people who had officially requested it. If you require such a correspondence, please let us know.
Important note about B1 (or WB) visa
You must have a B1 visa for us to provide you money for food allowances, and hotel accommodations and airline tickets. The visa obtained will probably be stamped B1/B2. Upon entry, you will be asked the purpose of your trip and you must say it is business so that the B1 will be circled. Note, if you have a passport from a country that has a Visa Waiver Agreement with the United States, you do not need to obtain a visa for entry (you will fill out an I94 form on the flight into the US). However, you will need to make sure that the WB (Waiver for Business travel) is circled on the form.
If you did not receive financial aid
If you applied for and did not receive financial aid, you may still attend the conference. Although the conference cannot support your travel, if you decide to attend, the conference registration fees will be waived. If the fact that you did not receive financial aid results in your inability to attend the conference, we would appreciate an email to that effect so that your contribution can be removed from the program.
If you have and questions regarding your financial aid, please feel free to contact us at adass@ncsa.uiuc.edu.