[Standards] Utrecht -- cancellation of the meeting

[Piotr Banski]

Dear all,

Given the overall wave of reactions to the coronavirus pandemia, and 
given the warnings from some of the participants who have registered for 
the meeting that they are either considering cancellation, or may be 
forced by their institutions to cancel, and given also the news that the 
Utrecht University actively discourages all kinds of meetings on its 
venues, I am absolutely unhappy to announce that the upcoming CSC 
hands-on meeting in Utrecht has been cancelled.

At this moment, I do not suggest holding a virtual meeting in its place 
on the same date(s), (a) because the whole point was about locking 
ourselves up in one area and not leaving until we deliver and (b) 
because given the pace at which the institutional and political 
reactions to the pandemia proceed, I believe that not everyone will be 
in either the mood or the state to talk about parameters for standards 
description and the like.

This is not to say that, as a committee, we should switch to idle gear. 
There are enough tasks that we can perform in the meantime, at least 
partially in preparation for a better date of the hands-on. But I will 
postpone these suggestions to a later message -- this one is already a 
big enough information pill.

With best regards and a heavy heart,

    Piotr


-- 
Piotr Bański, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher,
Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache,
R5 6-13
68-161 Mannheim, Germany