Location:  The oral sessions for the meeting will be held at the Hotel Inter-Continental, which will also provide the primary accommodations for meeting attendees. The hotel is located north of the Chicago River on Michigan Avenue, in the heart of the "Magnificent Mile" in downtown Chicago, and is within easy walking distance of several museums and many fine restaurants and shops.

Transportation:  Chicago is served by two major airports (O'Hare International and Midway) and, with advance reservations, reasonable airfares can be obtained for flights originating from most cities within the U.S. and abroad. The conference hotel is easily accessible from both airports by CTA elevated train, taxi, limousine, and shuttle service. In general, rental cars are not recommended since public transportation is readily available and parking in the city of Chicago can be expensive. Bus transportation to the welcome reception, poster session and banquet will be provided.

Weather:  Average temperature during the month of August in Chicago is ~72°F; daytime temperatures, however, can typically range up to ~82°F.

Meeting Information on the Web
Information about Chicago, including city maps, restaurant guides, and tourist guides, can be found at the City of Chicago Homepage or the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.

Meeting Format
We received a tremendous response to our call for abstracts. Therefore, we have an extremely full program of oral and poster presentations. Not everyone who requested an oral presentation could be accommodated, and we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause to those concerned. However, we emphasize that the Program Committee has made a conscious effort to divide presentations such that the oral and poster sessions have the same high level of scientific quality. Furthermore, we expect excellent attendance at the special poster session (see below) at the University of Chicago.

Oral Presentations:  Oral sessions will be held in the Hotel Inter-Continental from Monday morning through Friday noon, except for Wednesday afternoon. Technical sessions are expected to cover a wide range of topics in meteoritics and planetary science. Two special sessions entitled "Presolar Grains" and "Current Missions and Future Sample Returns" are also scheduled.

Poster Presentations:  The poster session will be held Tuesday evening from 7:00–9:30 p.m. at the Kersten Physics Teaching Center at the University of Chicago and will be preceded (6:00–7:00 p.m.) by a barbeque dinner. Poster display space available for authors is 1 meter × 1 meter. Hourly bus service between the Hotel Inter-Continental and the University of Chicago will begin at noon on Tuesday, so that poster presenters can begin putting up their posters well in advance of the scheduled poster session.

Hotel Accommodations
Rooms have been reserved at the Hotel Inter-Continental, in downtown Chicago. A special rate, equal to the U.S. Government per diem rate for the city of Chicago ($130 plus tax, single or double occupancy), has been negotiated for Meteoritical Society Meeting attendees. This rate is very favorable for this prime location in Chicago and will also be available to meeting attendees for the weekends before and after the meeting. Children under 14 can stay free of charge when sharing a room with two adults. There is a cost of $20 per day for each additional person over the age of 14 sharing a room with two adults.

Participants are responsible for making their own reservations with Hotel Inter-Continental. Reservations can be made by calling the hotel (at 800-628-2112; please mention that you are attending the Meteoritical Society Meeting to obtain special rate); alternatively, you may fill out the hotel reservation form and mail or fax it to the hotel.

Assistance will be provided by the meeting organizers in arranging for roommates for students and other meeting attendees who may be interested in sharing the cost of a hotel room. Please contact meeting organizers directly (A. M. Davis or M. Wadhwa) if such assistance is required.

The Hotel Inter-Continental has many amenities including restaurants, an Olympic-sized pool (one of the first above- ground pools of its time built in 1929 as part of the Medinah Athletic Club) and a state-of-the-art fitness center. The health club staff can also arrange for guests to play tennis, racquetball, and golf at nearby associated clubs. Further information on the conference hotel and its amenities is available on the Hotel Inter-Continental home page.

The deadline for room reservation requests at the Hotel Inter-Continental is August 4, 2000. To ensure availability, early reservations are strongly recommended. In case you are unable to make reservations at the conference hotel, information regarding other lodging options can be obtained at the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau's Web site.

Child Care
The hotel concierge can arrange for a local bonded and insured organiza-tion called American Homecare to meet the needs of conference attendees who are accompanied by families who may require child care services. Cost is $12.50 per hour (with a 4-hour minimum) per family (no limits on number of children); an additional $10 will be charged if services are required past midnight. Reservations for child care services can also be made directly with American Homecare (312-644-7300); note that a 24-hour notice is required for cancellation of services.

Registration and Social Events
Registration will take place from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 27, in Stanley Field Hall at the Field Museum of Natural History. This will be followed (6:00–8:00 p.m.) by a welcome reception. Frequent bus service between the Hotel Inter-Continental and the Field Museum will be provided. Buses will leave from the hotel's Illinois Street entrance in the South Tower Lobby beginning at 3:30 p.m. Drop-off and pickup will be at the Field Museum's south entrance, with the last bus departing at 8:00 p.m.

A reception for student award recipients and their research advisors will be hosted by the Barringer Crater Company on Monday, August 28, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the Tower Lounge at the Hotel Inter-Continental. The poster session (to be held 7:00–9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 29, at the University of Chicago) will be preceded by a barbeque dinner from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. The Annual Banquet will be held on the evening of Wednesday, August 30, at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum. Note that bus transportation to all events occurring at locations other than at the conference hotel will be provided. A detailed schedule of buses will be provided with the registration materials.

Guest Activities and Excursions
Chicago is a vibrant, multicultural city that provides ample opportunities for the enjoyment of a multitude of cuisines and many arts and entertainment activities. It is particularly known for its fine museums, symphony, opera house, and blues and jazz bars. Late summer is also the prime time for outdoor cultural events in Grant Park, located just ~2 miles south of the conference hotel; the 12th Annual Latin Music festival is scheduled for August 26–27 and the 22nd Annual Chicago Jazz festival is August 31–September 3. Also, the Year 2000 Tall Ships festival will be hosted at the Navy Pier (also located within ~2 miles from the conference hotel) August 31–September 5.

Several activities and excursions are planned for meeting attendees and their guests/families for Wednesday afternoon. These include tours of the Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab; a geological tour of the building stones of Chicago; an architectural boat tour of Chicago; a trip to Oak Park to see the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and contemporaries; and an afternoon baseball game (Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres) at Wrigley Field. Please indicate on the registration form whether you and your guests (if any) would like to be included on any one of these trips. Costs of Wednesday afternoon activities are included in the registration fees. Since only limited numbers of people can be accommodated for at least some of these activities, it is recommended that you register early to ensure availability.

Registration and Fees
The preregistration deadline for the meeting was July 14, 2000. Completed registration forms can still be sent to the Lunar and Planetary Institute until August 11, 2000, although late fees will now apply. Those registering with a credit card may use the electronic preregistration form; all others should use the downloadable preregistration form. Subsequent to August 11, 2000, registration will only be possible on site at the meeting.

The following registration fees shall apply:

Member	$345
Student member	$200
Nonmember	$395
Student nonmember	$250
Guest	$200

Payment should be made in U.S. dollars to the Lunar and Planetary Institute. You can pay by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or check.

Cancellation Policy:  Full refund of the registration fee will be made for cancellations received before July 31, 2000. A 15% cancellation fee will be charged on cancellations received between August 1 and August 11, 2000. No refunds can be made after August 11.

Contacts

For information about the meeting program and logistics, please contact

Andrew M. Davis
Department of the Geophysical Sciences
The University of Chicago
5734 South Ellis Avenue
Chicago IL 60637, USA
Phone:  773-702-8164
Fax:  773-702-9505
E-mail:  a-davis@uchicago.edu

Meenakshi Wadhwa
Department of Geology
The Field Museum of Natural History
1400 South Lake Shore Drive
Chicago IL 60605, USA
Phone:  312-665-7639
Fax:  312-665-7641
E-mail:  mwadhwa@fmnh.org

For information about announcement distribution or registration, please contact

LeBecca Simmons
Publications and Program Services Department
Lunar and Planetary Institute
3600 Bay Area Boulevard
Houston TX 77058-1113, USA
Phone:  281-486-2158
Fax:  281-486-2160
E-mail:  simmons@lpi.usra.edu

Schedule

August 4, 2000	Deadline for reservations at Hotel Inter-Continental
August 11, 2000	Deadline for submitting registration information to LPI;   subsequently, only on-site registration at the meeting
August 28 to   September 1, 2000	63rd Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, Chicago

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