In mid-summer 1998, the newly formed IFRF Communications Centre moved into offices made available by the Corus Ceramics Research Centre. Four years on, on 31st July we must leave the Corus Building to make room for a new Business Unit.
Firstly we must thank Henny Schram and his colleagues for the welcome and co-operation we have received during our residence in their offices.

With a move already in mind, it was agreed at the 145th Joint Committee that the IFRF Research Station and the IFRF NET Communication Centre would review its activities and examine how an integration of the facilities would be possible.
Initially the possibility of combining the staffs at the Research Station was examined.  This lead to two conclusions:

·       There would initially be room to house all personnel, but this would prevent necessary expansion of the Research Station group, and that of the Communications Centre, which is necessary for the future.
·       The IFRF Communication Centre would not have cost effective access to Broadband Internet Communication, which is also necessary for the future communication with IFRF Member Organisations and their Individual Members.

The conclusion was that it would still be necessary to have two locations.  the Research Station and its experimental facilities, and the Communications Centre – but that a good degree of integration would be both possible and desirable.

Finally it was concluded that the Communication Centre would move to an office unit at the Regional Technology Centre very near to the present offices, at which a place would also be available for Research Station representation.

Nominally the present communications system will remain until the end of July. However the following gives advance notice of the mailing and telecommunication systems.

Mailing
We will integrate our mailing system to the traditional mail address:
IFRF
PO Box 10,000  3G25
1970 CA IJmuiden
The Netherlands

This address will be managed from the Research Station  3G25 is the Research Station building address. But mail can be addressed to the IFRF Research Station, the IFRF and the IFRF NET Communications Centre locations, using this mailing address. Internal delivery will be arranged by a Joint Secretariat.

Courier-Visiting Address/Local Mailing address
IFRF/IFRF NET Communications Centre
This will change immediately to:
Rooswijkweg 130
1951 MK Velsen Noord
The Netherlands

Telephone Communications
Initially there will be no change at the Research Station:
Tel: +31 251 493064
Fax: + 31 251 226318

Officially from 1st August the IFRF/IFRF NET Communications Centre will make the following change:
Up until 31^st July 2002
Telephone: +31 251 49 49 05
Telefax: +31 251 47 04 89
From 1^st August 2002
Telephone: +31 251 291 600
Telefax: +31 251 291 599

There will be a short period during which both telephone numbers will work in parallel.

During the summer maintenance/development break, we plan to work out a single integrated telephone answering system for both locations – the IFRF Research Station and the IFRF Communications Centre  including personal answering, 8 hours per day, 5 days per week backed up by voice mail. This service will be managed from the Communications Centre, again using the services of a Joint Secretariat.

Finally, further advantages of this new combination will be the availability of modern conference and meeting rooms for future meeting with our Members.

All these details are summarised on our website at: http://www.ifrf.net/contact_info.html
We look forward to greeting you in our new facilities.