We must remind you that the 14th IFRF Members Conference – MC14 – will take place on Wednesday 12th to Friday 14th May 2004, at Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands and will address the general topic of Sustainable Fuel Supply for Industrial Utilisation – A Challenge for the IFRF.

The Chairman is Nico Thijssen – IFRF President – The Programme Committee is the IFRF Senior Officers Group, comprising Nico Thijssen, Mrs Marie-José Fourniguet, Mr Tsuneaki Nakamura and Professors Mikko Hupa, Barrie Jenkins and Hartmut Spliethoff.

Initially the Programme Committee agreed that the traditional format of IFRF Members’ Conferences would be retained and would incorporate the following events:

·         State of the IFRF Lectures – senior officers and staff of the IFRF

·         A series of invited keynote lecturers

·         Members Papers for presentation at podium

·         Posters for presentation with 5 minutes podium introduction

·         Exhibitions

In addition there will be the Members Conference Dinner, the Investigators Club meeting and of course the traditional voyage from IJmuiden to Amsterdam on the paddle steamer, the Kapitein Kok, following the IFRF facility visit.

Naturally you will have entered the dates in your agenda already – but now you need to ensure your budget for the 2004 financial year – So why not start by considering the title of your Podium Paper or Poster Presentation – we will be posting the forms on our website in the immediate future.

Joint Committee Members should recall that MC14 will be preceded by the 149th Meeting of the Joint Committee at the same location, on Tuesday 11th May 2004.