I am very pleased to post the information on the OSEAS-Europe 7^th Regional Conference on the first newsletter of the new millenium.

The conference in fact will be the major project of our region over the next two years and it's exciting to start the new century working on a program which will offer important professional development and networking opportunities for all advisors from West, East and Central Europe and the New Independent States.

As you may recall in the Fall newsletter I briefly reported on this project informing that the planning committee was in the process of reviewing the proposal to host the conference, submitted by the Cyprus Fulbright Commission. This time I am pleased to announce that Cyprus has been selected as the country which will host the 7^th OSEAS-Europe Regional Conference in 2001.

The Conference will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Nicosia from the 18^th to the 23^rd of July 2001. The Hilton will offer accomodations for all participants, as well as two conference rooms for sessions and workshops and a technology center.

My warmest thanks to Ioli Kythreotou, the Cyprus Fulbright Commission senior advisor who, fully supported by the Commission Director Daniel Hadjitoffi, worked very hard on the proposal and who patiently provided the many pieces of information required by the planning committee.

The conference will be organized by a planning committee. As of now the team is composed of 13 people: the seven OSEAS-Europe Board members, the two Regional Educational Advising Coordinators (REACs) for Europe and the NIS, the USIA Program Officers for Europe and the NIS and two local arrangements people.

As in past OSEAS-Europe conferences all committee members will serve as volunteers. The committee will handle the various aspects of the project such as fund-raising, finance management, grants, registrations, workshops and sessions mainly electronically by using the OSEAS-Europe website and listserves. This will be possible also thanks to the support of Ildiko Ficzko the webmaster of the OSEAS-Europe homepage and Marvi Pulver the OSEAS-Europe electronic mailing administrator.

The work will be hard but it will be worth. As in the past the conference will be the result of the efforts and committements of many people and we look forward to receiving the precious input and suggestions of colleagues, sponsors, exhibitors, US Department of State officials and universities representatives.

By the end of January we plan to post a call for additional volunteers. On behalf of the OSEAS-Europe Board and the conference planning committee I strongly encourage all advisors to take advantage of this opportunity and to get more involved in this project.

Isabella Lanciotti
OSEAS-Europe Chair 1999/2000
The Italian Fulbright Commission
January 20, 2000