The SCAnner 

The following was posted to the ISO List today:

Greetings all,

A registration form for the 2012 SCA ISO Conference, April 20 - 22, 2012 has been sent out by email to the ISO List separately. If you are attending the conference, please complete and return the registration form as soon as possible, and by no later than Wednesday, March 14, 2012.

All main ISO Conference meetings will take place in the "Baker Room" at the Delta Chelsea Hotel, 33 Gerrard Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1Z4, Canada. Telephone 1-800-243-5732 or (416) 595-1975.

Please note that room reservations must be made by calling the hotel by telephone at the above numbers and quoting the group name "SCA Conference" and/or group code "GLDSCA." Special rate room reservations cannot be made online.

If needed, subway stations serving the Delta Chelsea Hotel are either College (walk south on Yonge Street one block to Gerrard Street) or Dundas (walk north on Yonge Street one block to Gerrard Street).

The meeting room booked for literature development committee or other use from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2012 is Room 303 on the 3^rd Floor at the 519 Church Street Community Centre, 519 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario, M4Y 2C9. The meeting room is equipped with wireless internet access. There is a café on the ground floor of the community centre serving food, snacks and beverages if needed, or there are a number of other restaurants and coffee shops nearby.

http://www.the519.org/

http://www.the519.org/programsservices/fabarnakrestaurantandcatering

There will be optional self-pay meals at nearby restaurants on Friday April 20, 2012 from 4:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. before the conference, and on Sunday, April 22, 2012 from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. after the conference, for those who wish to attend. Firm times and details of restaurant locations will follow.

The SCA Toronto ISO Host Committee will provide a catered dinner on Saturday, April 21, 2012  at 7:00 p.m.  This dinner is free for delegates who complete and return the registration form by March 14, 2012. There will be a charge of approximately $20 for guests of delegates. There will be an SCA meeting at a nearby meeting room immediately after the dinner, commencing at approximately 8:30 p.m.

We plan to have some recovery activities on Sunday, April 22, 2012  from approximately 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.  following the adjournment of the conference, depending on demand. These activities may include SCA long-share meetings, workshops, and other forms of fellowship and socializing.  Please indicate whether you plan to stay for these activities.

A few other items to note:

The guest rooms at the Delta Chelsea Hotel have wired internet connection, not wireless. The ethernet cable required to connect is provided in all guest rooms. Unfortunately, guests will not be able to use devices such as the iPad or iPhone to connect with the internet in their guestroom with the access provided by the hotel. The hotel's lobby and meeting space floors are, however, equipped with wireless internet, and that is provided at no charge for guest use. This includes the Baker Room, business centre, restaurant and bar areas. There are no time restrictions on use. If you need more details, or have queries about using specific devices at the hotel, please check with the reservations staff when booking your room.

As advised previously, the standard internet connection fee in guestrooms has been waived for SCA ISO conference attendees. This is normally $13.95 plus taxes per night. However, the hotel advises that when the internet is used in rooms, a standard screen will appear and guests will still be prompted to accept the standard charge. The hotel unfortunately has no way to remove the standard charge screen when internet charges are waived. Although you will need to accept the charges to use the internet, the reservations information has been set up so that no internet charges should appear on final bills.

For anyone who requires wireless internet access at all times, there is a 6 square kilometre continuous wireless hotspot service in the downtown Toronto core (including coverage for iPhones and iPads), for which short term registration and fees are available:

http://www.onezone.ca/

All ISO conference locations, including meeting rooms and restaurants, are within the One Zone wireless network area.

Where telephone calls are concerned, delegates may want to consider purchasing a telephone calling card/prepaid phone card in order to save on long distance and roaming charges from guestrooms or cell phones. Different types of card are available from local convenience stores and the hotel's gift shop, and at least some of them should work for cell phones. Please check with the hotel and your individual service provider for details about telephone charges.    

If you plan to attend the conference and are reading this on the SCAnner, but are not yet signed up on the ISO List for some reason, or you know of someone this applies to, please forward us an appropriate email address, and we will send out the ISO conference registration form and information directly.

Please contact us by email at scatoronto@hotmail.com with any questions or special requests.

Yours in recovery,

Kevin - SCA Toronto

ISO Host Committee

The following was posted to the ISO List today:

We are now in the final few months before the ISO Annual Conference on April 20 - 22, 2012. If you are attending, please remember that to qualify for the discounted rate, hotel bookings need to be made by the deadline of March 21, 2012 at the latest.

For details about the conference, please see previous email announcements and SCAnner postings on July 24, 2011 and September 5, 2011:

http://www.scanneronline.org/2011/07/iso-annual-conference---toronto-april-20---22-2012.html

http://www.scanneronline.org/2011/09/toronto-2012-iso-conference-information.html

Please let us know by email at scatoronto@hotmail.com when you have made your reservations. Please also let us know if you plan to attend either or both of the optional self-pay meals on Friday evening, April 20, 2012 immediately before the conference, or Sunday lunchtime, April 22, 2012 immediately after the conference so we have an idea of the numbers. We anticipate that a self-pay meal will cost somewhere in the region of $20 to $25 per head.

We have booked a room at a local community centre within walking distance of the Delta Chelsea Hotel which will be available for Literature Development Committee purposes from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Friday April 20, 2012 if needed. The room seats 8 people around a table comfortably, and has a capacity of up to 12 people in total. This can be used for working on any new literature that is in the pipeline, or translations, or indeed the redesign of existing literature that has been raised as a possibility in the past. If not needed for literature, the room can be used for general purposes, such as perhaps work on the planned remodeling of the ISO website, or similar projects. If you are interested in using the room, please coordinate with us by email before the day.

The Delta Chelsea hotel has also confirmed that we have the use of the meeting room we have hired at the hotel on Sunday April 22, 2012 until 5:00 p.m. if needed. This means we can use the same room for a meeting after the official ending of the conference at no extra charge if we wish.

For those travelling to Toronto from New York or Chicago who may be interested, we have been advised by a member that Porter Airlines currently has a 50% sale on base fares for tickets for travel before April 30, 2012. Bookings must be made by midnight on January 6, 2012. Travel by April 30, 2012. Use Promo Code BOX50. For details, please see Porter Airlines' website:

https://www.flyporter.com/Flight/Tickets?culture=en-CA

We are providing this information as a courtesy only, not as a recommendation or endorsement. Travel arrangements are entirely up to individuals to decide on.

We have been having an exceptionally mild winter so far, so if this continues we may have some unexpectedly good weather at conference time in the spring. A bulletin on the actual weather conditions will follow towards the date.

Happy New Year to all!

Yours in recovery,

Kevin - SCA Toronto

ISO Host Committee