September 21, 2001

Dear BAER Conference constituent,

As many of you are aware, following the 2000 BAER Conference in Seattle, a group of individuals incorporated as a non-profit organization and filed for trademark protection in the states of Washington and Hawaii for various names commonly used to refer to the Conference. Among these are:

• BAER Conference;
• Bioassay Conference;
• BAER 2001;
• Bioassay, Analytical, Environmental and Radiochemistry Conference; and
• The 47th Annual Conference on Bioassay, Analytical, and Environmental Radiochemistry.

Following what we believe to be the wishes of the conference constituents as voted on at the 45th and 46th Annual Conferences in Gaithersburg and Seattle, we have continued to plan for the 47th Annual Conference to be held in Honolulu. However, we recently received a letter from legal counsel for the "incorporated" group informing us that we must stop using any of the trademarked names to refer to the conference we are organizing.

In order to prevent any potential legal action that might impact our ability to hold this conference as scheduled, the organizing committee has decided to comply with their request. We have thus agreed to rename the Conference "Radiochemical Measurements Conference" on an interim basis. A discussion of a new, permanent name will be on the agenda for the business meeting to be held during the Conference in Honolulu.

The Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu will be notified of this name change. Please be aware that when reserving hotel rooms for the Conference, you may need to mention the interim name, "Radiochemical Measurements Conference." Another practical consideration of this name change is that all posters should reference the interim conference name and NOT the 47th Annual Conference on Bioassay, Analytical, and Environmental Radiochemistry.

If you have any questions about this matter, please don't hesitate to contact any of the conference organizers. A copy of the letter requesting us to "cease and desist" will soon be posted on the historical conference web site at www.bioassay.org . We do not expect that this minor change will have any impact on the success of the conference. We have an excellent program with 100+ presentations, full vendor support and many activities planned. We look forward to seeing you in Hawaii!

Yours truly,

The organizing committee of the Radiochemical Measurements Conference

Bill Burnett,
Teresa Dawson,
Mike Fern,
Ken Inn,
Carol Luskus,
Stan Morton
Russ Takata