The conference is sponsored by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and the London Mathematical Society and is being organised by the University of Bath and the University of St Andrews.

Aim:
This conference, the eighth in the series of Groups St Andrews Conferences, will be organised along similar lines to previous events in this series. For 2009 the conference returns to its usual two-week format.

Topics:
The conference aims to cover all aspects of group theory. The short lecture courses are intended to be accessible to postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and researchers in all areas of group theory.

Programme:
The speakers above have kindly agreed to give short courses of lectures in the first week of the conference.

In the second week of the conference there will be three theme days, an ‘Engel groups day’, a day to celebrate the birthdays of John Cannon and Derek Holt, and a ‘B.H. Neumann day’. The draft timetable for the latter day is here. If you would like to attend the ‘B.H. Neumann day’, and in particular if you might be interested in speaking on that day, please contact Roger Bryant by email: roger.bryantmanchester.ac.uk.

In addition there will be a programme of one hour invited lectures and short research presentations.

Proceedings:
The Proceedings of the 2009 conference will be published by Cambridge University Press in the London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series. The format will be somewhat different from the Proceedings of earlier Groups St Andrews conferences in that it will contain survey articles both by the main speakers and those submitted by other conference participants. We encourage all participants to submit articles surveying their area of expertise. Anyone wishing to submit an article other than a survey article should first consult the conference organisers.

These survey articles, which will be refereed in the usual way, should be submitted electronically, not later than 1 July 2009.

Please see the formatting instructions for submitting survey articles.

Registration Fee:
Please note that the discounted rates which applied before June 12th are no longer available.
The registration fee is 250 pounds for conference participants. Accompanying adults 160 pounds. Teenagers under 18, 50 pounds (with restricted entry to conference social events, or 160 pounds with unrestricted access). Children 11 and under free. Casual daily rate (no social events, no Conference Proceedings) 25 pounds per day.

Accommodation Rates:
Only one type of accommodation remains available -
Regular: 170.50 per week, discounted to 154 per week for research students and people from less developed countries (ONLY by prior arrangement with the organisers).

If leaving after week 1, you must vacate your room on Saturday morning.
If arriving for week 2, the expected arrival day will be Sunday (a conference holiday).
All accommodation rates are subject to availability and now include the 10% surcharge for bookings made after June 12th.

(No further gratuities or taxes are payable on any of the above charges.)

Additional information:
There is no possibility of fitting additional beds into rooms so, except for babies sleeping in carry-cots, you must reserve one room per person, even if that person is very young.

The conference is self-catering - apart from two conference dinners. If visitors are in a position to bring cooking equipment with them, they may find it very useful to do so, thereby extending the range of food preparation options which they will have available.

Advice for families and groups of friends: the `Regular' accommodation comes in blocks of about 17 rooms, arranged vertically, with a common kichen and social area on the ground floor. Families, especially groups of families and friends, may request to share such an accommodation unit and we will try - but cannot guarantee - to facilitate any such request. Send e-mail with the subject line `accommodation request' to the Groups St Andrews 2009 e-mail address or use the comments field on the registration form.

The registration fee (which is also payable by non-residents) is payable at the same time as the accommodation. It covers

• Two gala conference dinners, one in each week
• The Conference Proceedings
• Tea and coffee
• A full and attractive social programme along the lines of that for Groups St Andrews 1997 in Bath. Further details to follow.

Further information including details of travel to Bath will be sent to members prior to the conference.

What to do:

1. Send your registration by completing the Registration Form
   

   Payment of the registration fee and accommodation charge is made via a Groups 2009 PayPal account and may be made by credit card. Upon completion of the form you will be directed to the payments page.

2. Complete the Talk/Paper form.
   

You can view a list of those hoping to attend here. If you are not yet ready to register, you may add your name to this list.
Note that the conference organisers would appreciate early registration.

Notes on payment:
Please ensure that you register before attempting to pay. If you have already registered for the conference but not yet paid, then please visit the payments page and use the PayPal buttons available there.

If you cannot pay using the PayPal method, it is also possible to pay by cheque drawn on a UK bank account, or by Sterling Travellers Cheque. If using either of these methods please make cheques payable to "Groups 1997" (this is not a mistake - we are re-using a bank account first opened for the finances of Groups St Andrews 1997 in Bath). Cheques should be posted to

Eric Wing
Finance Administrator
Dept. of Mathematical Sciences
University of Bath
Claverton Down
Bath, BA2 7AY
UNITED KINGDOM

We may in exceptional circumstances be able to accept payment using another method (we can give no guarantee), but in such cases we will charge a fee for this facility (not less than 15% of the due amount) in order to cover our costs.

e-mail: gps2009mcs.st-and.ac.uk