Monthly meetings

[Jane Sullivan]

Dear all

I have a suggestion, that we rename our monthly meetings. This is in the
spirit of our occasional mini-conferences, "moots", which are held in a
"moot hall" at some convenient location.

Since our monthly meetings are held in an upstairs room at a pub, I
suggest they be called Symposia. In ancient Greece, the symposium (Greek
συμπόσιον symposion, from συμπίνειν sympinein, "to drink together") was
a drinking party. I don't expect our symposia to turn into a
Bacchanalian orgy, but the double meaning of the word (a drinking party,
and a conference for researchers (not always academics) to present and
discuss their work [definitions from Wikipedia]) would seem appropriate
for what we get up to at our monthly meetings.

What do you think?

Best wishes,
--
Jane
Beckenham

[Stephen Taylor]

Seconded. 

Though I would avoid the plural form where possible. I’m reminded of the reply of two mathematicians invited “to participate in a series of colloquia to consider certain conundra” — “We do not want to sit on our ba and do sa.” 

S

--
Jane
Beckenham

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BAA London" group.
To post to this group, send email to baa-l...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to baa-london+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/baa-london?hl=en.

[crishog]

I laughed as soon as I read the word "Symposia" - very apt.

Is this just for fun or to elevate the status of the meetings? I'm all for anything which does that.

I've no problems announcing a monthly symposium.

Plurals? Well I still stuggle to say "forums" not "fora" even though (a) few Roman cities had more than on forum, so it wasn't often used and (b) as the modern usage is an English coinage, we should, I am informed, use "forums" - still grates though to a Catholic schoolboy, even though I gave up Latin before O level.

/C