On April 30^th, as promised by the conference dates, I received an email notice that my paper “Modern Yurts/Gers – Innovative Options for Community Facility Needs” was accepted.  Additionally, I have the honor of presenting it orally to the attendees.  The conference is sponsored by the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineers, and the formal title is: 18^th IABSE Congress – “Innovative Infrastructures – Toward Human Urbanism”.  If interested, you can view this website for more information: http://www.iabse2012.org/  Conference dates are September 19-21, 2012 in Seoul, South Korea.

I was pleasantly surprised to be selected to give an oral presentation, since my paper does not concern some big, impressive structure.  Often, the “less impressive papers” are relegated to poster presentations, where the author prepares a poster that’s displayed in a hall, and then periodically stands by the poster like Vanna White, to turn vowels and answer questions.

It’s been fun to get back to writing papers for conferences.  I’ve missed it.  It’s been nearly 12 years since my last paper, with no excuses other than getting caught up in the myriad of kids’ activities like school, sports, Scouts, band performances…   That was fun, but time-consuming. 

I have plans for 3 or 4 more papers – looking for a conference in New Zealand or Australia!