International Mining History Conference 2006

International Mining History Conference 2006

Application sent in by the

Vlaamse Vereniging voor Industriële Archeologie (Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology) Flanders - Belgium 1.- The applicant

The proposal to host the International Mining History Conference 2006 in Flanders 1 is introduced by the Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology (VVIA) 2 The VVIA has been established in 1978 and is thus one of the oldest industrial archaeology organizations in Europe. It is the platform of non governmental organisations and private initiatives for the study, the conservation, the interpretation and presentation of industrial and technical heritage. More than 40 regional and thematic organisations are affiliated to the VVIA, together with a number of company museums, private collections, and some local history or local heritage associations.

As concerns this proposal the VVIA has concluded intensive negociations with • heritage associations in the mining area of Limburg, for example the Werkgroep Monumentenzorg Beringen (Architectural Heritage Working Party of Beringen), Stichting Erfgoed Eisden (Eisden Heritage Trust), Geschiedkundige Kring Genk (Local History Association Genk) • the Vlaams Mijnmuseum (Flemish Mining Museum Beringen) and the Museum of the Miner’s House (Eisden) • associations in charge of or campaigning for the protection of the mining heritage, e.g. vzw ‘De Koolmijn’ (Genk-Winterslag), vzw Elektriciteitscentrale Heusden-Zolder(non profit trust organizing restoration training in the former mine power plant), vzw Koninginneschacht (Eisden, volunteer trust preserving the concrete head gear of the Eisden mine), Kolenspoor vzw (historic railway on the old coal railway at As), de Koolmijn van Winterslag vzw (non profit trust organising cultural activities in the old mine buildings of Winterslag), Vereniging voor Behoud van het Mijnverleden vzw (Association for the Preservation of Mining History), het Vervolg (oral history of miners) • tourist organisations (as the provincial tourist board, the local tourists associations of Beringen, Heusden-Zolder, Houthalen, Genk, Maasmechelen-Eisden and Hasselt) • public authorities (the Flemish Museums Council, the Flemish Department for Historic Buildings, the cultural heritage department of the province of Limburg, the cultural departments of the cities of Hasselt, Beringen, Heusden-Zolder, Houthalen, Maasmechelen-Eisden

These negociations resulted in the draft programme you can find below

1 Flanders is the Dutch-speaking region of the Federal Kingdom of Belgium. This is the northern part of the country, representing some 60% of the Belgian population (see: http://www.vlaanderen.be and http://www.flanders.be/ )

2 See: http://www.vvia.be Moreover VVIA proposed the programme to the board of E-FAITH, the (young) European Federation of Associations of Industrial and Technical Heritage - during its meeting las January in Barcelona. E-FAITH agreed to endorse this proposal. As E-FAITH is campaigning to declare the year 2006 as the European Industrial and Technical Heritage Year the federation also agreed that the International Mining History Conference 2006 could become one of the anchor points of the Year EITHY’2006 2. The Limburg Mining Region

Coal veins were discovered in the Campine area of Limburg (North-East of Belgium) at the beginning of the 20th century. An explanation for this late discovery can be sought in geological and economic reasons. In Limburg coal veins nowhere crop out at the surface, and they are burried under a shelf of at least 450 meters. On the other hand until the end of the 19th c. the traditional Walloon coalfields were able to meet the needs of Belgian coal consumption. This explains why - of course - there was until the turn of the century little or no interest to proof through experience the geological theories of prof. Guillaume Lambert, who postulated in 1876 the existence of a northern link between German and English coal basins, right through the north of Flanders. But during the last decade of the 19th c. the Walloon coal production stagnated, and because of the growing industrial demands a shortage of bituminous coal did spring up. Just before the Great War more than one third of industry coal in Belgium had to be imported from abroad.

It was the successor of G. Lambert, prof. André Dumont, who started test borings in 1896, and who finally proved the theory. On August 1st 1901 a coal seam was reached near As, at e depth of 541 meters. His crew also soon discovered that the new coal basin had at least 25 meters of workable coal veins, spread over about 25 seams. On should compare the average thickness of the Limburg seams with those in Wallony, where they only rarely reached an average of 70 centimeters. The growing need of soft coal by industry thus immediately led to a real coal-rsh by mine-owners and steel-producers, including French, Luxemburg and German industrial and financial powers. On January 1st these already had executed more than 60 test borings, and at least 30 applications for mining concessions were introduced.

To the displeasure of the applicants it took years before the Belgian government granted the first mining concessions. Indeed, in Parliament voices arose against the granting of national resources in perpetuity, while socialists held a brief for a revision of the old Napoleonic Mine Law and even called for a nationalisation of the new basin. Only 5 years after the firsts requests the first concession was granted to André Dumont by Royal Decree of August 1st 1906. During the same year seven other mining concessions were granted • 01.08.1906: concession André Dumont-sous-Asch (2960 ha) • 25.10.1906: concession les Liégeois (Zwartberg, 4180 ha) • 25.10.1906: concession Helchteren (3240 ha) • 25.10.1906: concession Zolder (3820 ha) • 03.11.1906: concession Genk-Zutendaal (3800 ha) • 26.11.1906: concession Beringen-Koersel (4950 ha) • 29.11.1906: concession Saint Barbara (Eisden, 2170 ha) • 29.11.1906: concession Guillaume Lambert (Eisden, 2740 ha) • 06.11.1911: concession Houthalen (3250 ha) • 23.11.1912: concession Winterslag (960 ha). Because of the great depth of the coal seams and the difficult shelf that would require enormous investments, the ‘Administration des Mines’ decided yo grant only large areas to powerful companies. One can compare with the average conceded area in Wallony which was only some 490 ha.

Mid-1907 five companies (of which some would exploit more than one concession) had been established. But coal was only mined a decennium later. The aqueous shelf and its quicksand layers caused serious problems. Shaft sinking was only made possible by freezing the soil, a method that never before was used for shafts of 6 m diameter, nor till a depth of more than 600 m !

Coal exploitation only went slowly under way. It was not before the 1930s that a full production was reached.

Winterslag (ca. 1940)

The colliery of Winterslag - that was sunk in an area without underground quicksand layers - reached the coal seams on July 27th, some days before the First World War broke out. War of course slowed down the construction, but in 1917 first coal was brought to the surface: later the mine was accused of collaboration with the German occupation... All other collieries were forced to suspend their shaft sinking, or by order of the Germans, or because of a shortage of materials (e.g. explosives, iron). Some installations were confiscated and brought over to Germany, as the turbo- generators of the Beringen coalmine. Most of the shafts flooded. After the armistice most of the already undertaken work had to be done over

Beringen, ca. 1950, seen from the tip heap again, which urged huge increase of the capital stock. This resulted into a much stronger control by large and foreign capital groups. For example: 40% of the capital of the Winterslag coalmine was held by the Schneider Company (Le Creusot, France).

Only in 1922 coal production could start in the second colliery (Beringen), followed by • Eisden, 1922-1923 • Waterschei (coal mine ‘André Dumont’), 1924 • Zwartberg (coal mine ‘John Cockerill’), 1925 • Helchteren-Zolder, 1930 • Houthalen, 1939

The highest employment in the Limburg coal basin was reached shortly after the Second World War, when more than 44,000 miners were contracted. But at the end of the 1950s the international coal crisis broke out. The policy of the European Communities of Coal and Steel and the import of cheap oil caused the merge of the mines of Houthalen and Zolder (1964) and the closing down of the mine of Zwartberg (1966). The basin was closed from 1987 onwards. The first mine that stopped production was Waterschei (Sept. 1987), the last coal was brought to the surface in Zolder on September 30th 1992. These are the years of campaigning for the preservation of relevant remains of this history. Local heritage associations, newly formed groups of preservationists, the Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology and numerous amenity groups urged the Flemish government to preserve at least some buildings. Volunteers, former miners and mining engineers were trying to save machinery and to set up mining museums. The Royal Archives took over miles and miles of archival documents, city archives collected photographs and drawings,... Much destruction occurred, but the Flemish Minister for Culture and the Royal Commission for Historic Buildings and Landscapes decided set up an overall preservation policy and to protect the most representative remaining buildings: office buildings, workshops, cooling towers, at least one pithead gear at each of the mining sites. More than 50 typical mine buildings were protected by law on 6 mining sites. But also landscape elements (as ip heaps) and infrastructure (as railway and waterway infrastructure), and large areas of and buildings forming part of the surrounding mining villages (partially protected as heritage areas, some buildings as the mining village churches, the meeting halls, the schools as. monuments).

Beringen: Casinoplein - clerk’s housing Beringen: the mining village, colliery buildings and surrounding infrastructure

Winterslag: miner’s housing And finally all the remaining buildings of the coalmine of Beringen (including the coal washing plant) were protected by law. To give you an idea about the scale of this site: the core buildings (baths and showers, robing rooms, lamp rooms, shafts, washing and sifting plant) represent 151,000 m² built surface. All this has been Beringen: the legally protected buildings protected under the Flemish monuments legislation. One can really say that the Limburg coalmining basin soon after is closure saw the development of an extensive preservation movement, preserving and looking for the future of the largest preserved mining stock in Western Europe. In 1999 the Flemish Goverment agreed upon a masterplan on the future of the Limburg mining heritage: the restoration and adaptive re-use of buildings, the development of a mining museum, etc. This masterplan is now under its way. 3. Location, accommodation

The conference will be located in

• Beringen (see: http://www.beringen.be - click on ‘het mijnverleden’ and ‘Vlaams Mijnmuseum’) Here the conference will take place in the buildings of the coalmine 3 itself (where also the Flemish Mining Museum is locate) and in the ‘Casino’ - the former meeting and festive hall of the colliery (now owned by the province and run as a cultural center - see: http://www.limburg.be/casino/ . The Casino has a fully equipped auditorium of 731 seats, meeting rooms, and a restaurant.

• the town hall and cultural center at Genk - a town that had two collieries on its territory (Waterschei and Winterslag), of which many buildings have been protected seek: http://www.genk.be - click on ‘toerisme’.

• The campus of the Limburg University and School of Higher Education at Diepenbeek (between the mining area and the capital of the province, Hasselt) - used for the working sessions - see: http://www.luc.ac.be/ Here we have fully equipped meeting rooms, restaurant, etc...

There will be visits to Hasselt (see: http://www.hasselt.be) and the National Museum of Distilling (to wash down the coal dust - see: http://www.jenevermuseum.be) and to the Open Air Museum at Bokrijk (see: http://www.bokrijk.be ) - more info under 4. Programme

In each of the conference locations all facilities are available for projections (slides, film, video, powerpoint and overheads). There are podiums, microphones, PA system, etc. In each of these places other conferences have taken place using

3 A splendid series of photographs of the Beringen coalmine has been published on the web by the German photographer Harald Finster, see: http://www.hfinster.de/StahlArt2/archive-Beringen-en.html simultaneous translation.

There is plenty of hotel accommodation available in the area. The provincial capital Hasselt actually has 377 hotel rooms available in different categories, between 36 euro (single) / 75 euro (double room) till 184 euro / 215 euro (Holiday Inn). The town of Genk has 331 hotel rooms (between 25/40 euro and 95/110 euro) - all breakfast included. Moreover there are a lot of bed and breakfast houses, a recent youth hostel in Bokrijk, and schools of higher education offer accommodation during school holidays. There are many possibilities for camping and camping cars.

The province of Limburg is also very centrally situated. These are the distances by motorways from its capital Hasselt to BRUSSELS 82 km

ANTWERPEN 77 km

BRUGGE 180 km

LIEGE 50 km And abroad: MAESTRICHT (NL) 33 km

AACHEN (D) 74 km

KÖLN (D) 149 km

BOCHUM (D) 200 km

LILLE (F) 203 km

AMSTERDAM (NL) 239 km 4. Conference date

Based on previous experiences we are of the opinion that the best periods to organise the conference are during academic summer holidays, which in Flanders are between July 1st and September 15th - this offering all possibilities for conference accommodation in universities and schools of higer education (meeting rooms, auditoriums,...). It is not common to have large university halls of residence in this part of the world, most students hire rooms in private houses in the neighbourhood of the university or school. Nevertheless in Hasselt and Genk some schools of higher education can offer these facilities during summer months.

Englishmen will feel at ease with Belgian temperatures and weather, they maybe have a little bit more rain at home - but not so much more... As concerns climate the best period ranges from mid May till the end of June, and the month of August until mid September - July sometimes can be rainy. This year’s weather was exceptional - we can’t expect to have a similar heat wave in the immediate future.

The first mining concessions for the Limburg coalfield were granted in August 1906, a decade ago. It is expected that in the second half of 2006 a series of events will remember this centenary.

We therefore propose to hold the International Mining History Conference 2006 between August 15th and September 15th 2006, and preferably during the first half of September. But we also want to stress that an other period would not offer great difficulties in hosting the conference, as there is plenty of hotel accommodation available in the area, most of the meeting rooms we have in view are not totally depending from the academic calendar, and there is less tourism pressure on hotels in months other than July-August. 5. Programme

- DRAFT -

DAY 0 10.00 - 18.00 Delegates arriving in Beringen / registration Guided tours (walking) visiting the mining village of Beringen, leaving in the afternoon on each hour (14.00, 15.00, 16.00) - guided by Monumentenzorg Beringen vzw / free visits to the Mining Museum. 18.00 Coaches leaving Beringen 18.30 Evening visit to the Bokrijk Open Air Museum of Flemish Folk Life - the museums preserves more than one hundred historic buildings from every Flemish province, e.g. farmhouses, wind- and watermills, a smithy and a blacksmith’s shop, a brewery and old pubs, a church 20.00 Get together at the museum’s pub, refreshments and sandwiches offered - official welcome to all delegates (probably by the Governor of the Province Mrs. Hilde Houben-Bertrand)

DAY 1 09.00 Buses leaving from the hotels 09.30 Delegates arriving at the Casino, Beringen (coffee and tea available) 10.00 Opening session: welcome speaches 10.30 General introductory lecture 11.00 Keynote speakers present the topics to be dealt with in working sessions (see day 2) 13.00 Lunch offered 14.30 Coaches leaving Beringen : bus tour visiting the protected coalmine heritage in Limburg: mine buildings, housing, social and educational buildings, transport and infrastructure, mine churches and mosques, ... 19.30 Buses arriving at the Provincial Government, Hasselt Reception, refreshments and sandwiches offered

DAY 2 09.00 Buses leaving from the hotels 09.30 Delegates arriving at the Limburg University Campus, Diepenbeek coffee and tea available 10.00-13.00 Working sessions 13.00 Lunch (cafetaria campus) 14.30-17.30 Working sessions (poster exhibitions and place for vendors in main campus hall) Free evening or continuation of working sessions - buses bring people to the city center of Genk or Hasselt - shuttle service between city center and hotels available

DAY 3 09.00 Buses leaving from the hotels 09.30 Delegates arriving at the Limburg University Campus, Diepenbeek coffee and tea available 10.00-13.00 Working sessions 13.00 Lunch (cafetaria campus) (poster exhibitions and place for vendors in main campus hall) 14.00 Buses leaving for mining sites in Euroregion 4: Germany (Aachen, Ruhr-area), Wallony (Liège-area) and the Dutch province of Limburg / delegates have to choose one of the tours. Limburg is very central in this area, most of the sites are within a distance of 100 kms. 19.00 Depending on the tours: buses arriving in Hasselt or Bocholt Visit of ‘National Museum of Distilling’ (Hasselt) or ‘Museum of Brewing History’ (Bocholt) - of cours drinks available, sandwiches, light refreshments 22.00 Buses leaving the museums, arriving at hotels ca. 22.30

DAY 4 09.00 Buses leaving from the hotels 09.30 Delegates arriving at the Genk Town Hall (coffee and tea available) 10.00 General discussions / business meeting 11.30 Coffee Break 12.00 Closing session / conclusions 13.00 Lunch 14.00 Shuttle service to Hasselt and/or Antwerpen railway station / shuttle service to Brussels and/or Maestricht airport 14.00 addtional bus tours for delegates not yet leaving: buses leaving for mining sites in Euroregion : Germany (Aachen, Ruhr-area), Wallony (Liège-area) and the Dutch province of Limburg - same tours as on day 3, so participants can visit two areas if they like.

4 See: http://barbara.ibh.rwth-aachen.de/etp-kohle/floh/aachen/englisch_start.htm

6. Themes, Working Sessions

During the preparation some possible themes for working sessions arose. These are listed below ‘pro memoria’ - but the themes and topics will be discussed with the IMHC/IMHA-committee. • preservation and adaptive re-use of large mine buildings (as the coal mine of Beringen, 151,000 m² floor surface), the ‘Lavoir des Chavannes’ in Montceau-les-Mines (F); the ‘Carreau Wende’ (F), and others • security, soil pollution and decontamination aspects of former mining sites - and their repercussion on preservation and public access • Mining villages, housing and workers life around the coalmines • culture, music, songs and literature in mining communities • mining communities and multiculturalism (e.g. the co-habitation of immigrants and local population - Limburg actually has some 30 ethnic groups, most of these with linked with the mining history) - how to study, preserve and present the heritage of these groups and their relationship with mining heritage • preservation and opening to researchers and the public of large mining archives, iconography, documentation and libraries - towards an international approach ? • etc...

Each of the themes will be introduced by a key note speaker in the plenum session during day 1 7. Additional activities

7.1. Poster sessions It will be possible to present posters during the conference. The central campus hall of the university has all possibilities to exhibit these

7.2. Exhibitions It was agreed during the preparation that special efforts will be devoted to organise exhibitions related to the conference on the different locations - so that participants can visit them. These exhibitions will form part of the celebrations of the centenary of the first coalmine concessions in Limburg (1906-2006), and will also form part of the European Industrial and Technical Heritage Heritage Year. One already agreed on the following exhibitions • Preservation of mining heritage in the European Union - an exhibition will present the efforts and results of local preservation groups, local museums, etc. - in collaboration with E-FAITH and (probably also) Europa Nostra. The exhibition will start in Beringen, and will later go on tour to other locations in Europe • Historic shares and obligations of European mines (in collaboration with the Belgian Association of Scriptophily)

7.3. Optional tours There will be many possibility of pre- and post conference tours (2 or 3 days) presenting the industrial and other history and heritage of Flanders. It is difficult to make a choice on the topics, as the small surface of Flanders is so rich in heritage since the prehistoric and Roman period (important archaeological finds were done in Limburg, there is an important museum on gallo-roman history in Tongeren 56) until very recent (the art nouveau buildings of Horta, Hankart, ... ). Flanders has the largest number of museums per capita in Europe, the distance from one historic site to another are often only a few miles. The VVIA already has experiences with tours on two very popular topics, and of course these can be offered as pre or post conference tours: • Brewing, distilling, hops - theory and practice: visit to historic breweries and distilleries, museums - including tasting the products and explaining that beer is more than just a drink (Flemish gastronomy is often based on the use of beer in meals)7 • The history of energy. This not only includes coalmines and their power plants, but also windmills (the wooden postmill probably was invented in

5 See: http://www.trabel.com/tongeren/tongeren-museum.htm

6 For the art nouveau see: http://www.kubos.org/AN/en/pays/belgium.htm, for the Horta Museum see: http://www.trabel.com/brussel/brussels-museums-horta.htm

7 Belgium has more than 400 different beers, most of the breweries are situated in Flanders. There are very typical beers, as those based on spontaneous fermentation, cherry flavoured beers, etc. See http://www.belgianstyle.com/mmguide/ Most of the brewery museums and brewery preservation projects are affiliated to the VVIA - so we can offer very exclusive visits to some sites. the early 11th c in the the actual Flemish-French border area), watermills 8, steam engines, diesel engines (the first license for his engine was granted by Rudolf Diesel to his friend Gustave Carels in Gent, only a week after it was patented), the legally protected power stations of Gent-Langerbrugge and Zwevegem (the last has engines and machinery built in Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, Hungary, Switzerland,... a real “European” museum of electrical power 9), and even the nuclear plant at Mol. Another tour which is possible is of course • The Fair Face of Flanders. From the Roman Empire to the European Union, a history shown by its heritage 10. A border crossing heritage, with links to all European countries, a history of trade (the Hanze), art and culture (Van Eyck, Rubens and other) royal houses and emperors (the Emperor Charles V was born in Ghent), and wars (not forgetting the graveyards of the Great War 11)

8 For pictures of mills in Flanders see: http://users.skynet.be/levendemolens/

9 See: http://www.vvia.be/vviasites/8550_001.htm

10 for the history of Flanders see : http://noosphere.cc/flandersHistory.html

11 See: http://www.wo1.be/eng/mainnav.html 8. Organizational structure Once the decision is taken that International Mining History Congress 2006 will take place in Flanders, the VVIA together with its partners (see under 1.-) will establish a separate non profit trust under the Belgian law (“vereniging zonder winstoogmerk”) to manage and run the conference and its preparations This has not yet been done because of the costs linked to it (registration costs and costs of publishing the statutes in the Belgian State Courant) although draft statutes have been prepared.

8.1. Board and general assembly The board and General Assembly of this separate “vzw” will be composed of representatives of the partner-organisations and subsidizing public authorities (see under 1. Applicant). Representatives of IMHC/IMHA will be co-opted to the board and the general assembly.

8.2. Scientific Committee dr. Marc Laenen (actual director of the Limburg Cultural Heritage Department, former director of the UNESCO-ICCROM center in Rome) has agreed to chair the meetings of this committee. The composition of the scientific committee will be discussed with IMHC/IMHA representatives before it will be established. The committee will be composed of reputed scholars, and discuss all scientific topics related to the conference. It is meant to meet a first time in the autumn of 2004, in combination with the autumn board meeting of E-FAITH (which will take part in Belgium). The members of the committee will exchange viewpoints through e-mail, but they also will meet once each year during 2004, 2005 and 2006. The scientific committee will have to look after and guarantee the scientific quality and seriousness of the papers to be presented during the conference. The scientific committee will also prospect for keynote speakers.

8.3. Accounting, balances There is a very strict control on the books and financial running of non profit trusts in Belgium. This means that the conference by setting up a separate non profit trust will have a separate and clear management structure and bookkeeping (necessary if one wants to obtain government subsidies in Flanders), with clear accounting and balance sheets. The financial books will be open to the representatives of the IMHC/IMHA and they will have an insight in every transaction connected with he conference.

8.4. Secretariat A secretariat will be set up to co-ordinate the preparation. It will act as a contact point for those interested in participating, for registered participants, for lecturers and people presenting papers during the working sessions. Because of the extensive knowledge of foreign languages in Flanders we now already can guarantee that direct oral and written communication with the secretariat will be possible in at least four languages (English, French, German and Dutch - maybe also in Spanish and Italian) thus giving the meeting a truly international appeal. 9. Communication

VVIA will spend much attention and efforts to a adequate promotion of the conference, though mailing, leaflets, press information, and the internet.

• VVIA has obtained the support Conservare bvba , a private company organising border crossing heritage initiatives in Europe. They have a large database on heritage organisations in Europe and they agreed to sponsor the event by making their addresses available to VVIA without charge • Kleio heritage consultants has recently prepared an overview of mining museums in Europe (for the feasibility study for the Flemish Mining Museum). This information will be made available to the organizing committee for IMHC 2006 • E-FAITH will disseminate the information to all its contacts in Europe, and will include the conference in the official calendar of the European Industrial and Technical Heritage Year 2006

Moreover VVIA already registered the following domain names http://www.miningheritage.org, http://www.patrimoineminier.org and http://www.mijnerfgoed.org. These will hold a crucial role in the communication and exchange of information about the conference. As soon as a decision has been taken whether the conference will take place in Limburg these websites will be activated and regularly updated with information on the conference. It is also the aim to post summaries of the papers online as soon as these are received from the speakers.

See also below: time table 10. Publications

• All pre-conference summaries will be made available as .pdf-file on the website, as soon as they are received from the speakers. • It is the aim to publish all the documents, papers and reports of the conference on CD, as soon as possible after the conference (but also depending on the discipline of the speakers when sending in their revised texts) • The participants will receive the CD Rom with the transactions 11. Time table

(Time table in months)

As soon as decision taken by IMHA: • websites online, first announcement available on the internet, call for papers • setting up the special purpose non profit trust (registering and publishing the statutes takes c.three months of administrative and legal procedure)

- 24 • statutes special purpose non profit trust OK and signed, board appointed • site visit by IMHA representatives • discussion on budget and conference fees (what exactly to include or to exclude) • scientific committee active • press release and first announcement sent out by e-mail this announcement includes : the exact dates and place of the conference, a description of the location, a call for paper, a call for additional themes for working sessions - 21 • statutes registered and published in State Courant • organizing committee now has its own liability and corporate capacity - 19 • meeting of scientific committee and board • draft list of key note speakers to be contacted (including alternatives) - 18 • first printed announcement, call for papers and call for themes sent out • asking replies before -14 -12 • meeting of scientific and organising committee • list of themes for working sessions fixed • first list of accepted papers and lectures • draft list of proposed chairmen/chairwomen for the working sessions, idem for secretaries (the chairmen will have to comment in the working groups on the keynote lectures) - these persons will be contacted to ask for their agreement - 9 • final list of working sessions and themes • final list of keynote lectures and lecturers • final programme announced on the website - 8 • second mailing with registration forms, asking for advance-money to be paid by participants - 4 • payment of conference fees due • summaries (or by preference) texts of lectures and papers to be received by the secretariat - 3 • closure of the registration • final list of participants • final conference programme fixed • final list of papers presented during the working sessions - 2 • final conference programme and conference documentation mailed to participants 11. Budget and Participation fees

We are sure to receive grants and subsidies from the Flemish Government and from the province of Limburg, as well as consistent support from city authorities and the Limburg Tourist Board - but at present it is to early to ask for grants and subsidies. Under the existing regulations these demands can only be introduced in 2005, one year before the event takes place. There will be some sponsors - but until now we haven’t yet firm promises (it is indeed to early, decisions to sponsor an event in 2006 won’t be taken by companies before spring 2005). There are some important international companies located in Limburg (Ford Motor Company, Siemens, etc.)

Based on previous experiences and the cost of the ‘Flemish-Dutch Meeting on Industrial Archaeology’ (which took place in Beringen this year) we calculated that the conference fee to be paid by participants will definitely not exceed 250 euro.

The conference fee will include: • the participation to all activities during the conference days (lectures, working sessions, guided visits, site visits, entrance fees to museums) • the meals (without breakfast - which is included in hotel prices) - this includes lunch and evening meals, one of these being a finger-food or sandwich variety, one a sit-down meal • entrance fees to museums and sites, the guided tours and site visits • the transport to and from the hotels (see programme) • the conference papers and documents, the transactions on CD • all taxes

The conference fee does not include • the hotel costs • the costs of travel to the conference and the return flight • travel insurance (but we take a general conference liability insurance) • pre and post conference tours

We calculated the costs, including in the budget • the costs of meeting rooms, auditorium and meeting facilities (as projection facilities, microphones, etc) • the costs of simultaneous translation from/into three languages during the plenum session (it is to difficult to organise this in small group working sessions and during field visits) 12 • the costs of inviting five keynote speakers • the cost of buses and shuttle transport on the conference days • the cost of a coordinating professional secretariat a week before and during the conference

12 This is indeed the most expensive conference cost - we will try to find EU grants for the simultaneous translation, or a special grant from the Flemish government, but cannot guarantee this at present. Calculated on a number of 200 participants simultaneous translation represents almost one third of the expected conference fee... • 1 day/week assistance during the six months preceding the conference We calculated all costs and the income based on an average of 200 participants. From the practical viewpoint the maximum number of participants will be 400/450. As grants and subsidies are fixed to maximums, but as fixed costs are not rising when the number of participants going up from 200 to 400 while variable costs are linked with the number of participants (meals, additional coaches, printing and copying, etc), an ideal number of participants will be situated around 280 persons - if the number of participants exceeds this number additional sponsorship should be found to cover the costs of additional coaches, meals, etc 12. Contacts

Vlaamse Vereniging voor Industriële Archeologie vzw (Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology) P.O. Box 30 B-9000 Gent-12 Flanders - Belgium http://www.vvia.be [email protected] chairman: Adriaan Linters Vredelaan 72 B-8500 Kortrijk Flanders - Belgium tel. +32.56.255171 (private) tel. +32.56.253373 (business) mobile: +32.496.377791 [email protected] activities co-ordinator Stefaan Heyse Christinastraat 18 bus 3 B-8400 Oostende Flanders - Belgium tel. +32.59.508193 fax +32.59.513130 [email protected]