Reasons to Move the BMT Tandem
Meetings to May or June:

Reasons to Keep the BMT Tandem
Meetings in February:

·     The BMT Tandem Meetings come too soon after ASH.  It is necessary for investigators to submit abstracts for the Tandem meetings before they know if their abstracts have been accepted for ASH.

·     For a meeting in February, abstract review committees have to convene in November and contend with the Thanksgiving holiday, and abstract authors are notified in December when there are numerous winter holiday distractions.

·     Since the BMT Tandem Meetings are too large to fit into Keystone or any other North American winter sports resort, there are fewer reasons to hold a winter meeting. 

·     Currently the BMT Tandem Meetings are perceived as “coming after ASH.”  May or June dates would change the perception to “coming before ASH.”

·     Few members of the BMT community attend the ASCO Annual Meeting which generally is held in late May or early June, so the proximity creates minimal conflict.

·     Traveling to a warm climate location in the South or perhaps Hawaii in the middle of winter has great appeal and may help promote attendance. 

·     The BMT Tandem Meetings have an established identity as a February event.  Moving the meetings disturbs that identity.

·     May and June begin the summer vacation season and a meeting then might conflict with family activities.

·     A meeting in May or June permanently seals off any possibility of a winter sports-related meeting.

·     Some BMT Tandem Meeting registrants attend the annual meetings of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and the American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT) that are held in May.

 ·   The current February meeting is nicely spaced between the ASH Annual Meeting in early December and the EBMT Annual Meeting in late March.