Every effort was made to send an e-mail on receipt of the electronic cover sheets and of the complete proposal, but it's clear from one or two enquiries we've received that several proposals did not receive one or other acknowledgement. Several proposers needed a gentle reminder to send in their electronic cover sheets, and one or two proposers ran into problems with their computer systems in getting their electronic versions to us. Overall, however, the system seemed to work very well. No-one really knew how many proposals to expect. Also, as was to be expected, some sources were the subject of a number of proposals, and the Scientific Review Committee will have its work cut out in ranking such proposals, or deciding which experiments could perhaps be merged.
Proposal handling and a detailed compilation of proposal statistics are now well underway.
Betty Siegman has brought her proposal handling experience from the Australia Telescope National Facility to Japan with her, and has been of great assistance to the VSOG with the proposal sorting, labelling, copying and summarising, and in preparing data from the cover sheets for use by the scheduling software. The proposals will be sent next week to the Scientific Review Committee members and to those observatories participating in the VSOP mission that have expressed a desire to see them. Proposals will undergo a technical review at ISAS in January, and the SRC will meet at ISAS in February. Proposers will be contacted shortly after this meeting and informed of the outcome of the review process and the likelihood that their proposed experiments will be scheduled.