SC13 and the US Government Shutdown

10/17/2013 UPDATE:
Any time between now the end of the day, October 24th, those affected by the shutdown may send an email to shutdown@info.supercomputing.org that includes your name, address (combined with your name as a unique identifier), whether or not you are a member of ACM or IEEE, and a brief statement regarding your qualification for the discounted registration rate (for example, "I am a federal employee of agency X" or "I am a contractor employed full time on a federal contract for agency X"). There should be some corroborating evidence of your status in your submission, for example you may wish to include a URL to an official website listing you as staff, or send the email from a federal email address (*.gov, *.mil, etc.). If we determine that you qualify for the discounted rate, we will email you a discount code to use when registering for the conference. Note that sharing of the discount code with colleagues is not encouraged, as we will be auditing registrations made with the code and will reject a registration made with the code that was not authorized as part of this process.

10/15/2013 UPDATE:
Due to the continuing government shutdown, SC13 has extended the early registration deadline for those directly affected by the government shutdown for either one week after the shutdown ends or November 1st, whichever comes first.  SC13 will make the final determination of who may take advantage of this offer.  Those to whom it applies include anyone directly employed by the federal government (for example, NASA or DOD) and contractors who are primarily funded by federal agencies, such as the DOE laboratories.  If you have any question about this policy, please contact registration@info.supercomputing.org .

10/11/2013 UPDATE:
In order to accommodate US federal government employees and their contractors directly affected by the lapse in appropriations for the federal government, SC has changed its housing policy for individuals in the affected group. SC13 will waive hotel cancellation and/or change fees for those individuals who are subject to the government shutdown and who have to change their travel plans, until 4 November. Changes after that date will be subject to the established change and cancellations fees. If you fall into this category and need to request a fee waiver, please contact housing@info.supercomputing.org.

Original Statement:

The SC family is diverse, and includes many volunteers and committee members who are directly affected by the shutdown of the US government – our thoughts and concerns are with these families and their communities during this difficult time.

We understand that SC13 is a vital part of annual planning for many of you, and we are beginning to get questions from you about possible impacts of the shutdown on this November’s conference. Today I can say that the US Government shutdown has not had a significant impact on SC13.  In fact, registration remains very strong. 

SC13 remains confident that the shutdown will be resolved before the conference begins. However, in the event that it is not resolved, SC13 will waive the conference cancelation fees for those directly affected by the shutdown, including federal employees and federal contractors who must follow US government travel rules. We are also considering extending the early registration period for those attendees as well.

SC13 is committed to making this year's conference the best ever and will do everything we can to ensure everyone can attend.

Bill Gropp
SC13 General Chair