Dear friends, (1) In the weekend of 21-22 November 1998, the Dutch Malacological Society and Vita Marina organise the third International shell bourse and symposium in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. During this weekend you can expect to see many shell, shell stamp, and book dealers, both from within and outside Europe. Furthermore there will be many lectures, expositions, an auction and information stands. For further details, please have a look at: http://home.wxs.nl/~spirula/nmv.htm (2) The directory of malacologists and conchologists on the Vita Marina home page has been updated recently. Please take a few minutes within the coming weeks to check if your details are still correct (ie Email address, interests etc.). For further information and updates, have a look at http://home.wxs.nl/~spirula (3) Currently we are preparing the yearly Snail Pack mailing to about 6700 updated addresses around the world. If you are interested in placing a commercial ad, an announcement, or a small personal ad in this year's Snail Pack, please have a look at http://home.wxs.nl/~spirula or the direct link to the conditions page: http://home.wxs.nl/~spirula/snailcdn.htm Response last year was very good, both for commercial ads and personal ads and in the mean time the database was updated based on the feedback we got from all over the world. P.S. For people visiting Europe in October it might be interesting to visit the Sea Museum in The Hague, The Netherlands. On the 24th of October there will be a shell meeting with lectures and a shell bourse. More info on: http://home.wxs.nl/~spirula/meetings.htm