As with prior studies, Solomon is again offering public training seminars so that study coordinators from each participating company can gather to improve their understanding of the data requirements and share their efforts to improve the consistency of data submissions. While several seminar dates are listed on the Public Study Coordinators’ Seminar Registration Form (refer to page 2-12), we encourage each company to send all of its representatives to a single seminar to ensure the highest level of consistency within each company.

Each seminar is limited to a maximum number of attendees based on facilities available but will not exceed 50 people to ensure a free interchange among participants; reservations are confirmed on a first-come/first-served basis. Please e-mail or fax the registration form to Eddie Elias at Eddie.Elias@SolomonOnline.com (fax 1-972-404-1804) at your earliest convenience to ensure that your representatives may attend the session of their choice.

Participation in the Study Coordinators’ Seminar does not guarantee better data, but it certainly results in a smoother and more efficient data-gathering effort. Additionally, attendance promotes higher levels of consistency between refineries and companies. All discussion items are specifically limited to topics related to the studies and the content of the input forms.

The subscription fee includes participation for one corporate coordinator and two representatives per refinery. Lunch and refreshments are provided during the working day, but attendees are expected to pay for their own transportation, accommodations, and food outside seminar hours.

In addition to the public seminars, Solomon offers private company seminars. A growing number of multi-refinery companies are seeing increased value in having data coordinator seminars for their company employees only. These seminars permit open discussion of company-specific reporting issues and provide greater reporting consistency across all company refineries. It also provides an opportunity for the various analysts to meet each other, which helps foster networking across the refineries. As a result, as reporting issues arise during data collection, they are addressed once and communicated to all. Companies electing a private company seminar can sign up for these seminars using the Subscription Agreement in Appendix A.

The fee for the private seminar, as noted in the Subscription Agreement, includes our consultants’ costs and the cost of seminar materials for up to three attendees per refinery. An incremental materials fee may be assessed for additional attendees (contact our offices for details). The company is responsible for selecting the seminar site, making the necessary reservations and arrangements for the facilities at the selected site, and paying all facility costs and related travel expenses for their employees. It is often more cost-effective to pay Solomon to come to your site than to send multiple employees to a Solomon-selected site.