[Contents of the second message sent to the mailing list, sent 6 Jan 2004.]

Several items in this message, but let me start with the most pressing.

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING: it will be Tuesday, January 13, at 1 PM, in the
(MIT) math department common room. If you can't make it, read the rest of
this message closely and send me your feedback so I can take it into
account.

TOPICS: Based on feedback so far, I'm leaning towards declaring the theme
of the semester to be "Zeta functions and cohomology", but interpreting
that loosely enough to incorporate a broad range of topics. I've posted a 
sample topic list on the seminar web page, which I remind you is at
   http://www-math.mit.edu/~kedlaya/stage/

MEETING TIME: This will be finalized at the org meeting, but here are some 
suggestions.
   -- Monday 2-3, before Johan's seminar.
   -- Monday 3-4 (Johan's time) in case Johan isn't running his seminar 
next term.
   -- Tuesday 2-3. Note: since this is right before the Harvard/MIT 
algebraic geometry seminar, we would have to meet alternately at Harvard 
or MIT, wherever the AG seminar is that week.
   -- Thursday 2-3. This would precede Cathy and Akshay's seminar if they 
have it again this term.
   -- Friday 2-3.  
It would help me to hear, in advance of the meeting, about preferences
(positive or negative) for any of these. In particular, the Monday 2-3 and
Friday 2-3 slots conflict with Flach's course on special values of
L-functions at Harvard; if that affects you, let me know.

SPEAKERS: I may invite a few outside speakers, but I expect most of the
talks to be by "us", including the graduate students on the list. If you'd
be willing to give a talk at some point (you don't have to have a topic in
mind yet!), let me know either by email or at the org meeting. I'll be looking
to line up a couple of initial speakers during the org meeting.

See you next week!

Kiran