Dear everyone, 

We understand the as members of Enron Research group, all of us are working 
on very interesting projects, some of which are ground-breaking, and we all 
keep a very keen mind on any development of new technology.  We also find 
out, through our own experience, that at this age of information explosion, 
it becomes more and more difficult to have enough time and energy to keep 
abreast with most of the exciting stuff taking place in this department, let 
alone in the industry.  It is also our personal experience that many a 
project we are working on has partially been attempted by other members of 
this group. 

As a remedy, we propose that the research group start an informal brown bag 
lunch group meeting, once every two weeks on Friday, for about 50 minutes.  
It is hoped that it will provide a forum for us to facilitate with new 
technology and development, as well as with each other,s work, so that we do 
not have to reinvent the wheels.  

We envision the following: In this meeting (or seminar), each one of us will 
take turns to make presentations to the group. The topics could range from 
theoretical consideration to practical implementation, be it option pricing, 
process modelling, insurance issue, or Monte Carlo simulation, or anything 
one finds fascinating.  The presentation material could be papers you have 
been reading recently, projects you are working on,  some problem that 
bothers you, or an idea that is fascinating. You  choose your own 
presentation style.  It could be  
everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask, hand waving 
style, or it can involve nitty-gritty, detailed derivations, anyway a style 
that suits you and the topic.  Or it can simply be a dry-run for your 
presentation at the next Risk Conference.  Zimin and Alex will take upon the 
responsibility of organizing the seminar. 

We hope the seminar will be up and running in two-three weeks. For that 
purpose your support will be greatly appreciated. Please let either Zimin or 
Alex know if you are interested in giving a presentation to the group and 
provide a tentative schedule. Surely the rest of the group will be happy to 
hear your presentation. 

We encourage everyone to participate this brown bag meeting, either to give a 
talk or just sit in. 

Zimin Lu
Alex Huang