Whether you view the current year 2000 as the beginning of the third millennium or the end of the second, it certainly marks a transition in our circle of colleagues, as well as the community's perspective on the Be phenomenon. We will miss the wisdom and friendship of Arne Slettebak, Mercedes & Carlos Jaschek, and Don Penrod. Be star research at the turn of the millennium is summarized in the forthcoming proceedings from IAU Colloquium No. 175 held in Alicante, Spain in 1999 June. Contemporary ideas on the nature of the mass loss activity in Be stars, their disks, and the place and importance of Be stars in the stellar evolution scenario are some of the topics discussed formally and informally in Alicante that will shape future research efforts.
This Issue 34 of the Be Star Newsletter is the largest one yet published and includes all contributions posted on our website, http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~dam3ma/benews/ , since 1998 June. Our electronic version of the Newsletter has become an effective way to communicate news in a timely fashion. Most new contributions and abstracts are posted within two days of receipt, after an internal review by the editors.
Featured in this issue are a discussion of the temperature
distribution in Be star disks, more on the behavior of the cloudlets
in the circumstellar material in 
Cas, and results from a recent study of Be stars in open
clusters that suggests the Be phenomenon may be associated with
mid-life in OB associations that did not form 
Cephei stars. Items on long-term H
emission variability in Cas and P Cyg, polarization in o And, and near
IR studies of Be stars can also be found, as well as 34 abstracts of
recent papers and books, the usual bibliography, and announcements of
meetings and other information of possible interest to the readership.
We will continue to place contributions and abstracts on our website as they are received. Those posted before November 30, 2000 will appear in Issue No. 35. Please send contributions by Electronic Mail to: benews@mucen.usc.edu with a copy to dam3ma@virginia.edu either as LaTex or postscript/pdf files. We are now requiring that abstracts be submitted as LaTex files using the template provided on our website. Illustrations should be sent by E-mail as postscript files. If it is not possible to transmit your contribution electronically, please send or fax a dark camera-ready copy to the address/telefax number that appears on the front cover.
The editors wish to thank all who contributed to this issue. Your contributions are essential to the continued success of the Newsletter and in this `transition' year, we hope you will choose this publication to announce your new discoveries, convey your current thoughts on the Be phenomenon, and circulate information on forthcoming meetings that might be of interest to the active B star community.
We appreciate the continuing support from the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Georgia State University for the production of the paper edition of the Newsletter.
Gerrie Peters, Editor-in-Chief