>From the latest NSS Internal Organization (I/O) report, for your consideration:
2010 NSS Convention in Vermont: the Coolest Convention you will ever attend! Believe it or not, four short years ago we started planning for the Vermont convention and here it is only four months away! The pace of progress has accelerated recently, so an update on where things stand is certainly in order. With our intimate knowledge of all the painstaking efforts and planning put forth by everyone on the Convention Staff, we personally guarantee a great time and place for old and new friends to vacation together this summer in Vermont! Every caver's homecoming week will start off with a bang at the Howdy Party Monday night. Rick's Catering will be preparing a sumptuous Maple-themed feast featuring Vermont Maple ham, grilled chicken breasts and veggie dishes galore, with plenty of food for all tastes. Banjo Dan and the Midnight Plow Boys will be our special musical guests, fiddling for your dining entertainment. Those who know Banjo Dan know that it will surely be a great show. For those who don't, fair warning that your feet will be moving and your hips will be grooving before you notice! Nice weather is in the forecast: The Howdy Party will be hosted out of doors in the crystal clear Vermont air (unless it snows!). And don't forget the awesome all-in-one convention site, The Champlain Valley Expo. With all this room, everyone's favorite Convention activity will have more than enough space to breathe! The vendors will be getting an entire building to themselves but with the added bonus of sessions happening in the same venue funneling traffic past their booths. In addition, all of the vertical workshops and competitions are located in the very next building with plenty of room for everyone to spread out their gear and play. The Art Salon will be housed inside a wonderful rustic building with rough-hewn lumber on the walls, for a warm inviting look that will lend a calm relaxing atmosphere for viewing the stunning speleo-artworks. The Awards Photo Salon will also be on site in a large building that will allow everyone to take pleasure in the always-entertaining dual-projector slide presentation. The campground on site is huge and tent camping is free, with plenty of room for everyone to enjoy their encampment, with showers and bathrooms right there, and plenty more in the EXPO center. The only official Convention event that will be off-site is the Tuesday "Night on the Town," where we encourage everyone to take in the best downtown Burlington has to offer in the way of shopping, dining and microbreweries. A special evening talk on White Nose Syndrome will be at the Echo Center, an experiential science museum and aquarium, located on the edge of Lake Champlain and focusing its geological formation and history. The White Nose talk promises to be a singularly informative forum featuring Vermont's bat biologist, Scott Darling, who will be on hand to discuss the latest scientific findings and what the future may hold. So spend sunset at the waterfront and find out what's new with WNS as all cavers are called upon to lend a hand in their furry friends' time of need. At the Awards Banquet on Friday night Rick's Catering will be doing his award-winning BBQ flank steak, grilled chicken breasts and of course veggie offerings. Again this will be on site in one of the large air-conditioned buildings. Nice Bob Addis will be the Master of Ceremonies for the evening. For those who haven't seen Bob perform, he has a certain flare for entertaining a large audience. We guarantee Bob will keep the proceedings lively! In addition to the traditional NSS Convention activities, Vermont is one big gorgeous natural playground for anyone who loves the outdoors. One of the planned trips is a tour of some of Vermont's most beautiful waterfalls. Almost all of them have superb swimming holes, so be prepared for a refreshing dip should you choose so. Hikers should note that Vermont's highest peak, Mt. Mansfield, is only 30 minutes away. And if you are going out that direction you should check out Smugglers Notch and play in the huge rock houses. These can be very challenging and a great workout. Make sure to take a helmet and light as darkness beckons in their nooks and crannies! Of course there are also multiple opportunities for rock climbing, kayaking and anything else outside you can think of. Check out the Convention website for a full list of planned trips and other adventures you can have on your own. I know a big question on everyone's mind is what's the deal with caving? Well we are offering limited guided caving trips. The trips that are planned are to non-hibernacula caves, including some vertical caves. Now the next question is what about gear and contamination? First off we are putting together a gear loaning program. Cavers from our region are lending gear to be borrowed for trips, so that folks' personal gear will not need to be used outside of their home regions. The Convention website will soon feature a page explaining the gear loaning program in more detail. And yes it's free. As for decontamination, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service has volunteered to sponsor a decontamination station during Convention, in order to help cavers be responsible wildlife stewards. We could go on for pages about the Vermont convention, about the Shelburne Museum where you get a discount, Ben and Jerry's Factory tour, Barre - the Granite Capital of the World, and all the geology to explore, the wonderful restaurants a 10-minute stroll from the Expo and the almost infinite variety of things to see and do, but we will spare you that. Please visit the Convention website for more info and to register at http://www.nss2010.com . Oh I almost forgot, VOLUNTEERS!! If you want to help for the week or a day or even an hour, any and all help is appreciated. Please contact our volunteer coordinator, Kathy Pingree, through the contacts page on the website. Hope to see you all in Vermont this August 2-6, for A Cool Convention!
