October 5, 2006

Hi to all,

Our Fall Conference will be held October 26 – 28 at Claytor Lake State Park. As usual, lodgings will be available for arrival on Thursday and we’ll end the conference at noon on Saturday following the business meeting.

On Thursday night, October 26, we’ll have pizza and your “libation of choice”. Friday, October 27, will feature a full day of activities. We’ll leave Claytor Lake State Park early for the short trip to Foster Falls in New River Trail State Park where we’ll spend the morning.

The New River Trail State Park staff are providing us a wide range of activities from which you can individually select. For example, you can opt to do a guided horseback tour (1 –1.5 hrs); a guided canoe/kayak float trip (2.5 hours), or a van tour of the Trail (2 – 2.5 hrs). Bikes will also be available as will some fishing equipment. And, for those of you who prefer, you can hike and/or simply sit and contemplate at your own pace for whatever time you choose.

Since some of the activities are equipment dependent, we’ll take reservations for those activities on a “first come” basis based on Ann Lipp’s receipt of your registration form. To illustrate the need for you to submit your registration form as soon as possible, the van tour will be limited to the first 20 people who opt for it.

Our visit to the New River Trail will also include a visit to Shot Tower Historic State Park. The shot tower was built more than 190 years ago to make ammunition for the firearms of the early settlers.

After lunch at the New River Trail State Park Pavilion, we’ll return to Claytor Lake State Park for the balance of the afternoon. Among the activities available to you will be a boat trip on the Lake. We’ll then have a “conviviality hour” followed by dinner at the Water’s Edge Meeting Facility. Our dinner guest will be Delegate Dave Nutter.

Nancy Heltman will play her usual role in arranging our lodging. Please contact her at 804-786-5057 or at her email address (nancy.heltman@dcr.Virginia.gov) and let her know your lodging needs.

Please complete the attached registration form as soon as possible and send it to Ann Lipp, 401 Stonehouse Road, Williamsburg, VA 23188. If you’d like to avail yourself of the “one stop shopping opportunity”, please note that we’ve made the registration form user friendly to accommodate dues payments as well as registration fees. If you have questions for Ann, she can be reached at 757-566-3788 or via email at calipp@verizon.net.

I look forward to seeing you at the conference……Johnny