IMPORTANT NESHCo NEWS:
Responding to austere times, Fall Conference shifted to Spring

The NESHCo Board held one of its quarterly meetings in conjunction with our Spring Conference this week. Apart from the routine business – a Treasurer’s report, committee updates, etc. – we had a very important item to discuss: whether our membership, sponsors and exhibitors would be able to support two major conferences in the next twelve months, given the extremely difficult financial challenges we are all facing.

A lot of our membership is reporting that they are under travel and education freezes, with only programs necessary for licensure or certification being allowed at their organizations. As 2010 budget preparation begins, many already know or anticipate that T&E will be slashed.

In light of that, and the fact that NESHCo cannot afford to hold a conference that is not well-attended, the Board looked at a number of possible options for next year’s programming. Among them:
1, Cancelling the 2008 fall Conference at Stowe (would forfeit our $5,000 deposit) 
2. Holding the Fall Conference as scheduled, and holding a Lamplighter-Awards only luncheon in the Spring (perhaps enhanced with one or two educational sessions, but no overnight)
3. Staying with Stowe as a venue, but asking the Stoweflake to move our date to Spring of 2010
 
We chose the third option, and though it “…wasn’t their favorite thing..”  the Stoweflake was gracious enough to switch our commitment to the Spring without penalty.

Thus, there will not be a Fall Conference in 2009. We will convene next at the Stoweflake Resort and Spa http://www.stoweflake.com/resort.aspx  on May 24, 25, 26 of 2010. That is the Monday before Memorial Day, and Stowe will be in full spring splendor. The resort has golf, tennis, hiking and mountain biking and the conference committee is already thinking of creative activities to match the programming. Lamplighter Awards will continue to be tied to the Spring conference.
 
In future years, the Board will re-evaluate whether to hold two major conferences. Those of you who have been with NESHCo for a number of years will remember that it was only in 2005 that we introduced a second major conference, and shifted the Lamps from the Fall to the Spring (as a strategy to give the new Spring Conference an immediate boost). Previously, we complemented the major fall program with a one-day, in-and-out educational session in the spring.

See you at Stoweflake.

Kevin McDonald, president, NESHCo

NESHCo Honors 2009 Lamplighter Awards Winners.

Click to view presentation of winners.

Click here for press release.

Click here for winners list.

Click here for the April 2009 issue of NESHCo's e-newsletter.

Past issues: January 2009, October 2008, July 2008 , April 2008 , January 2008