September 30th, 2019

Hello all,
This email will serve three purposes:

1. I had lots of folks email me with updates/adjustments to my contact list.  How am I doing?  Any changes that I still need to complete?  Let me know.  ;-)
2. Hey WACA Board!  This is a test run of my new board contact list, since we lots of updates this year as well.  How am I doing?  (You have 48 hours to reply…. Starting… right… NOW!)  ;-)
3. Area News!  I just returned from my WACA Board meeting (last weekend in Vancouver, WA), and I have some news to share.  I’ll try to be very succinct!  ;-)

• This year’s WACA Conference will happen in Area 8  (yeah! Cheers! Start the wave!), at the Three Rivers Convention Center, on March 11-13,, 2019.  Don’t worry about it being Friday the 13th… we can’t have bad luck when our theme is “Love is the Answer”.  The conference will focus on the legacy that activities can establish in our schools.
• Now that you know about the conference, you should also know that you can begin registering on October 1st.  As usual, use the website www.wacaonline.org.  There is a menu for the conference, and for registering for the conference, and for lodging.  Again, beginning on October 1, 2019.
• Since you’re thinking about the conference now, you might remember that last year we opted to have breakfast at our individual hotels.  Well, you gave us a lot of feedback about that – yes we saved some dollars; but… you felt we lost some of our sense of community, and some hotels couldn’t handle the volume, and some folks (like us in area 8!) weren’t in hotels and didn’t have many options.  So… we will offer breakfast on Thursday and Friday morning at the Convention Center.  But, the Friday (close of conference) box lunch wasn’t well received, and many folks said they ended up getting something on the way home.  So we WILL NOT have a Friday lunch offering this year.
• Our fee schedule is changing this year (in part, due to those same food issues).  Early Bird registration goes from October 1, 2019 until February 1, 2020.  The cost at that time is $350 for the conference and $50 for the Pre-Con.  There is an additional discount for groups of four from the same school  (details on the website, of course!).  From February 2nd  through March 1st, the price of registration increases to $375 (pre-con fee stays the same, but the group discount is gone).  From March 2nd up until (and including) the conference start, the price of registration increases to $425 (again pre-con fee stays unchanged, and group discount is still gone).  Summary below:

 
Date
Registration Fee
Pre-Conference Fee

Oct 1, 2019 – Feb 1, 2020
$350 (+ group discount)
$50

Feb 2, 2020 – Mar 1, 2020
$375
$50

Mar 2, 2020 – Conference Start
$425
$50

 
             

• Finally, think about presenting a session at the Conference.  We do so many cool things here in Area 8, so we should showcase our skills!  How about presenting our Hometown Showdown Week, or how to use social media to improve communications (both of these were suggested by you last March).  Think about it.  I will send a note soon with details about presenting sessions.  Or… you got it!... you can look on wacaonline.org at the conference menu, then at the presenter menu.

 
Okay, that’s enough to get us started.  Have a great week, everyone!
Jb