2008 Annual Meeting
Plymouth State University
 Plymouth, NH                                                           ... HOW TO GET HERE!

the NEW ENGLAND - SAINT LAWRENCE VALLEY GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 

 
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM                CALL FOR PAPERS                FIELD TRIPS                 LODGING                 DINING
 
REGISTRATION FORM - Please print, fill out, and fax to Bryon Middlekauf at (603) 535 - 2351.  Please send in your registration form even if you are planning to pay at the conference, so our PSU hosts can plan for lunch, banquet, field trips, etc...
 

ATTENTION!  There will be several unique events at this year’s meeting!

  1. A panel designed for undergraduate students who might be thinking about study abroad. Students who have recently returned will informally talk about their experience.
  2. The “Ways of the Woods”, a traveling forestry exhibit will be on campus within minutes of the NESTVAL venue.
  3. A session for students contemplating graduate school.
  4. The Brown Company exhibit in Silver hall focusing upon photographs from the historic Brown paper company collection of Berlin, New Hampshire, also only a few minutes from the NESTVAL venue.
  5. A social event sponsored by the Center for Rural Partnerships which will introduce you to research opportunities with a northern forests theme.
 

Dear NESTVAL Members and Friends,

     The 2008 Annual Meeting will be held on campus at Plymouth State University on October 31 and November 1. The PSU Geography, Environmental Planning, Tourism Management and Policy programs, and the Geo Club are hosting the event this year. Enclosed are the following: instructions for submitting abstracts (for poster presentations, papers, and undergraduate and graduate student papers and posters); descriptions of field trips; a preliminary program; a call for World Geography Bowl participation; a list of area motels and restaurants; and registration materials. (In this web version, please see links above.)

     In addition to the usual events, this year we will have an informal discussion centering upon the Northern Forests, followed by a social. The Center for Rural Partnerships is pleased to host an informal reception to facilitate future collaboration.  During that session, The Center’s director, Thad Guldbrandsen, will briefly discuss some of the ways that Plymouth State University serves rural NH and the broader region.  He will also introduce ideas for future collaboration and communication through a Northern Forest higher education network.

     The Northern Forest Center’s Ways of the Woods exhibit will be on campus for the duration of the NESTVAL conference.  Additionally, a panel discussion focusing upon study abroad with students who have recently participated in study at a foreign campus or other site will be a part of our program. Four field trips have been organized; two are part day and two are nearly full day trips. We have incorporated the trips into the regular schedule in the program, that is, on Friday and Saturday, because in recent years, Sunday field trips have not been well attended. We hope that you will support the efforts of the field trip organizers who have developed some very interesting destinations, including a local bog, Franconia Notch, tourism history in the White Mountains, and the USFS Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. If you let us know as early as possible that you are presenting a paper, we will do our best to schedule your paper at a time other than that of a field trip you wish to attend. The banquet on Saturday evening will include a very nice array of foods in a buffet format, with a social hour and hors d’oeuvres, music, and Mark Okrant’s keynote talk, Tourism Development in the Arctic. The Business Meeting will take place at lunch time on Saturday. The World Geography Bowl is scheduled for Friday evening and will be preceded by a pizza party in PSU’s Fireplace lounge for students, organizers, judges, score keepers, moderators, attendees and friends of the teams.

     The list which was used to mail and email the membership was generated by the AAG headquarters. It will only include AAG members in our region. If you know of colleagues who are not AAG members, please alert them about the meeting. Contact us and we will send them a special mailing. Please excuse any duplication, but we are hoping to have a very strong showing here in Northern New England this year. We do not want to miss anyone!  Please also pass this along to any "non-geographer" friends you know who dabble in the arts of "location, place, area, movement and/or human-environment interactions."

     Please register early for the meeting. Doing so will ensure that planning can proceed effectively, that we are sure we can populate the field trips and banquet, and develop a program which can accommodate all of the papers. Also, be sure to make your hotel reservations early, by September 30; rooms are being held for us at special rates at the area lodgings on the list provided. Be sure to mention NESTVAL 2008 when reserving your rooms. A number of the hotels have offered us very inexpensive rates thus enabling students to attend the meeting and stay overnight here in the foothills of the White Mountains, and fully participate in the meeting.

     Sincerely,

     Bryon Middlekauff
     For the NESTVAL 2008 Organizing Committee
     Geography, Environmental Planning and Tourism Management and Policy
     Plymouth State University
     603 525 2637