<html><head></head><body><div class="yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Friends</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Many of you asked me to see if I could get a solid idea of our lodging options and costs for next year's conference and to that end I met with Jayson Hoyt from UMaine conference services today.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">The Black Bear Inn and Conference Center is less than two miles from campus and is lone hotel in Orono. The University has a great relationship with them and uses them all year for conferences. We believe the room rate will be about $130.00 a night. As June is tourist season here, that's $70.00 below the current lowest rate for area hotels. </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Dorm rooms available. I will be getting prices on that later in the summer. There will be two options, single rooms or three bedroom suites. However, please not that there are no air-conditioned buildings on campus,. We never used to need it--in fact in the late 90s and early 2000s we might go an entire summer and not hit ninety degrees.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Construction is underway on the conversion of two campus buildings into what should be a beautiful hotel which would be ideally located for our purposes, but it is unlikely to be ready by next June.If it is it will be another option.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Also, some have asked if we can have lobster as a choice at the banquet and the answer is a qualified yes, but pricing would not be available until quite late and might result in a surcharge.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">And yes, we will be able to skate at the legendary Alfond Arena. Helmets required for shinny.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Bruce</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> </div></div></body></html>