<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Good morning good folk of the NFB!</div><div dir="auto">Happy first day of Winter ❄️ </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Sheryl, Fred and I would like to give you all an update on where we are with the convention planning. It's been a month of tracking people down- unsuccessfully.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Most of the hotels/ event centers have not returned communications with us. And the few that have seem to be booked out on the weekend that we want. There is one that has been very receptive. The biggest hurdle with them is that they are expensive. Expensive for convention space and overnight rooms. Plus we haven't seen their catering offerings yet. Also we would have to move our location to Laconia.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">We are continuing to look for another option but are also considering if having a one day convention would once again be a good idea for our small state. We wouldn't be the only ones leaning towards one day conventions. Maine and Vermont both do that as they're also small affiliates.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">We are continuing to reach out to Hotel / event centers to see if we can get communication and better pricing!! But we do need to button this down as quickly as possible so we can move on to the next stage of booking speakers, etc.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">If we have to go back to a one-day convention, and people were looking for an overnight adventure, you could always stay at the hotel we land on the night before or the night of if you needed to but we wouldn't book a block of rooms. Some people have done that in the past.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">If you have strong feelings one way or another, please reach out here on listserve. We are doing our best to accommodate all the needs of the affiliate.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Thanks, </div><div dir="auto">Randi, Sheryl and Fred </div><div dir="auto">Convention Committee </div><div id="composer_signature" dir="auto"><div style="font-size:12px;color:#575757" dir="auto">Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone</div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div></body></html>