[Killietalk] Travel to Portland

[Barry Cooper <barry_cooper at mac.com>]

I'm glad to hear people are having success in finding good fares to 
Portland. We know the economy is tough but every cloud has a silver 
lining, as they say, and in this case that seems to be that air fares 
have come down drastically. The specials I wrote about from United were 
for travel within the western states but, as others have pointed out, if 
you search around you should find a favorable fare from just about 
anywhere in the US. We are, of course, looking forward to seeing as many 
of you as possible in Portland. We think we have an absolutely 
outstanding convention lined up and we are certain you'll enjoy it. For 
more information, see the pages at www.aka.org/convention/209/. Details 
on the full program will be released soon but here are some highlights.

At some conventions a collecting trip is organized for the Monday. We 
can't do that in Oregon because it is against state law. Instead we have 
organized a workshop on Fish Disease Diagnostics, to be taught by Dr. 
Tim Miller-Morgan, a veterinarian specializing in diseases of ornamental 
fish. Some of our western members have heard Tim talk and I know they 
were very impressed.

Another special aspect of a convention in the west, at least for those 
coming from the east and mid-west, is that you can't really depart 
during the afternoon. Flights leave in the morning hours, or you can 
take the red-eye, which leaves at 11:59 pm. That means, we hope, that 
many of you will be present on Sunday evening after the auction. 
Accordingly, we have organized a cruise on the Willamette River on the 
Sternwheeler Rose, a reproduction of the old paddlewheelers that used to 
ply the local rivers. We have chartered the boat so this will be an 
exclusive AKAers trip. We are convinced that for many members 
socialization is one of the most important aspects of an AKA convention. 
This cruise will provide a great opportunity to end the convention on 
that note. The cruise will run from about 7 pm to 9 pm and a buffet 
dinner will be included.

Finally, consistent with the socialization aspect, NWK is sponsoring a 
complimentary welcome buffet on Friday evening. Most of you will arrive 
around midday or early afternoon. You should be ready for some 
relaxation, so here it is.

Registration forms, both in the BNL and on the web site, are ready to 
go. I will time the appearance of the online forms to coincide with the 
appearance of the BNL. Fish sale numbers will, as is traditional, be 
based on when you registered but we will take care not to penalize 
anyone who register via the mail. Those will be shuffled in with the 
online registrations according to how soon they arrive.

We would like to encourage everyone to bring fish for the show and for 
the fish sale. If by some unfortunate chance you can't attend, please 
ship them to us. We have arranged for an experienced member of our club, 
Patrick Coleman, to look after mail-ins that arrive early in the week of 
the convention. You can mail them directly to the hotel: AKA Convention, 
DoubleTree Hotel, 1000 NE Multnomah St., Portland, OR 97232. We also 
plan to set up a UPS account that you can use for this purpose. More 
news on that later.

Well, I hope this whets your appetite. As I said, we look forward to 
seeing as many of you as possible in Portland.

Regards,

Barry Cooper

--
Barry J. Cooper
Sweet Home, OR 97386

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