News & Notes May 2004

PACD/SCC Joint Annual Conference:
Creating a New Frontier
Wyndham Pittsburgh Airport, Coraopolis, PA
Sunday, July 25 through Wednesday, July 28, 2004

The PACD/SCC Joint Annual Conference program is taking shape. The full conference program will be mailed in early May along with hotel and room reservation information. In the meantime, here are some program highlights to give you a taste of the events to come.

Sunday July 25, 2004

o Welcome Session
Sunday evening offers a Keynote Address from Eugene Painter, who will share his unique perspective on the Lewis & Clark expedition and it's Pittsburgh connections. Mr. Painter is the great-grandson of Patrick Gass - a member of the expedition, who wrote the first account of the journey ever published.

o Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball, the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Cincinnati Reds

o District Managers Meeting

o PACD Executive Board/Region Directors Board Meeting

Monday July 26, 2004

o Opening Session, with a special Keynote Address by Ray Ledgerwood: Creating Your New Frontier: Don't Get Boxed In
o Stationary Fuel Cells: Presentation by Siemens Westinghouse

o CONSOL Energy Mine Tour
CONSOL Energy, Inc. has offered us the exciting opportunity to provide a small group of participants with an up-close-and-personal look at a longwall mining system at a large underground mine in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

o River Walk and Voyager Boat Tour
Join us for a guided tour along Pittsburgh's North Shore, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and see first-hand how public access and water quality have improved on the Allegheny River. Then it's all aboard the Pittsburgh Voyager (www.pittsburghvoyager.org) for a two-part Three Rivers experience, as participants take a Lewis & Clark historical boat tour and do some hands-on work with water quality.

o Meadowcroft Museum of Rural Life Tour
Meadowcroft (www.meadowcroftmuseum.org) offers visitors the opportunity to "explore the history of life on the land in Western Pennsylvania." Come see the reconstructed prehistoric campsite, the 19th century village with a one-room school and working blacksmith forge, the Meadowcroft Museum, and the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, the earliest evidence of human life in Eastern North America. These are just some of the attractions offered on Meadowcroft's 200-acre facility.

o Developing Effective Leadership for Your New Frontier
Ray Ledgerwood, of Board Works by Ledgerwood, presents an interactive workshop focusing on how to develop the characteristics of effective leaders in your conservation district. This workshop is for both conservation district directors and staff.

o Signs of Conservation: A Mini-Course in Sign Language, Monday evening
PACD Auxiliary President Luetta Gross will present this "hands on" experience. Explore: everyday signs of communication, signs for nature and our environment, a better understanding of deafness, and how to approach someone you meet at work, school, or in the community who is deaf or hard of hearing. Open registration to all conference attendees. All proceeds to benefit the PACD Auxiliary Scholarship Fund.

o PACD Region Directors and DEP Field Representatives Meeting

o PACD Public Relations and Publicity Committee

o PACD Legislation Committee

o PACD Finance Committee

o PACD Soil and Water Committee

o PACD Education and Youth Committee

o PACD Endowment Committee

Tuesday July 27, 2004

o Memorial Breakfast

o Leadership Development Session, will present a brief overview on various techniques and methods to reduce the stress of public speaking.

o PACD/SCC Awards Luncheon, from Noon to 2:30 pm.

o State Conservation Commission Pre-Meeting

o PACD Conservation Issues Forum

o State Conservation Commission Meeting

o PACD Forest, Recreation and Wildlife Committee

o PACD Rural and Urban Land Use Committee

o District Operations Committee

o Host Night Banquet with familiar favorites played by local singer John Kerr.

Wednesday July 28, 2004

o PACD Executive Council Meeting

Ongoing Activities:

o PACD Silent Auction, 8:00 am Monday to 10:30 am Tuesday.

o Hospitality Suite, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evening. Monday night's Suite will offer a special "Lights, Camera, Inter-Action!" theme. A fun-filled wrap-up to the day's activities, join your conservation friends for refreshments, fresh-popped popcorn, and old comedies, conservation shorts, and fun short-movies presented by Jackson Graphics!

You will not want to miss the baseball game, tours, sessions and the PACD Executive Council Meeting. Visit http://www.pacd.org/events/JAC04/default.htm for more information on the conference. See you in Coraopolis!

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