2006 Assembly site is changing

Dan Miller

cranky canoeist
Staff member
Bad news, we have just been notified by Paul Smiths college that we are not going to be able to hold our assembly there this year. Our assembly committee is working to locate another site (Keuka College is quite likely), and they are trying to keep the dates the same. Updates will be posted here are they become available.

Unfortunately, this also reinforces the need to identify other potential assembly sites. Guidelines for assembly site selection can be found here: http://www.wcha.org/assembly/site.html
 
F Harvey Bowley said:
where is Keuka ???

It is not set yet, just the best prospect to date.

Keuka College was the host of the 2001 Assembly. It is located on Keuka Lake, which is one of the finger lakes of central New York. Here is a map:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.ad...ry=US&title= Keuka Park, NY US&cid=lfmaplink2

and here is the Assembly report:

http://www.wcha.org/wcj/v24_n5/assembly.pdf

The facility was nice, but the water is big. I think the bride was a little miffed to find the vendors set up under the shade trees that lined the path to the chapel...
 
The car knows the way...

My wife and her family lived in Hammondsport and I've made many a trip out the thruway to the Y-shaped finger lake, mostly when I was young and foolish.

The lake is long and narrow and power boats run along the shore all day. I was playing in the chop with a Prospector for days last summer. There is a great deal to do in the area. Penn Yan is nearby, Curtis aircraft Museum, many a vineyard to sample from.

There is also an old boat regatta mid-summer timeframe in Hammondsport. It might add to the flavor of the weekend if they coincided.
 
Assembly 06

Dan,
My two cents. The previous Assembly at Keuka was acceptable. The college had good dorms, the food was better that Paul Smiths and the field space was fine. Parking was a problem only because they were repaving lots when we were there. The negatives are: water access was less then ideal (bring boat carts) and the lake is large and less intimate for canoeing than the area around Paul Smiths. Knowing how hard it is to find a acceptable place, let alone on short notice, I support going to Keuka College this summer if it can be worked out. Please challenge all the stone throwers to try to find a better site for 07. (By find a better site I mean go through all the steps of reviewing a site, not just bring up the name of a possible site.)

If it is scheduled the same weekend as the Antique boat show on lower Keuka lake, it would be a plus. Still have memories of the Gold Cup boat I saw there with twin Packard 12 cyl. motors.

Dave
 
has anybody checked the White camp for Assemblies?

Thats the great white pine camp.Theres a few other camps also ,one is the Sagamore great camp in Racquette Lake-very nice .I know they are smaller for accomodations but do we really have 300+ attendances that reserve? I hope we can keep it in the Adirondacks,its central to many other places and has so many wonderful places to paddle .I also remembered Elk Lake Lodge. I also dont think we should keep the cost too far down ,it will open up more places.Camping can be the alternative for those on a tighter budget.Perhaps Mrs Hallie Bond may have a sugggestion.
 
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possible Assembly sites in Adirondacks

Hi Corrado,

I share your desire to have future Assemblies in the Adirondacks. I love being there for Assemblies, so much so that I have usually gone up days early to have more time in such beautiful canoeing country.

However, may I respectfully suggest that there is much more to finding Assembly sites than just throwing out names. There are no full time WCHA staff members. Everyone has other jobs and responsiblies. Time to do WCHA work is "stolen" from busy lives and full days. The people on the Assembly Site Committee can look at only a few sites a year in a general review and less yet in a extensive review. If you (or I) have a potentially good site in our beloved Adirondacks, we should do all the investigation possible, following the Assembly site guidelines, to help convince the Assembly Committee of the feasibility of that site. (I am not on the site committee, so these are just my thoughts on site selection.

Dave
 
(Looong sigh)

OK, I realize why Assembly is held where it is, but if its held anywhere east if Lake Superior, it really doesn't affect me at all because I just can't get there. I wish that I could contribute to the search for a site, but you'll all have to excuse me and understand why I am not.

My vote goes to somewhere further west...:D
 
I also wish that for once (ok, again) it would be held further west. I have been a member since the start, and have never been able to get to an assembly. Jill and Jeff Dean had it in Madison one year, maybe we could have it there again?

Perhaps it is time to consider making the Assembly something other than an eastern seaboard endevour.

Mark

P.S. I live in Nevada so it would still be a hell of a drive.
 
Assembly sites

Dear Doug and Mark,

WCHA is a volunteer organization; it has no paid staff. Things get done only when someone chooses to do them. If members want an Assembly in the Mid-West or West, those who live in that area need to research possible sites and present the Assembly committee the data. It is a arduous process, but necessary for a site to be chosen. Anyone researching a site will do so at sites somewhat near where they live because of the difficulty of doing it long distance.

I attended the Assembly in Madison as my first Assembly and loved it. However the site would not work with the present attendence numbers at Assemblies. Just as an example, the beach is on a public road. We had to carry all our canoes into the basement of a dorm for security each night. Worked ok with 50 canoes, wouldn't work with hundreds. The beach was fine for the 50 canoes present, but wouldn't fit the numbers that show up now.

The Assembly in Dorsett was even better, but that site doesn't have the housing needed with our present numbers. I would camp, but many who come don't want to, so housing for substantial numbers is needed.

If someone choses to researches a site out of the Northeast and presents a fully detailed proposal to the Assembly committee, I'm sure it will be strongly considered for a future site. Just don't expect someone else to do your work for you and then complain when they don't.

Sorry for presently the facts (as I see them) so bluntly, I'm at the age where I'm less diplomatic than I used to be. Find a site in your neighborhood and I will come fron CT.

Dave
 
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