Happy April my friends!

As I have mentioned before, our conference hotel, the Regency, is a small, intimate property with 95 rooms that range from deluxe doubles to swanky suites. When we scheduled INANE we took a gamble to contract all 95 rooms for Monday Aug 4 and Tuesday Aug 5. We’re getting close to filling the place up–a Full House as I call it. As of today, 83 rooms have been booked for those two days. Sunday is also booking up, with 73 rooms reserved.

The idea of filling the entire hotel with INANE colleagues just makes me happy! The thought of taking over the whole joint for our conference makes me feel like it’s giant slumber party or summer camp. Maybe I’ll have to go buy myself some footy pajamas and bunny slippers to really add to the slumber party ambiance. LOL.

If you haven’t made your room reservation yet, it is getting to the point where you should not procrastinate any longer. Staff at the Regency will work with us to secure overflow bookings at adjacent hotels in the (likely) event that our groups fills the Regency to capacity. The nearby hotels are nice but trust me, it will be more fun to be at INANE Conference Central. The best way to reserve a room is by phone: call 1-800-727-3436 or 1-207-774-4200. Tell them you are attending INANE. If you have any problems at all, send me a message using this link and I will work with my contacts to have the issue quickly resolved.

Another reminder: our regular registration rate is in effect for just 29 more days. On May 1st, registration will increase by $100. If you are planning to attend INANE don’t wait any longer to register–do it now while it is on your mind. It only takes a minute or two. Click here to be taken to our secure registration site.

The next deadline that is quickly approaching: April 15 which is the last day to submit nominations for the Margaret Comerford Leadership Award. The online application can be found here. While it will probably take more than 2 minutes to complete, the award committee strove to make the application straightforward and concise. Thanks again to the members of this year’s committee: Shawn Kennedy, Chair and members: Grif Alspach, Joy Don Baker, Kathy Baker, Sean Clarke, Vicki Conn, Margaret Freda, Jan Fulton, Jackie Owens.

Last, we have had a surge of donations to the Suzanne Smith Development Fund in the past few weeks. Encouraged by Suzanne’s family, many of her friends and colleagues have donated to the fund. Yesterday, I received a group of donations from the Manatee County Ladies Golf Association! With funds received, we will be able to continue the Mentoring Editors Awards program going forward for several years to come. It makes me happy to be able to keep Suzanne’s memory alive in INANE with this program. All donors are listed at the bottom of every page on this website. We are still gratefully accepting donations–click here to be taken to our secure donation site and thank you in advance for your generosity.

Until the next update,

Leslie

for the planning committee: Peggy Chinn, Margaret Freda, Shawn Kennedy, Lisa Marshall and Jean Proehl.