Featuring: Lectures and presentations, displays, exhibits, banquet, dealers, hospitality suite, auctions, field Trips, technical session, and museum visits

Pre-registration has closed!

Pre-registration for early bird pricing closed after May 1, 2023. You can still register on-site for weekend conference activities. Only those who pre-registered can attend the conference banquet and MMGM Heritage award ceremony on Friday night, May 19.

Conference Event Schedule

(Subject to Change):

Friday, May 19, 2023 Schedule
  • Maine Mineral & Gem Museum Visit
  • Technical Session
  • Exhibits and Displays
  • Evening Banquet and MMGM Heritage Awards
  • Talks: Miners’ Update
  • Dealers and Hospitality Suites into the evening

9:00 am – 4:30 pm: On-site registration is open!
Pick up your pre- registration packet, or register on-site for the event. Registrations for the Banquet and Heritage Award Ceremony are available only through pre-registering up to May 1st! Bring auction items to the registration area for cataloguing.

9:00 am – 3:00 pm: Maine Mineral & Gem Museum Visit Option
MMGM is opening one hour early for NEMC registrants to visit; entry stays open through 3:00 pm. You may purchase a reduced rate entry through NEMC registration or arrive at MMGM with your name badge and purchase entry at their front desk. Plan for a minimum of one hour to visit the museum.

Noon or 1:00 – 4:00 pm: Technical sessions
There will be several options of sessions for conference attendees. Session topics will be published by the first of May. Registration is closed during the banquet.

4:00 – 5:00 pm – Cash Bar
Offered by Sunday River prior to the Banquet/Awards Ceremony

5:00 – 6:30 pm – Conference Banquet & MMGM Heritage Award Ceremony
Tickets for this MUST be purchased in advance via pre-registration!

6:30 – 7:30 pm On-site registration open

7:00 – 8:00 pm Conference Opening Session
“New England Mining & Museum Update – New England Miners”

8:30 pm and into the evening: Dealer’s Wing
The ‘Dealer’s Wing’ is open late into the night and throughout the conference. DEALER’S WING is open late into the night. Throughout the conference, this is not just about buying; it is a great time to ‘talk rocks’.

8:45p Hospitality Rooms:
Open in the dealer’s wing. Light desserts and beverages.

Saturday, May 20, 2023 Schedule
  • Lectures and presentations
  • Exhibits
  • Displays
  • Auctions
  • Dealers and Hospitality Suites into the evening

8:00 am – 2:00 pm: On-site registration
Auction item drop-offs resume until 9:00 am. Conference area lobby.

9:00 am: Welcome Address

9:10 am – 12:00 pm: Lectures/talks
Speakers to be announced

12:00 – 2:00 pm: Silent Auction
Start of the silent auction to benefit the conference. Please donate mineral items that we can auction – should be brought to the registration desk no later than 9:00 am on Saturday morning so we have time to catalogue, price, and display auction pieces. Live auction items are also available for viewing.

LUNCH ON YOUR OWN (12-2)
The Hospitality Rooms are not open to conference attendees during this time period. The Dealers’ Wing is open.

2:00 – 4:00 pm: Lectures/Talks

After Lectures/Talks: Live Auction and Silent Auction
LIVE AUCTION to benefit the Conference (about 10 minutes after afternoon lectures end). END OF THE SILENT AUCTION takes place about 5-10 minutes after live auction.

After Silent Auction and into the evening: Dealer’s Wing
The ‘Dealer’s Wing’ is open late into the night and throughout the conference. DEALER’S WING is open late into the night. Throughout the conference, this is not just about buying; it is a great time to ‘talk rocks’.

6:30 pm – Hospitality Rooms:
Open in the dealer’s wing. Light appetizers and beverages.

Sunday, May 21, 2023 Schedule
  • Field Trip
  • Maine Mineral & Gem Museum Visit

9:00 am – 4:00 pm: The mine field trip will be announced at the conference.
Additional details forthcoming.

11:00 am – 4:00 pm: Maine Mineral & Gem Museum Open for Visits
You may purchase a reduced rate entry through NEMC registration or arrive at MMGM with your name badge and purchase entry at their front desk. Plan for a minimum of one hour to visit the museum.

Important Conference Information

Museum Visits

The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum (MMGM) is opening an hour early for NEMC registrants to visit and will have entry to the Museum open through 3:00 pm. You can visit the museum more than once, but will need a ticket for each entry; each NEMC registrant will receive the reduced rate for each visit. Targeted times for visits are on Friday from 9:00 am – 4:00 p and Sunday from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. You may purchase and attend both a Sunday Museum visit and a Mine Collecting Field Trip option and do them in either order. Time frames for attending will remain as 9:00 am – 4:00 pm for mine field trip and 11 am – 5:00 p for the museum.

Tickets may be purchased through pre-registration, or you may present your NEMC 2023 registration badge for a reduced entry fee on site at the Museum for entry.

You can also become a member of the museum with membership fees as low as $35 annually; all membership levels gain you unlimited entries (and more) to the museum. Check out becoming an MMGM Member here.

Technical Session

We will not be holding Education Day on Friday of the Conference – see June 10th Tailgate below for our alternate – but we will offer education to adults in the form of a Technical Session with consecutive talks of a more technical level and 1 or 2 educational talks offered throughout the afternoon.

These talks will take place somewhere in the noon to 4:00 pm time frame. As soon as we have solid timing and topic titles, we will post updates. Attendance at the Technical Session is included in both the two-day and three-day conference options.

Banquet and MMGM Heritage Award Ceremony

There will be a Dinner Banquet held on Friday evening from 5p – 6:30p in the ballroom. We are delighted to host the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum’s Heritage Awards Ceremony during this time. Tickets for the Banquet *must* be purchased as a pre-registration add-on by May 1; they will *not* be available at on-site registration.

Field trip(s) and Field Trip Lunch

Locations for Field Trips to mines for collecting will be announced at the Conference. These are usually trips to mines that are closed to the public, but mine owners generously give special entry to NEMC participants for one day of collecting. Mine rules apply at all sites, and liability waivers must be signed in advance. Field trip tickets and field trip lunches may be purchased through pre-registration, or on site through Saturday morning at noon. There are usually two to three options for field trip lunches, including a vegetarian option.

Reservations at Sunday River Resort

Reservations can be made to stay at Sunday River Grand Summit directly by calling their Reservations Department at 1-800-207-2365. Be sure to refer to the NEW ENGLAND MINERAL CONFERENCE 2023 GROUP when making your reservation so you will qualify for the special group rate. Note that it is questionable if the on-site restaurants at Sunday River will be open during the conference; they are, however, several restaurants in the Newry and Bethels areas that will be open through the event. It is not required that you stay on site; some attendees that need lodging prefer to secure it at other locations (hotels, VRBO, AirBnB, etc).

Conference attendees-are generally housed in the northern wing of the facility. If you have special needs for site access, please let the Reservations Department know so they can appropriately accommodate.

Information for Dealers

Dealers: the available rooms on the first floor of the South Wing are reserved exclusively for our dealers. When making reservations for rooms, dealers need to:

  1. First, talk with Jeff Morrison at 207.232.4973 or email him at jmorris7@maine.rr.com to request entry as a dealer and receive confirmation from him that you may be a dealer.
  2. When calling Sunday River (1-800-207-2365) note not only you are part of the NEMC2023 Group, but also that you are a Dealer and need a First Floor Room.
  3. Also, as you reserve your room, let Sunday River know if you will need a table rental (please copy this information to us so we can verify with Sunday River).
  4. Bring a doorstop, as the doors have pneumatic closures on them.
  5. We will have room signs for the hallway, so make sure we know what trade name wording you want on the sign – mail this information to Jan at nemineralinfo@gmail.com.

Volunteers

There are several options for volunteering at the conference or conference-related events. If you have been an Education Day volunteer, the Museum might be able to use your help through the weekend. Please let Jan know by emailing her at nemineralinfo@gmail.com, and she will forward your information to museum staff who will contact you about volunteering there.

We also have need for a few volunteers on Friday for helping with registration (led by Jan Morrison, Lily Sweeney, and Tricia Perham), receipt of auctions items (led by Tricia Perham), and in banquet table decoration (led by Pam Price). Saturday we will need help again with registration and with auction set up. Please let Jan know at nemineralinfo@gmail.com if you’d like to volunteer for these needs.

Auction

Please donate mineral items that we can auction – bring to registration desk on Friday, and no later than 9:00 am on Saturday morning so we have time to catalogue, price, and display auction pieces. Live auction items will be available for viewing on Saturday afternoon. Live auction and silent auction will take place after the 2:00-4:00 pm talks on Saturday.

Mineral Tailgate on June 10, 2023

In lieu of our historical Education Day on Friday, we will instead have expanded kid’s activities at a Mineral Tailgate Sale to be held Saturday, June 10 (with a rain date of Sunday, June 11) at the Havey Quarry from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm, benefitting NEMA’s programs.

We are hopeful that those that have volunteered for Education Day in the past will this year come to the June 10 Tailgate (and/or September 16 Tailgate), and set up your station there! Jen Cote will be coordinating the Kid’s Activities areas and can all the volunteers she can get to help her. Please let Jan know your interest and willingness by emailing her at nemineralinfo@gmail.com, and put KID’s ACTIVITIES in the subject line.

If you want to be a dealer at either of the tailgates (June 10 or September 16), please contact Jeff by email at jmorris7@maine.rr.com, or by phone at 207.232.4973. Jan, the executive director of NEMA, does *not* handle dealers sign up,

Tributes

Since we last held the conference, we have lost NEMA Board Member Sean Sweeney and legendary miner, Frank Perham. To honor each of these men, Jan is collecting any photos and personal stories/anecdotes you’d like to share and will have an area where we share these at the conference. We are hopeful for a digital version of the tribute, so emailing is preferred.

Please email photos and tributes to Jan at nemineralinfo@gmail.com by May 10, (or, if unable to send a digital photo, bring printed photos that we can keep to the registration desk on site during the conference).

There will also be a verbal Memorial Tribute to Frank during the Saturday talks, and in our exhibit room across from the ballroom will be a condensed version of the memorial exhibit case that Jeff and Jan put together with Jim and Gail Spann that was on display at Tucson. Members of both Sean’s and Frank’s families will be attending portions of the conference and serving as volunteers. We thank them for their service to our community, and appreciate your participation in the request for some good memories to be shared.

Portraits of Frank Perham and Sean Sweeney

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