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.

Options for lunch this year will be announced.

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. Call Sunday River (1-800-207-2365) and tell them not only are you part of the New England Mineral Conference 2025 Group (Group Code 86G0FW), but also that you are a dealer and need a South Wing first floor room. Room types and costs vary. You may not have your pick of room types if you linger on reserving a room. Verify with Sunday River that you have the correct type of room on South Wing First Floor (the floor with the door that opens on the south wing parking area). If you are told by Sunday River that there are no more rooms available on South Wing First Floor, please inform Jeff asap so he can work with Sunday River on that issue.
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 (keep it short; the signs aren’t large) – this information should go on your registration form. If you did not put it on your registration form, then email the information to Jan at nemineralinfo@gmail.com. Without it, there will be no signage for your room.
6. If you encounter any irregularities during checking in to the hotel at their front desk, please notify Jan (at NEMA Registration area) and she will intercede with the hotel on your behalf. (We have access to a list of those utilizing the group code and their room placements, as long as you have done all the registration/reservations by May 2nd with NEMA and 9th with Sunday River.)
7. NOTE: You may park near the first floor parking lot door only while offloading. Others also need to utilize the door area, as well. Please share this space. Note that it is also a fire lane, so you *could* be towed if your vehicle is not obviously in the process of offloading, or is left unattended.

VENDOR/DEALER SCAM ALERT! If anyone other than Jeff or Jan posts that “we are still accepting vendors and to send all your info to her”, know that she/he/they/it is a scammer and/or a bot. They will try to get you to send them a check or other form of payment. It is also likely this scammer(s) will pop up in other personas – it’s a frequent problem with all shows. The ONLY way to be a dealer at the conference (and tailgates too!) is to contact Jeff directly. Do not be fooled! Email or call Jeff or Jan ASAP, or find us at the conference and tell us in person if you have seen this scam in action. Click here for more about this issue on the NEMA FaceBook page.

MAKING RESERVATIONS BY PHONE

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 mention group code 86G0FW so you will qualify for our special rate.

ONLINE RESERVATIONS NOW AVAILABLE!

This year, you can also reserve Sunday River lodging online by clicking on this booking link. This booking link has the special group rate and the date range of May 15-18 already applied – you can easily adjust dates if needed.

Note that it is uncertain if the on-site restaurants at Sunday River will be open during the conference; but there are plentiful options in the Newry and Bethel area for take-out, groceries, or dine-in in the area. It is not required that you secure lodging 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.

If you are not a dealer and are given or request a room on the first floor of south wing, understand that this is the section reserved for dealers, and that you may be moved for us to be able to accommodate the dealers that sign up for this year’s conference.

Please consider any mineral items you may have for donation (specimens, books, photographs, vintage magazines, and other odds and ends) that we can auction off. Check out our photo gallery of some of 2023’s auction pieces! We’ll ask you to 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.

The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum (MMGM) typically opens an hour early for NEMC registrants to visit. Entry to the Museum typically remains 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. Typical 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 2025 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.

There will be a dinner banquet held on Friday evening from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm in the ballroom. Tickets for the banquet *must* be purchased as a pre-registration item by May 2; they will *not* be available at on-site registration. There is a specific line on our registration form for those who want only to purchase banquet tickets without paying for any other portion of the conference.

We will once again offer education to adults in the form of a technical session with consecutive talks of a more technical level and one or two educational talks offered in the afternoon. These talks will take place somewhere in the noon to 4:00 pm time frame on the Friday of the conference. As soon as we have solid timing, we will let you know. Ditto on topic titles! Attendance at the technical session is included in both the two-day and three-day conference options.

Check out our events page for details. NEMA will once again hold summer (June 7) and fall (September 13) mineral tailgates.

We are hopeful that those that have volunteered for Education Day in the past will come once again to one of or both mineral tailgates, and set up your educational station there!  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 2025 tailgates, please contact Jeff by email at jmorris7@maine.rr.com, or by phone at 207.232.4973. Note that Jan, the executive director of NEMA, does *not* handle dealers sign up. There is more information about becoming a dealer on the  events page for our tailgate events.