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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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,