News from the front:

Auction:
David and Cindy are hard at work and you will be hearing from them. Check out their blog post!

Panels:
Panelists should start hearing from the panel chairs by Aug 15th. The chairs are working diligently now.

Communication:
The wonderful people at Laurie King’s website have set up Bulletin Boards for Bouchercon attendees.
Follow the url and start talking to one another. You do have to register as a member but it’s pretty painless.

Mary Anna Evans has created a Bouchercon page on FaceBook under Events.





I’d like to address Bouchercon’s Future and your role in it.

As you may or may not know with you registration fee you became a part of the process and have an active vote at the General Business Meeting this year. Your membership with this year’s registration extends until the beginning of the Indianapolis Bouchercon. The standing committee is going to ask for the membership to be active in the next several months. I will be posting messages on this blog periodically until Charmed to Death begins. Although each convention and the standing committee are separate entities it is the committee’s feeling that right now this is the fastest and least intrusive way to get the message out to our membership.

And here’s big news

For the year 2010 two bids have been presented to the committee. Both reached us by the July 1st cut off date and were deemed sincere. This means that you will decide where Bouchercon is held at the General Business Meeting this year.

For the year 2011 one bid was presented. The committee has approved the bid and there will be a motion to carry at this year’s General Business Meeting.

There is within the Bouchercon Rules and By-Laws a stipulation that all future bids for upcoming conventions should be presented the first day of the convention. The Standing Committee is waving this wording for 2008 because a portion of the membership would be unable to be active in the discussion. However, we feel it is important to honor the spirit of the wording and so all three bids will use this space this week to present their proposal to our membership minus contract specifics. For the membership who does not yet use the internet there will be copies of all three bids available at this year’s registration tables.

This year’s Standing Committee has been by far the most active of my tenure. It is also a passionate committee, working with the current language to assure the future of Bouchercon. We are asking for our membership to work with us. Your participation will help us to evolve so please make time to attend this year’s meeting and keep checking this blog.