6 months to go to Westover, and the gears are finally beginning to turn!

HOTEL ROOMS

Block rate rooms at the Amador Inn are now available at $69.95 per night for
the weekend of September 24th - 26th. There are some other events happening
that weekend, so be sure to reserve your room early, as any unreserved rooms
will be released from the block in early September.

If you plan to be an early bird arrival on Thursday the 23rd, we do have a
few rooms blocked for that date. (In the unlikely event that they are all
taken when you make your reservation, the hotel is still willing to give you
a room that night at the block rate - just tell the person making your
reservation that you want one of the rooms blocked for the 24th - 26th, but
you will be arriving a day early.)

PRE-REGISTRATION

Last newsletter I mentioned that, due to the lack of a treasury, we would
need to run a pre-registration. This is to ensure we have the funds
required to purchase awards & supplies, and make deposits for the barbeque
and banquet. While we will run a registration desk over the weekend,
Swifters who pre-register will enjoy a discount. We realize that plans are
often soft, due to the possibility of poor weather or other unforeseen
conflicts on the weekend of the event. For that reason, when you
pre-register, your check will be held until September 16th. Should you have
to cancel your plans to attend Westover prior to that date, simply notify me
and I will return or destroy your check. Cancellations after September
16th, 2010 will be refunded after the fly-in, funds permitting.
Pre-registration forms will be e-mailed to you, as well as posted on the
website for download, beginning in April.

HEAD COUNT

Before we can decide on the registration cost, we need at least a rough
estimate of how many people we can expect to attend Westover this year.
This information is needed by April 1st, so that we can decide the cost of
preregistration. PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT, NOW, TO REPLY TO ME AT Erin@UniversalPilotTraining.com AND INDICATE YOUR INTENTION TO ATTEND WESTOVER, AND HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU WILL BE BRINGING. There is no obligation - we just need to have a number to base things on. Thanks! :-)

AIRPORT NEWS

There was concern, last year, that the airport would begin to charge our
group a fee for use of the airport beginning in 2010. Dave Richards has
informed me that there will be no user fee. This is very good news, and is
a good indication that our attendance as a group is seen as beneficial to
the airport. Thank you to Dave, for helping to make that happen!

PHOTOGRAPHS NEEDED

We are planning a powerpoint photo presentation for the Saturday Night
Banquet: A celebration of 25 years at Westover. We need those of you who
have photos of the Westover fly-ins over the years to scan some of your
favorites and e-mail them to: Erin@UniversalPilotTraining.com. A dedicated
part of this presentation will be a tribute to Swifters who have passed on.
If you have photos of these folks, please help us out by sending as much
info as you can along with their pictures, including their name, tail
number of their Swift, and their birth/death year if known.

VOLUNTEERS

We have had a handful of folks generously offer to assist with the planning
and execution of this year's event. I would like to thank them for stepping
up:

Gerry & Carol Hampton - Supplies
Karl & Donna Johanson - Unassigned
Pete Donath - Unassigned
Jim Roberts - Unassigned
Lana Marie Wittman - Registration
Lois Lindley - Registration
Dave Richards - Publicity & Business Contacts
Don Thomson - Friday night bartender

The link below is a list of the tasks that need to be handled, and who has
currently volunteered to handle them. As you can see, there are many tasks
that still need to be assigned. Obviously, the more people who volunteer,
the better. If we can get everyone who attends Westover to handle just one
of these tasks, everything goes easily and quickly, and nobody spends the
whole weekend working. Please let me know ASAP what you can do to make
Westover 2010 happen. Also, please feel free to volunteer ideas. This is
your fly-in, and we want it to be spectacular!

We will be relying much more heavily on volunteer participation, this year, to make this event happen. To that effect, we have posted a list of tasks at "The Volunteer Corner", and ask you to please have a look to see what you might be able to do to help. With enough volunteer help we can have an event that can run smoothly, while providing everyone with plenty to see and do each day. Working together, we can bring a sense of fun and contribution to what otherwise could be a very overwhelming task!

Regarding the Swift Store: While some merchandise will be available through
the SMF, dedicated Westover 2010 merchandise requires an individual or group
who wishes to handle a store project. (No small undertaking!) Let me know
if you would like to take on the task of designing, ordering and delivering
Westover 2010 merchandise, otherwise we will have only a scaled-down version
of the store for the SMF.

Please notify Erin@UniversalPilotTraining.com, of which tasks you would like
to handle. Thank you!

Erin