I thought the symposiums went east coast one year west coast the next.
2012 would be an east coast year I would suggest a Tenn. Kentucky or Georgia.
If Minneapolis/St. Paul is considered "west coast" for the 2011 Symposium, I think our cornfields here in Iowa should be re-classified as beachfront property!
Looking at the
MAP of the AAW forums, it would seem that somewhere in the southeast might be a good choice for 2012, somewhere "south central" (TX, LA, MS) , or SoCal/Arizona/Nevada.
I think a lot of this has to do which the availability of the venue as to accommodating a group of 1,500 - 2,000 "rotary woodshaving-generators" at an affordable cost, which can be gotten-to easily by the largest number of members. Having been part of the organization and implementation of a few national meetings in past years (Botanical Society of America; American Society of Plant Taxonomists, American Institute of Biological Sciences) I can tell you from personal experience that this is a delicate balancing act when choosing a meeting site.
Site selection is also indirectly related to the availability of local AAW chapters and the "local guys" at or near the meeting venue who can do a lot of the grunt work and get things going in advance of the actual symposium date. I was happy to be able to arrive early and spend a few hours on the Thursday afternoon before the Albuquerque Symposium helping members of the local AAW chapters set up the demo rooms with lathe accessories, chucks, lights, tools, blanks, compressors, etc. A lot of this volunteer component is "behind the scenes" and often unknown (and under-appreciated) to the meeting participants. I, for one, appreciate those folks at the venue site who are asked to spend their time working on behalf of the meeting participants.
See you in Hartford (.....I'll try to get there early!),
Rob Wallace