Registration Now Open for Ithaca Meeting--June 2020

NARGS Annual Meeting and Tours in June 18 - 20, 2020

Registration Now Open

Message from NARGS president and Ithaca Annual General Meeting chair:

March 19, 2020

For the past week, we have all been focused on how best to protect ourselves given the expanding spread of COVID-19/Coronavirus. Many of us are in a very susceptible demographic age group. Many local chapter meetings have been canceled. Current and upcoming regional events, the speakers tours, and plant sales likewise. Our concern now is that all of you remain well and safe. As this pandemic unfolds, changes are occurring from hour to hour, and right now the "curve" is on the rise.

A lot could change in the coming months. It is too early to say when our NARGS Speakers Tour may resume. Or local chapter meetings, for that matter. And we do not know yet if our NARGS Annual Meeting will be held as scheduled on June 18-20, 2020. Cornell University, which is providing the venue for the Annual General Meeting, has been at the leading edge with safety measures to contain any COVID-19 virus on their premises. On March 13th they shut down the campus for the duration of its spring semester. Cornell has not yet notified us of any cancellation.

So, as of now the events: pre-conference tour and meeting and post tour are still ON as scheduled. We have written to Cornell. We'll let you know its response at such time. Should there need to be a cancellation, I would expect a timely notification and hopefully full refunds to all those registered.

Non-essential travel may be banned in the near future. If you purchased airline tickets to attend our event, let's hope for strategies in the offing that will be revealed soon.

This is a serious situation and we are approaching it as best we know how. This email is just to let you know we are aware of the uncertainties. We will notify you as soon as we receive any confirmed information. We appreciate your understanding at this difficult time.

Please keep safe and be well.

Elisabeth Zander, President, North American Rock Garden Society

Carol Eichler, Chair, Ithaca NARGS Annual General Meeting 2020

To register, click HERE.

The NARGS annual meeting will be held in Ithaca, New York, on June 18 – 20, 2020, on the campus of Cornell University. It is hosted by the Adirondack Chapter of NARGS and co-sponsored with Cornell Botanic Gardens. However, for information about the annual meeting, click HERE.

Additional information can be found HERE and HERE .

In conjunction with the annual meeting next year, the NARGS Tours and Adventures Committee has organized a pre-conference tour on June 15 – 17, 2020, to see the native flora of the Adirondack region, including vegetation of Whiteface Mountain and bogs of the western Adirondacks. Also, a post-conference tour will be on June 21 – 23, 2020, and will visit five public and private gardens in the Hudson River Valley. Registration for both tours is open now. Click HERE for the pre-registration information sheet and the pre-registration form; click HERE for information on the pre-conference tour; and click HERE for information on the post-conference tour.

A note about parking at the conference:

If you want parking for the duration of the conference, Park and Ride is the recommended way to go. It will probably be the more economical way too, since it offers a special conference rate at a flat/per day fee of $6. It allows parking only in one parking lot (Parking Lot A) which is the lot closest to our conference headquarters). The Parkmobile parking option offers greater flexibility since it allows parking at multiple parking lots throughout campus but at varying rates depending on location, and you can purchase parking by the hour or day. This convenience means you may pay a higher parking rate.

Note: parking is free at many campus parking lots (read the signage carefully) during evenings and week-ends, including at Cornell Botanic Gardens for our scheduled visit on Saturday.

Update on parking (Feb. 3, 2020):

Special Event parking for the NARGS conference is now up and live as an "event" on Cornell's Click and Park site. Here's the link:

https://cornell.clickandpark.com/event

Simply search the Conference date: June 17 or 18 and the NARGS Conference will appear as NARGS #1 Rock Garden Society or NARGS #2 Rock Garden Society. Your purchase choice will depend on your planned arrival date - Wednesday or Thursday.

Payment is made outside of your registration payment to Conference Services. Parking permits are paid to Cornell's Transportation Services.