I attended on Saturday from 9:30 to 3:00. It was the first NCCFFF conclave I have attended and I liked the event.
I thought the workshops that were provided were a good mix. Lots of good destination specific presentations. There were a good number of casting classes that seemed to be very well attended. There were five guys from my club (Stanislaus Fly Fishers)that took the fly casting clinic with Al Kyte, and that was excellent, although I have to say that I was totally overloaded with information (not a bad thing!).
Our club participated in the rod building contest, for which I was the designated builder. This added a lot of interest for me and it was great to see all of the various club's rods in the silent auction hall. Friend of the board Pappy won first place with his entry for the Shasta/Trinity Fly Fishers. As usual, it was a beautiful rod.
For constructive criticism, let me toss out a few thoughts:
1. The PA system in the main hall was ineffective. This was probably due mostly to the amount of noise there, but the speaker was almost completely unintelligible.
2. There was no good schedule (that I saw) that included all of the scheduled events. I was able to find out via word of mouth that there would be a presentation of the winners for the rod building contest in the main hall, but no information on what time it would take place.
3. A handout with a map of the venue, with the various rooms and meeting locations ID'd would have helped. Our casting class took place on the lawn in the back, but we were to meet in the main entry way. But none of this was shown on paper. You had to luck out and hear the (nearly unintelligible) announcement before the event.
Those are the only things that jump out at me as being an issue. I really liked the facility, and thought that the layout was great from the standpoint of how the conclave events worked. Lodi is also a good location for me, being from the Modesto Area.
What were your thoughts on how attendance worked out? Were there more members there this year as compared to holding the event in Redding?
One other thing comes to mind. The Stanislaus Fly Fishers is located pretty close to Lodi. There are a good group of guys in our club that would loved to have lent a helping hand (and were told that our help could have been used). Give us a call next time.
Thanks for all of the hard work you put into the event, Dustin, it really showed.
Buzz
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