More of the NOMADS Annual Meeting

First, I'd like to welcome our latest Followers (and fellow NOMADS):

Phyllis and Leonard

Thanks for joining us and great to meet you guys!
------------------------------

There are a lot of things to do here at the NOMADS annual meeting.  On Monday we signed up for the tour of the Biltmore House in Asheville.

 What a magnificent estate.  It is hard to imagine the kind of money it took to create this home and grounds.  We took a self guided tour through the basement and library and some the 250 rooms that were open to the public.  It was really interesting to see what they had in the early 1900s.  Indoor plumbing, electricity, an indoor swimming pool and a bowling alley were among some of the things we saw.

Later on Tuesday at lunchtime, we had a Full-Timers meeting in the Tom Johnson RV center maintenance building.  There was a good turnout let by NOMADS board member Carol Stoner.

She talked about the NOMADS Birds-Of-A-Feather (BOF) group in the Escapees group which everyone can join and help get the NOMADS word out.  Also, the couple that are hosting the 2011 NOMADS Annual Meeting  gave some information about next year's meeting in Forest City, Iowa.

Every morning at 7:30 Gene has a 30-45 minute Bible Study that is well attended.  He is always well prepared and has a great set of notes and outline to follow which I appreciate with the speakers.

A real fun thing was the auction.  Every year they have a silent auction and then a real live action.  It is amazing to watch people bid.  This is a little different though ~ here people are not trying to get something for the absolute lowest price.  Here there is a very heavy dose of giving mixed in with the activities.  $2 bills went for over $100 (can't remember exactly, maybe it was more).

They bid on everything from wood carvings to dulcimers.  Total raised:  almost $34,000!  This is from among 280 people who attended the meeting.  It was amazing.  These monies are used to help the "agencies" where we volunteer.  Sometimes a church or a campground can't afford to buy materials for us to fix up the place so NOMADS buys the materials.

And there were a number of seminars.  Here is a rep from Tom Johnson's RV Center

And another seminar on diesel vs gas engines,

And another one on electricity and how to wire switches in a house

They were pretty well attended and it was nice of the guys who took the time and effort to try to teach us something.

We had a board meeting everyday where we heard reports of committees and found out who got elected to the board this year and who is leaving.  We have a very hard working group of men and women who do a lot of things behind the scenes.

The latest big deal is the new website and how it is being used for a number of activities.  We have added two or three new members since we have been here at the meeting because of the website.  It used to take weeks to get everything submitted and approved, now it takes only hours online.

And we had a potluck dinner on Wednesday night which we throughly enjoyed.  It was another way to meet some of the folks here.

The food and fellowship were great and we are glad we were able to come this year.

After dinner we got to hear the music of Tom Page and Mary Lou Troutman, otherwise known as 'Dust and Ashes'.  They travel and sing and were excellent.

We collected over $1100 at the love offering for them.  These NOMADS are a very generous group.
It has been a very good week.

And we hope you are having a very good week.  Please leave a comment and stay in touch with the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Thanks for viewing today!