Annual Meeting
Wilmington, Delaware Valley – JUNE 3-5, 2010Now is the time to make your plans for AFL's 2010 annual meeting and program! A brief outline of the schedule and registration details follows:
Thanks to our member and Brandywine Valley Coordinator, Veronica Eid, and lifetime member and live-in Curator of the Hale-Byrnes House, Kim Burdick, working with AFL's vice President Alan Hoffman, we have planned an exciting smorgasbord of Lafayette-related activities on the occasion of AFL's 2010 Annual meeting in the Wilmington, DE area.
After our arrival on Thursday, June 3, 2010, at the Hilton Hotel in Christiana, DE (see below), many of us will convene for an informal dinner at a local restaurant. Members of AFL committees will arrive early to meet in the afternoon.
At 9:00 o'clock on Friday, June 4, we assemble at the hotel for the commencement of our activities and board a chartered bus. At 9:45, we arrive at theBrandywine Battlefield Park (www.brandywinebattlefield.org/) where veteran guide Beth Rorke and her staff will show us the Gilpin House, believed to be Lafayette'sHeadquarters before the Battle of the Brandywine, and the other house at the park, Washington's Headquarters.
At 11:15, we will visit the Birmingham Friends Meeting House (www.birminghamfriends.org/) and adjoining Birmingham Lafayette Cemetery, which contains a monument to Lafayette. At 12:30 we arrive at Winterthur (www.winterthur.org) for our midday repast. There we have arranged an excellent program that includes: a curator's discussion of the Lafayette collection, a private showing of items taken from storage, including a painting of The Brandywine, and small group tours of Lafayette-related items on public display. At 4:00, we will visit theHagley Library (www.hagley.lib.de.us/) which will present to us Lafayette-related itemsin the collection. Coffee and cookies will be served.
The bus will return us to the hotel by 5:15 p.m. At 6:45 we will car-pool one mile to the 1754 Hale-Byrnes House (www.halebyrnes.org) for a tour and our annual banquet, followed by a speaker. The Hale-Byrnes House served as Washington's Headquarters in September 1777, and Lafayette attended General Washington's war council here on his 20th Birthday, September 6, 1777.
On Saturday, the AFL will conduct its annual business meeting at the hotel. Please remember that if you have special business to be brought up at the annual meeting you are encouraged to refer it to the proper committee before they meet on Thursday afternoon. The email addresses of committee chairs will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.
For those of you who have not had enough Lafayette for one weekend, our First Vice President, Alan R. Hoffman, will be lecturing on Lafayette on Saturday afternoon at the Brandywine Battlefield Park.
On Sunday, AFL member Rob Raffety will host a special post-meeting opportunity for our members -- a "mini-wine tour" in Northern Virginia. Please see the attached page for details!
Arrangements Details: Our hotel, the elegant Hilton Wilmington/Christiana (www.HiltonChristiana.com), is holding a block of rooms until May 14 at the very reasonable daily rate of $99 plus a $5.95 connectivity fee and tax, single or double occupancy. Reservations may be made by calling 1-800-348-3133; be sure to specify "The American Friends of Lafayette"when making your reservation. Travel information may be found at (www.hiltonchristiana.com/Directions/directions.asp).
The AFL registration fee will be $140 per person and will cover Friday's luncheon at Winterthur, dinner at The Hale-Byrnes House, our charter coach on Friday, all admission fees, and AFL's expenses for reserving dining and meeting rooms on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The registration fee will not cover dinner on Thursday, breakfasts, and lunch on Saturday. Please send your check payable to "The American Friends of Lafayette" to Philip Schroeder, Treasurer, The American Friends of Lafayette, P.O.Box 9463, Farinon College Center, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042-1798.
Questions? Contact Alan Hoffman at 617-951-1817, (arhoffman@lynchbrewer.com); or Phil Schroeder at 610-759-0551, (schroedp@lafayette.edu).
Dear AFL Members:
Will you be in the Washington, DC area the day after the Annual AFL meeting in Wilmington, Delaware? If so, please consider joining me and others for a mini-wine tour in my home territory of Northern Virginia.
Pearmund Cellars and the Winery at La Grange
Enjoy the breathtaking scenery while Reston Limousine whisks us to the wonderful Pearmund Cellars (www.pearmundcellars.com/)in Broad Run, Virginia and the Winery at La Grange (www.wineryatlagrange.com/)in Haymarket, Virginia. It's an opportunity to socialize, relax, and visiti two of Virginia's fabulous wineries!
I am hoping to organize a group of AFL members and my associates from George Mason University to participaie in a tour and tasting at these two vineyards on the morning and afternoon of Sunday, June 6, 2010. If you are interested in participating, please contact me at your earliest convenience. My phone number is 703-862-6099 and my email address is: rraffety@gmu.edu.
The cost of the tour is $50* per person and includes a catered boxed lunch. Your lunch will contain a choice of sandwich or salad served with chips, a pickle spear and a fresh-baked cookie. All sandwiches come with lettuce, tomato, red onion and provolone cheese.
I hope you can join us for the trip. Vive LaFayette!
Sincerely, Rob Raffety
*Price does not include winery tasting fees ($3-$5 each) or driver gratuity. Tasting fees vary based on each winery and group size. Wineries subject to change without notice. The tour will begin at 10am with pick-up at the West Falls Church Metro parking lot. The van wiII bring us back at 5pm.