General Information

I hosted the final New Years weekend at East Hill Farm in Troy, NH.

By starting on Sunday, New Year's day, and everyone having Monday as a holiday, I was able to obtain a facility for our weekend. Miriam and I had our honeymoon here in 1980 (I was attending a caller school), and I have held my last 4 Tech Squares weekends here. They have great people running it, a good facility, plenty of housing options, and yummy food. I think you will be pleased.

This weekend features five sessions of C3B called at dance speed with heavy use of concepts and phantoms and one session of C4 (C-Gulls level). We use Vic Ceder's rotation system. The festivities start with the first dance on Sunday afternoon at 3pm and run through the end of lunch at 1:30 PM on Tuesday.

East Hill Farm hosts square dance and family weekends. Included are lodging for three days and two nights, six meals, snacks, and coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and lemonade available all the time. They have a floating wooden dance floor, several recreation rooms, an indoor swimming pool (bring a swim suit), hot tub, sauna, and outdoor ice rink. All the facilities are non-smoking. In addition they are a working farm with much to see and do on the farm. Finally, they have an extensive set of hiking trails, which are suitable for skiing and snowshoeing.

Getting there: If you fly, your alternatives are:

• 90 minutes from MHT (Manchester, NH)
• 2 hours from BOS (Boston, MA)
• 2 hours from BDL (Hartford, CT)

There is no "extra day -- play games" option this year. You should plan on arriving on Sunday, January 1, 2012 in time for the first dance at 3pm.

Housing options: East Hill Farm is a much larger facility with 71 sleeping rooms in 3 different price ranges in separate buildings over their property. These buildings are 1 to 5 minutes walk from the main building where we will be dancing and eating.

There are three different categories of housing: basic, mid-price, and deluxe. Within each category, the room has either two twin beds or one of a double bed (basic), a queen bed (mid-price), or a king bed (deluxe). Most rooms have private baths, and some deluxe rooms have an adjacent living room with a working fireplace.

Unlike Lake Shore, each room either has a double (or queen or king) bed or two twin beds. On your form you must be clear if you need two twin beds or one double (or queen or king) bed. Some of the guests who are staying over from New Years Eve will still be at the facility during part of our weekend so all 71 rooms are not available to us. We have a few basic and deluxe rooms available and almost all the midprice rooms.

Check out the site and room maps available here. You can also see and read more here. Look carefully to see what type of bathroom and size beds each room has. I will try to give you specific rooms if you request them. Also, if possible, I will try to accommodate people who need a single room (EHF has waived the single surcharge for our weekend).

Here are the rates (per person) for 2 days, 6 meals, 6 dances, tax and tip included:

• Basic: $275
• Mid-price: $285
• Deluxe: $299

Dancing starts at 3pm on Sunday. Your room should be available by 2pm and you are welcome to arrive anytime on Sunday and get a tour of the facility, visit the barns, hang out in the public areas, etc. If you want lunch on Sunday, let me know. It is an additional $12.50.

East Hill Farm is holding a New Year's Eve party Saturday night. If you want to partake, they have some rooms available in each price range. I don't expect to be there, but you are welcome to partake. The cost is $130 (or $140, or $152) per person for dinner, a live band, a midnight breakfast, another breakfast in the morning, and Sunday lunch. Let me know.

Please e-mail me your intent to attend, and what room you want ASAP. Answer these questions in your e-mail:

• What level of housing?
• One bed (double, queen, king) or two twin beds?
• Do you prefer a single room?
• Do you have a preferred roommate (if not registering together)?
• Do you have specific room requests?
• Do you want lunch on Sunday (extra $12.50)?
• Do you want a extra day (arrive by Saturday dinner, I am not part of this)?
• Do you have eating restrictions?
• Is there anything else we need to know about you with regards to food or housing?

This weekend is open to anyone who can do the level. You need to be real good at C3, probably working on C4 to succeed and enjoy the weekend. If you have never attended, you should have workshopped tapes from previous years. If you know someone who should come, but needs that personal touch, let me know.

On the other hand, this weekend isn't appropriate for everyone. If you found yourself in a lot of unsuccessful squares last year, or if you can't do the tapes of the weekend without stopping the tape (say once per sequence or more), this isn't the right weekend for you. Even strong C3 dancers find this a fast, challenging weekend so you should consider whether that's the type of weekend you'll enjoy. Moreover, if during the weekend your squares have been having problems at the floor level, please don't take a number for the C4.

History

Year	Caller	Caller	Caller	Dancers	Attendees	Rooms
1992	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			52	27
1993	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			58	33
1994	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			64	36
1995	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			56	33
1996	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			67	38
1997	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			51	31
1998	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			47	29
1999	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			51	28
2000	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			46	28
2001	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			57	35
2002	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini			56	33
2003	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini	Rob French	49	54	30
2004	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini	Yoo Fujuse	51	60	34
2005	Clark Baker	Ben Rubright	Rob French	46	51	29
2006	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini	Vic Ceder	54	59	32
2007	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini	Sue Curtis	56	57	32
2008	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini	Vic Ceder	44	44	25
2009	Clark Baker	Lynette Bellini	Sue Curtis	43	45	28
2010	Clark Baker	Vic Ceder	Sue Curtis	48	52	28
2011	Clark Baker	Vic Ceder		47	49	33