Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

Whereas, the Geography and Planning Department at Chico State University has hosted this eightieth meeting of the APCG with a welcoming face, full of good spirit, camaraderie, and considerable warmth (emphasis on the warmth!), and

Whereas, we have all benefited from their considerable organizational skills and success in arranging a most rewarding and fulfilling program, and

Whereas, we accord special recognition to the labors of Conference Organizers Mark Stemen, Scott Brady, Dean Fairbanks, and Jessie Mendoza; to the dedicated Field Trip Leaders; to the gracious Student Assistants; and to the legion of Student Volunteers…and let me hold out a special mention from my own observations to Mark Stemen—at all the many APCG meetings I have attended, never have I seen anyone work so tirelessly and continually to ensure the success of these meetings, and

Whereas, we take note that, nonetheless, the super-vigilant and ever-present Resolutions Committee, at first sensing that it might be witnessing the perfect meeting, eventually found it necessary to withdraw that sensing and that witnessing upon receiving reports from the committee's extensive network of on-site informers, its squadron of unmanned drones, and its variety of remote sensors strategically located, regrettably necessitating its mentioning particular acts and certain occurrences that merit individual citation, to wit:

Whereas, on the Agricultural Field Trip, amid transiting a landscape of prolific water availability for the benefit of rice growers, where evaporation loss amounts to millions of gallons annually, the non-flush urinals at Lundberg Family Farms in the midst of Riceland were provided by a company called Waterless, with signage on each unit indicating a savings of 45,000 gallons per year, and

Whereas, on the Oroville Dam Field Trip, while John Carthew of Pierce College and his accomplice Matt Lofton, riding in their own vehicle, were able to get a tour of the power house and the base of the dam, those on the tour bus were asked to imagine what the spillway must look like since they were a mile away with an obstructed view, and

Whereas, hundreds of attendees on both Friday and Saturday morning searched desperately to find Session A, alas, one of the program people, apparently [End Page 164] of Polish or Welsh origin, refused to have any sessions named after a vowel, therefore beginning each day with Session B, and

Whereas, APCG regulars Ray Sumner of Long Beach City College and John Menary of CSU, Dominguez Hills, found a way around program limitations of twenty-minute presentations, cleverly arranging back-to-back deliveries of apparently two papers, reversing lead authorship for the "second" paper—the first being titled "Field Methods," and the second "Fieldwork Surprises," and

Whereas, while the Sacramento Valley appears flooded with rice, there is an apparent looming shortage of potatoes, as witnessed by the potato salad drought at last night's barbecue, leading some to say, "We want to go back to Idaho!", and

Whereas, speaking of Idaho, in the tradition initiated by Gundars Rudzitis at the 2010 APCG Meeting in Coeur d'Alene on inviting us all to meet in Idaho, then proceeding to disappear until just before the meetings, Eugenie Rovai generously invited us to meet in Chico and then disappeared into the mists and has successfully avoided this conference altogether, and

Whereas, back to the Barbecue, the Vegetarian Cohort found themselves enveloped by carnivore-focused menu planners whose response to the Veggies was "Eat potato salad, my friends," but of course, we know what happened with the potato salad, and

Whereas, as Jeffrey Schaffer rose to give his intended presentation titled "Will the Sierra Nevada's Major Uplift Myth Finally Die?" an audience member said "No," and with the question answered, Schaffer was able to simply sit down and drink his coffee, and

Whereas, Tom Sanchez of the University of Nevada and Robby Schlesinger planned to offer a paper titled "Spatial Trends in the Flavor Profile of Craft Beers in the Contiguous United States," they found it impossible to make their presentation, having just finished the 2,304^th sampling from their 48...