Baitcon XxX – The Invitation!

At long Long LONG last, it’s time again. With hearts full of joy, brains full of relief, souls full of excitement, bodies 5 years older, and overall being just a little bit nervous…

The researchers at the Laboratory for Social Experimentation and the amazing folks who make up the Baitcon ConCom invite you and yours to come back and join us in creating 
another fabulous (long) weekend of Ice Cream, Food, Camping, Music, Trees, and Fun, and to come together to celebrate our ongoing survival in the face of all that the world has thrown at us and in the hope that so doing will re-energize us all to continue fixing the mess the world is in.

There will be ice cream! There will be music! There will be frolicking! There will be hugging! There will be gathering round the fire! There will be more ice cream!! There will, hopefully, be lovely and dry weather! There will be games, dancing, and more! Most of all, we hope that there will be many of you there! Oh, and more Ice Cream!!! There may or may not be lots of exclamation points. But there will be ice cream.

Note:

Things are a bit different this year. Please read this whole thing before you go to the registration form.

Note 2:

All email addresses mentioned anyplace end in -2024 on the left-hand side.

There WILL be a quiz.

When

Friday, June 28th – Monday, July 1st
You are welcome to arrive after 2 PM on Friday and then to leave any time before 2 PM on Monday.

Where

We are, even more than ever, supremely thrilled and delighted to be back at The Mountain Campground @ The Abode, New Lebanon, NY.

More about the location can be found on their website

Registration

REGISTRATION IS OPEN! Huzzah!

To register, please read the rest of this page and then (and only then) use the reg form link near the end. Please don’t try to register via email. (If you are absolutely unable to use the registration form, please contact us and we’ll work something out.)

Previous attendees 1st please

We have a site cap, and we have 5 years of pent-up demand.
We WANT to see ALL of you, but we might not be able to manage that. Because of that, we’re asking that new folks hold back a bit while those who have been before and have been waiting to come back reg 1st. Through the end of Sunday, 5th May we’ll only be treating reg from folks who’ve been before as final.

After 5th May, it’s open to everyone – all of you who’ve been having this thing talked up to you for something like 5 years, all of you who’ve wanted to join us for decades but haven’t managed yet, everyone. We will welcome newcomers as long as you

• a) received this invite directly from us or a previous attendee,
• 2) contact us BEFORE you register, and
• ג) your friend (previous attendee) will also be attending Baitcon XxX. (Note that JB has been before so if he told you to come, that last clause is covered.)

That said: Please register early. Help us ensure that we will not run afoul of the Abode’s site capacity limit, and know that it makes planning the event much easier on the con com.
As well, registering as early as possible lessens JB’s stress that we will fail to achieve the MINIMUM reg that we need to make the event happen. If we have to cancel this because we don’t have enough people coming, you can’t imagine how sad he’ll be.

Cost

We feel bad about this. We’ve agonized about this, but you all know what’s coming:

Prices have gone up. It’s possibly going to make you eep a bit. We’re sorry. But every one of our costs have risen – our site costs by about 40% per person, and food and dairy by a whole lot too – and JB’s ability to pay for the whole thing himself, as much as he’s long wanted to, is even less than usual. As well, we’re in a “No one boiled the frog!” situation, such that we haven’t all had years to get used to it slowly. We’re sorry. We are.

Persons 10 years old and up

• $225

Kids ages 5-9

• $100

Kids 4 and under

• Free

Payment options will be sent out with your registration acknowledgment.

Scholarship

The Baitcon Scholarship Fund remains active. Things are, indeed, hard all around. If you can’t afford the membership price, WE STILL WANT TO SEE YOU! Please send email to info at baitcon dot org*  Please note that scholarships are only granted as funds become available via donations to the Scholarship Fund. As Well: Please note it in the last text field of the reg form. IE: Please still reg if you want to come but can’t afford it.

Relatedly, if you are feeling flush and kind, please consider contributing to the Baitcon Scholarship Fund. Every year your contributions make a real difference.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

It’s been five years! Five freakin’ years. We’re all 5 years older, and at least 6 months slower! BCC needs you to help. Wash dishes, volunteer in the kitchen, haul stuff from over ⟵ there to over there ↝ , etc. Please don’t make us chase you down and end up with the same 15 people washing all the dishes all weekend.

Quite honestly, the amount of help we get will be a huge part of what happens next year.

The secret word is: Krupnik. Did you read the preceding paragraphs?

Info

Info will be updated continually as we get closer to Baitcon. In the meantime, there are some basic details listed below and there’s a handy Q&A page too.

Special Info Note:

Part of the 5 year hiatus thing is that this website is WAY less up-to-date than it might want to be. We’ll be updating as we go, and datestamping new and/or checked pages.

Rules:

They’re linked over on the left, or here: Rules

Meals

Yes! As ever, we’re providing meals for omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans. Please indicate your food preferences and any food allergies in the spaces provided on the registration form. We will post tentative menus and a meal schedule on the food page

We will be providing the following:

• Friday: Afternoon snack and dinner
• Saturday & Sunday: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
• Monday: Brunch (Leftovers!)

As well as lots and lots of …

Ice Cream

As ever, you bring flavor ingredients and we’ll supply the cream, sweeteners, and LN2 to make tasty, tasty magic. Folks of all ages will have a chance to create flavors and there will be both Saturday and Sunday servings. If you want information on how to make a flavor, please see the main ice cream page, or for a look at the flavors of (most of) the past two decades, check out the list!

Kids Ice Cream details are TBD

Lodging

Baitcon is a camping event. There are a LIMITED number of very basic cabins (4 walls, a floor, a door, a roof and some cot-sized beds). Cabins will be assigned first to those with medical needs and/or wee little ones. To request cabin space, please fill out the relevant section of the registration form. Your request is not a guarantee of a cabin, however we will inform you as quickly as possible as to whether we can fulfill your request.

If you would like a list of area B&Bs or motels, and Google/etc isn’t helping adequately, please let us know. We’re more than willing to try to help you find suitable lodging arrangements so that you can attend and enjoy Baitcon. We can try to help you find someone to share a room or tent with, loan you a tent, etc. You can find more lodging information here.

Medical Conditions

If you have any conditions or allergies we should know about, please note that in the space provided on the registration form. This info will be kept confidential and shared only with the Medical Crew. You can find more information about first-aid and medical needs at Baitcon here.

Merriment

Baitcon is what you make it.  Please feel to bring any or some or none of the following: ice cream ideas & makings, games, boffers, hula hoops, dancing feet, drums, musical instruments, arts & crafts, laughter & smiles. If you have an idea for something specific, please email us at info @ baitcon dot org*. Some of the things we have planned are listed on the merriment page – except that’s out of date too and we’ll update it as we go!

Actually Registering! Also paying!

There is a google form out there but it’s too late for that. Email latereg (see note above) to talk to JB if you want to show up anyway.

After you’ve filled it out – one time per person please – and we’ve sanity-checked it – we’ll send you mail asking you to go to the payment page and to deal with that part.

Updates

News and information will be posted here so check back periodically. We will note updates as “posts” here, to which you can subscribe via RSS. If you have an immediate question, please contact us via email at info @ baitcon dot org*