Report of the Eighty-First Annual Meeting: Reno, Nevada October 24–27, 2018

The latter part of October 2018 brought a slew of APCG members—veteran meeting-goers and fresh faces alike—to Reno, Nevada, for the group's annual meeting. As might be expected, it was an event both lively and well attended, with 256 in attendance, according to organizers. Much of the meeting took place within the Joe Crowley Student Union, at the rapidly expanding Reno campus of the University of Nevada. Meeting rooms were on the spacious uppermost level of a building named for the late Joe Crowley, who was President at UNR for twenty-five years and—for far longer than a quarter century—the older brother of longstanding APCG stalwart Bill Crowley.

Organized by UNR Prof. Scott Bassett, with Prof. Victoria Randlett at the lead on program organization, the meeting took advantage of available space, created by a lucky eccentricity in the time-space continuum. As it happened, the date Nevada entered the Union in 1864 was October 31, and that continues as the official "Nevada Day." But statehood is actually celebrated on the last Friday of October, which this year turned out to be the 26th of October, and with students taking advantage of a potential long weekend, geographers had the run of the place, except for a posse of fans who converged late Saturday on the nearby football field to watch Nevada beat San Diego State. It wasn't "Spring Break Gone Wild," but there were things enough for attendees to see and do: Basque dinners; the Tesla Gigafactory; cannabis dispensaries; an epic field trip to Pyramid Lake; the creation of a "Midtown District" that is promised for Reno just south of the Truckee River, mainly in evidence through epic road work that turned Virginia Street into something like a downslope slalom course.

All the trappings of a typical APCG meeting over the last twenty years were in evidence: 115 papers submitted, 40 posters proposed (and 39 actually posted for examination and discussion). A Wednesday evening opening talk by geologist Jack Hursh showcased the variety of Nevada landscapes: ranges and basins, streams and twisting roads, lurid place-name and their advocates. Professor of Photography and Videography Peter Goin closed out Thursday (the traditional field trip day) with a talk titled "Nevada: The Leave-it State," which took in Nevada eccentricities and singularities, spinning outward after initiation with a delightful clip from the film classic, The Misfits (1961).

Papers and posters were presented in four concurrent sessions on Friday and Saturday, with abstracts sent in from Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, and internationally from Japan, Canada, and Mexico. The APCG region was well represented, too, of course. Papers and posters proceeded through the two-day cycle, with a steady stream of presenters and listeners and discussions in the halls outside the meeting rooms. And in smaller venues, the Executive Council met in the 420 Room, and the Business Meeting occurred. Social events included modest receptions after the Wednesday and Thursday greeting sessions, a barbecue on Friday at Craft Wine & Beer that brought the mild chaos afoot in reshaping Virginia Street south of the Truckee River into a city-endorsed Midtown District, and, of course, the APCG Banquet on Saturday evening, where outgoing APCG President Paul Starrs offered an address titled "Plus ça Change: Six Vignettes of Landscape Change." With that, it was a "wrap," and meeting-goers offered thanks to the organizers and went their separate ways, though restored by the companionship of geographers visiting for a few days and sharing views of their research, the profession, and the students who brought their ideas to the dais or the poster sessions venue, and embraced a dawning sense of how scholarship and professional associations work.

The Reno meeting was vigorous, managed by UNR professor Scott Bassett, who seemed to be almost everywhere. The venue worked well, and among the decisions made were agreement that next year's meeting (October 16–19, 2019) would convene in Flagstaff, Arizona, under the auspices of NAU (Northern Arizona University), and in 2020, in San Marcos, California...