Come to the GBA Spring Conference 2020 in Augusta, Georgia.

The conference will take place at Augusta University Summerville Campus. The street address is 2500 Walton Way, Augusta, GA 30904. When your GPS gets you there, we'll have signs to guide you to the University Hall, site of much of the conference.

GBA Spring Meeting is full of great speakers, fun beekeeping connections, and an informative dinner.  Kirsten Traynor, Rachael Bonoan, and Wyatt Mangum are our featured speakers. We heard your feedback and are going back to the system of two breakout sessions - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Some of our regional speakers include Kathy Bourn, Ted Dennard, Harold Lanier, Tom Rearick, and Virginia Webb. Topics will appeal to experienced beekeepers as well as beginners. We will be offering topics to help bee clubs as well as expertise training for honey judges.

Our spring meeting includes the Artisan Show with fourteen entry classes. Get out your camera, heat up your ovens, ply your needles! Enter mead, baked goods, photography, crafts, gadgets and many more categories. And the prize money is well worth it. The rules are here.

Do you have a small/large/any size bee business that you want to advertise? We have a lively auction to sell four coveted spots on the GBA web page. Bring your checkbook and plan to bid high and often! To see the current ads, click here. And to see the rules for bidding for a slot, click here. The bidding will be held at 9:30 on Saturday morning.

The meeting starts on Friday with the GBA Board meeting. The GBA Board will meet at 5:00 PM in the upstairs room at the JSAC building where we met last year. Following the board meeting, we will have a cocktail reception followed by a special dinner event for all registrants who sign up for it. 

Note in your registration that you have the choice to attend the special Friday dinner event as well as register for the Saturday meeting.

As we did last spring, this year on Friday night, we will have a catered dinner and a talk from our own Bob Binnie. As we gather to begin our year of celebrating GBA's 100th birthday. He will share his stories about his history with beekeeping.

We will have a cash bar and reception which starts at 6:30. The dinner at 7 PM will be held at the college. Dinner will be catered and will include roasted vegetables, bread, salad, non-alcohol drinks and dessert.

The cost of the dinner is $25 a person. We invite all of you to take advantage of this special opportunity to be with each other and to hear Bob speak. In our feedback after each meeting, people always mention how much they enjoy connecting with friends at the dinner.

The general spring meeting will take place all day on Saturday, February 22, beginning with a talk by Rachel Bonoan and including Wyatt Mangum discussing the history of beekeeping from the 1870s. Our regional speakers will include Tom Rearick discussing intelligence and honey bees and our own Virginia Webb will be presenting a hands-on workshop on wax.

Please do register for the event, and be sure to check your lunch preference for the boxed lunch provided by GBA.

• Registration for member is $50, including lunch. 
• Registration for non-members is $70, including lunch.

Note: if you join GBA now for $15 and pay the member registration fee of $50 for this conference, you will save $5. 

Reminder:  To enter the honey show, you must be a paid up GBA member by February 8. Beginning February 8, registration fees for everyone will be $70. 

We will add hotel information as soon as we get it!

We are looking forward to a great meeting and to seeing all of you there!