5th Annual ICCRA 2008 Pre-season Crop Circle Conference

Please pass this notice on to anyone you feel might be interested!

5th Annual ICCRA 2008 Pre-season Crop Circle Conference

May 9^th-11^th, 2008 (Friday after 3:00 pm - Sunday at Noon)

Madisonville, Tennessee 2007 Geneseo, Illinois 2006 Locust Grove, Ohio 2003

The 5th Annual ICCRA Pre-season Crop Circle Meeting (2008 Season) for all interested crop circle researchers will take place starting at 3 pm, May 9^th, 2008 through noon, May 11^th, 2008 at Woodland Altars, located 7 miles northeast of The Great Serpent Mound State Memorial in Locust Grove, Ohio. Woodland Altars is located in an area that is central to the locations of several recent authentic crop circles in Ohio: Locust Grove (near Serpent Mound), Bainbridge (near Seip Mound), West Union, Miamisburg (near the Miamisburg Mound), Rarden, Hillsboro, and Fairfax. Woodland Altars is also centrally located to many other ancient Native American sites including: Serpent Mound, Fort Hill, Fort Ancient, Mound City, Leo Petroglyphs, the Miamisburg Mound and many more.

Pricing and Accommodations:

Cost is only $90.00 per person for 5 meals, 2 nights stay in the dorms, talks, local tours, and much more. *NEW* There will be 15 private rooms available in chalets on the Woodland Altars property. There are 3 rooms to each chalet, and five chalets available - depending upon the interest in this, there would be an additional cost of $75-$220 for this option for the weekend - if you are interested in this amenity, please let me know ASAP. If you wish to stay at a nearby hotel instead, the closest hotels are about a 30 minute drive away (there are several depending upon which direction you want to go) – the conference price will stay the same for attendees.

Anyone with an interest in doing field research of crop circles is invited to attend this conference, though priority is given to researchers on a first come basis since the conference is designed to accommodate only up to 60 people.

Among the topics to be discussed will be: Basic Protocols and Standards for Field Research, Discussion and Workshop of Using Field Research Equipment, Review of 2007 USA Crop Circles and other historical USA reports, A Discussion of the Range of Phenomena Experienced, Discussion of Potential Research Ideas and New Equipment Needs, The organization of the ICCRA (Independent Crop Circle Researchers Association) network, and much more! Tentative speakers include:

Dr. Jonathan Paul DeVierville, Associate Professor History and the Humanities & Interdisciplinary Studies from the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at St. Phillips College, ICCRA member, and Manager of the Alamo Plaza Spa in San Antonio, Texas
Dr. Charles Leitzau, ICCRA Board Member and MUFON scientific consultant (biology)
Roger Sugden, Assistant Director and Chief Field Investigator of Indiana MUFON and ICCRA Board Member
Rod BearCloud Berry, internationally-recognized artist and filmmaker, Seven Sacred Fires of the Star Nation People: From the Earth to the Sky Vol. 1-6, www.starnationgallery.com
Delsey Wilson, Director, Friends of the Serpent Mound and ICCRA Board Member
Douglas McIlwain, President of the Serpent Mound Chapter of the Ohio Dowsers Association, ICCRA member
ICCRA Director Jeffrey Wilson and others to be announced!

Please join us for what will be a rewarding, collaborative experience to prepare the crop circle research community for this season's crop circle investigative research!

To attend, or for further details, please contact: Jeffrey Wilson (734-891-2689) jeff.wilson@roadrunner.com

Event Highlights

Photo by Jeffrey Wilson

Optional Ancient Ohio Tour: Since the very first ICCRA conference, we have always taken conference attendees on a tour of the local area to visit the locations of ancient Indian mound sites and the locations of previous crop circles. The response to this tour has always been enthusiastically positive and the list of sites we have visited has grown. Previous tours have included visiting: Serpent Mound (every year), Fort Hill, Fort Hill’s “Women’s Circle” Earthwork, Seip Mound, Mound City, Fort Ancient, Great Miamisburg Mound, Dayton Wright Memorial Earthworks, Orator’s Mound and many others. Due to demand to extend the tour to visit more mound sites, last year’s tour was extended into Monday for an extra day to visit additional earthworks. We will certainly be doing this again this year, and like every year, planning to visit different earthworks than we have visited in previous years. This year’s tentative Ancient Ohio tour will take us through the Scioto River valley to visit several sites there. If you are interested in extending your trip to include this extra day, there is no additional charge other than we all find lodging along the way on Sunday night and your additional meal expenses – email me for further details.

To attend, or for further details, please contact: Jeffrey Wilson (734-891-2689) jeff.wilson@roadrunner.com

Other Notables...

· The Woodland Altars' Heritage Lodge dorms offer comfortable beds and bathroom facilities but you will need to bring:

-sleeping bag and pillow...there are beds, just no sheets
-towels and toiletries...the showers are hot, just no linens

· Researchers, you should bring a notebook and writing materials, your research equipment (any meters, devices, gadgets, etc...), and of course, your opinions and ideas - be ready to collaborate, educate, and participate in discussions! Optional items to bring include telescopes, binoculars, cameras, playing cards, snacks, pop, etc... Peebles, Ohio is less than a 10 minute drive from Woodland Altars and offers a delicious selection of restaurant food if you need your fix.

If you are a vendor and wish to have a table at this event, there is no additional charge other than the conference fee. Please contact us in advance.

Previous Years…

All previous ICCRA meetings have been a tremendous success and quickly sell out each year! Approximately 50-70 interested crop circle researchers gathered to exchange information, educate, learn, collaborate, and network with each other about crop circles. Members have flown in from both coasts (NY to CA) and have come in from Canada -- we all have had a wonderful, sharing experience.

The ICCRA meeting is designed to be all-volunteer and at cost - meaning the lowest possible price for everyone involved.

A Group Photo from the 1^st Annual ICCRA Meeting - 2004

A Group Photo from the 2^nd Annual ICCRA Meeting - 2005

The rest of the group @ Serpent Mound - 2005

Some of the 2006 Participants

The 2008 participants!

To attend, or for further details, please contact: Jeffrey Wilson (734-891-2689) jeff.wilson@roadrunner.com

Also, details of the ICCRA network organization for crop circle researchers will be discussed at this meeting:

Independent Crop Circle Researchers' Association (International) [ICCRA]

The Independent Crop Circle Researchers' Association (International) [ICCRA] began as a small cooperative group of individuals in the Midwestern United States who have long pursued serious research into the crop circle phenomenon with the principle of open collaboration. This 'team' of researchers has steadily grown in number, and has now included contributions from members of the crop circle research community from around the world. Although all the researchers in this association are considered independent (and thereby retaining individual ownership of their work), the investigative community has recognized that the study of the various complexities and aspects of the crop circle phenomenon are beyond the abilities and resources of any one researcher or local group to study in sufficient depth. Hence, the need for a cooperative association and network dedicated to the widest and freest possible collection and dissemination of crop circle research.

The ICCRA recognizes the need in the research community to collect and make available as much objectively verifiable knowledge and details about crop circles as possible, and so will continue to study and document crop formations using a scientific framework.

The ICCRA is committed to working cooperatively with local farmers, respecting their property and conditions for granting permission and access to their fields, and can provide experienced consultation as to the ways they can cope with the existence of having a crop circle in their field. We are also committed to working cooperatively with law enforcement agencies to assist them in assessing and investigating reported crop circles, exposing the vandalism of crop circle hoaxers, and assisting with advice on the management of visitors to the crop circle sites.

The ICCRA began as a 'core' group of individuals cooperating as a rapid response team reacting to reports of local crop circles in order to study and document them. The ICCRA has recognized the need to expand the response network to include as many interested researchers as possible. To facilitate this network, the ICCRA has begun a researcher directory so that when a crop circle is reported, the closest local investigators will be notified. This will provide the best opportunity to investigate and document the site, and also gives the wider, international community a contact-resource for information and interaction in real time.

The ICCRA's highest priority is the sharing of information and research with the wider research community. Reporting and sharing of news and field reports of formations is being carried out through www.ICCRA.org and www.cropcirclenews.com. To help standardize report information, researcher access to a worldwide crop circle database with professional-level GIS mapping capability is also being developed at this website which will not only document and share the information collected in a systematic manner, but will also provide new research opportunities. This research center will also serve as a depository of information collected on historical sites, scientific reports, photos, previous field reports, the researcher directory, and links to further crop circle resources. Many independent researchers have amassed valuable files over the years regarding this phenomenon. We encourage all such researchers to use this opportunity to enrich the wider community with your archived knowledge, while at the same time retaining ownership and credit for your years of effort.

All interested researchers, and both new and previously established organizations and networks are invited to join this cooperative and collaborative effort to locate, study, document, and share information about crop circle formations, regardless of each individual's personal hypothesis regarding the source cause of the authentic crop circle phenomenon, or their affiliations with any organizations.

Jeffrey Wilson
Director, ICCRA
(cell) 734-891-2689
(email) jeff.wilson@roadrunner.com
www.ICCRA.org

The Woodland Altars "School of Discovery" has been providing quality outdoor education since 1974. The Woodland Altars "School of Discovery" is located on a four-hundred fifty-acre campus which includes a variety of natural habitats. Ecological investigations of a forest, meadow, thicket, prairie, stream and pond are the backbone of the program. Students who come to Woodland Altars learn about the natural world and its processes through observation, discovery and hands-on investigation.

Woodland Altars
33200 State Route 41
Peebles, Ohio 45660
(937) 588-4411

Maps to Woodland Altars: (for those not driving, flights can be made into Cincinnati, Dayton, or Columbus, Ohio airports). Here are some Google maps marking Woodland Altars.