The western conference 06 was held at the San Bernardino Discovery center over looking Big Bear Lake in Big Bear CA. The conference started on Friday the 14th of Sept. Pam and George Morey welcomed every one to Big Bear. During the morning program there were speakers from San Bernardino Discovery Center and San Bernardino National Forest. The speakers for the morning were Sarah Miggins San Bernardino National Forest Association Director. Next was Chris Fabbro Recreation officer on the Angles NF she also was a former paid lookout on the Inyo NF. John Miller Public Relations for the San Berardino NF and he is a big supporter of the host program. After Jon was Gene Zimmerman a retires forest supervisor for the San Bernardino NF spoke about his career with the Forest Service when he finished the current forest supervisor for the San Bernardino NF Jeanne Wade Evans spoke.

After lunch there a few things that you could do hit the 3 lookout close to the Discovery center which is Butler Peak, Keller Peak or Strawberry Peak. If you did not want to go to the lookouts there was plenty of things to do near by like hiking, shopping or sight seeing. On Friday night there was a Jazz concert at the Discovery center in the amphitheater. A small group op to do the long tour of lookouts that took them to Black Mt lookout and Red Mt and the group made it back to Big Bear at midnight.

Saturday kicked off with the board meeting. Directors present were Chair / South east director Keith Argow, Western Washington director Forest Clark, Oregon director Howard Verschoor, Southern CA and hosts Pam and George Morey, Central CA Kathy Ball, AZ / NM director Dave Lorenz. The board meeting was called to order at 7.25 am and chairman Keith Argow advised he had a few things to discuss. The chair spoke about projects that were done w/ in the FFLA; publications that are out in print about fire and lookouts. Keith mentioned that at the Board meeting in Wilsonville 06 it was approved for each director was given approval to spend up to $100 of their chapter money they saw fit. Keith also gave a list of 4 things that he wanted to speak about chapters, Radiation, Historical, NHLR nominations.

Chapters
Keith brought up that about the experiment for 2 yr. of making chapters with in state organizations and that the 2-yr. will be up in 07. Keith advised that some state directors were not for sub groups under state chapters being called chapters. So he was going to do a vote among the state directors for a vote of yes or no to keep the sub groups or chapters for their state and let the state director decide on what name to call the these sub groups or chapters in their state.

Radiation
Keith spoke about radiation at LO 's and some of the problems they are having. There has been some studies done by the Forest Serve about it and would get back to the group w/ any more info about the radiation problem and any other findings or studies the Forest Service has published on this matter.

Historical Preservation
Keith spoke about the FFLA historian archivist that keeps records about LO's and other info about LO's. Info Keith mentioned about trying to get a Forest Service Archivist to join the FFLA. There was a discussion about this and how some archivist think about LO's

NHLR nominations
Keith mentioned that state directors are doing a wonderful job getting the nominations in it is getting the certificates made. There was a discussion among the group about the certificates and also the metal signs that some directors still need to put on the LO's in there state.

Forest Clark spoke about Lighting systems that range from 18-28 k to install. Forest mentioned that for parts and volunteer labor for a few weekends that installed a lighting system for a round $1300.
Before the directors meeting adjourned there was a few things that were brought up 07 western conference would be in Montana and in 08 in Rosenberg, OR. The meeting adjourned at 8.25 am
The Saturday part conference started with Charles White who is a volunteer on the Angles NF and he spoke about satellite remote sensing and fire detection, he is a volunteer at Vetter LO on the Angles NF. Next speaker was Tom Inocencio from the San Bernardino tanker base. The last speaker was small group that spoke about other alternatives for cooking, heating, bath room facilities and electricity at LO's

After lunch there was a few options to do before the dinner back at the Discovery Center. Canoe tour on Big bear lake, nature hike on a loop trail at the center, Go to the LO's if you did not get to them the day before sight seeing or just plain relaxing before dinner. Dinner was at the Discovery Center and it was Tri tip w/ corn on the cob, dinner rolls butter and salad and to finish the evening was cheesecake and the end of the silent auction. Tom Sensintaffar San Bernardino Fire Dispatch Center Manager and Fire Lookout Host Liaison did the cooking.

Sunday every one started heading home hitting LO's on their way, A small group did hit Vetter LO before splitting up and heading there own direction.