I hope this letter finds you rested and enjoying our lovely summer weather and that you are looking forward to another exciting school year. As we approach the start of this year, I urge all of you to help the CAV continue its growth by seeking out and encouraging new members for our organization. Please be mindful of teachers who are new to the profession, or new to Virginia, and invite them to join us at our fall meeting on Saturday, October 3, at UVA.

We have an excellent program planned for our fall meeting, with three outstanding and dynamic speakers. Our guest presenter will be Professor Judith Hallett of the University of Maryland, who will speak on the topic "The Lectrix (and Scriptrix) Company: Roman Women Reading, Writing and Performing Poetry." You won’t want to miss the opportunity to hear her. We are fortunate to have on the program with Dr. Hallett two highly-regarded Virginia professors: Colonel Rose Mary Sheldon of VMI will speak on "The Sneaky Greeks," a presentation on ambush in ancient Greek warfare and on the perils of "feel good history;" and our own Professor Dan McCaffrey is going to lead us down "A Form of Garden Path Sentence in Latin." It promises to be a most interesting and informative day.

As I write this, I am feeling the pangs of withdrawal from summer Latin and the NJCL convention at the University of California at Davis -- the first national convention I have not attended in fifteen years. But I’m living vicariously through continual updates from students and colleagues and am happy to report that all is well. Virginia students have reaped a number of individual awards, spirit abounds, and all three of our state certamen teams earned their way into the finals, with the Novice and Intermediate teams placing 2nd in the nation and the Advanced team placing 3rd. Also, the CAV and Virginia are well represented on the National Committee of the JCL, with Christine Conklin serving as the current National Chair; Sue Robertson as the Convention Advisor; and Tom Reed as Certamen Chair. And Susan Schearer is currently enjoying her 49th year at national convention! There is nothing dead about Latin (or Classics) in Virginia!

Speaking of conventions and conferences, please remember that the FLAVA conference is being held in Richmond this year on Oct. 9-10. At this writing we have at least 6 sessions specifically for Latin, and we would love to see even more. If you have an idea for a session you would like to present, please see the FLAVA website and contact Linda Szwabowski, the conference coordinator, to submit your proposal. It promises to be a lively and informative conference.