Introduction
The Minary Confernce on Alumni Education attracts between 45-60 participants each year, and welcomes experienced professionals and novices alike. The small group dynamics work well and some of the intimacy of the original conversations of the earliest practitioners has been preserved.

Background
This annual three-day gathering on alumni education began in the late 1960s for program managers of the then quite new summer alumni colleges and other fledgling offerings.

The meetings were hosted on a rotating basis among interested schools until Dartmouth's Mike McGean invited the meeting in the fall of 1976 to Dartmouth's retreat facility on Squam Lake--about an hour east of the Dartmouth campus. Once the groups (which consisted then of 10-12 people) saw the setting of the Minary Center, they voted that Dartmouth would be host every fall. Steve Calvert had just been hired that summer to run Dartmouth's programs and became perpetual host of the Minary Alumni Education Conference for the next 12 years.

The facility was a gift to Dartmouth around 1970 from William Paley, who, planning to retire as chairman of CBS, was persuaded by his financial adviser, a John Minary by name, and a member of the Dartmouth class of 1929, to give the house to Dartmouth. No ordinary cabin--it could sleep 22 and boasted 9 bathrooms, plus student help and a resident couple.

The Minary Conference on Alumni Continuing Education, grew steadily until the limit of 22 became a challenge. One meeting with 30 participants used a nearby motel for overflow sleeping rooms, but no one liked that arrangement. Authorities limited the number of people who could attend the conference, keeping more experienced practitioners and eliminating all but 2-3 newcomers for a few more years; but the time had come to find a larger setting.

Go West!
By this time, Marian Adams, who was the continuing education guru at the Stanford Alumni Association, persuaded the group to try something wildly audacious--meeting on the west coast--just once. SAA chief Bill Stone was prevailed upon to let the group use the Stanford Sierra Camp's facilities near Lake Tahoe--again just once. The site again won the affection of the participants and Stanford inadvertently inherited Dartmouth's role as "perpetual host." "Minary" is now the formal moniker of the conference despite its new location in California.

Today
The primary purpose for the Minary Conference remains basically unchanged: to improve the practice of alumni education programs. The attendees rotate responsibility for organizing the program, defining themes and issues, enlisting speakers, and setting conference agendas. New attendees are enlisted by word of mouth and perhaps 35-40% each year are newcomers.