The elections this November will be the most important in history for the mining industry. Control of the White House and both houses of Congress are in play and the implications for the future of mining are far-reaching.

With this much at stake, we want to encourage your distribution of NMA’s Mine the Vote program information to your employees, vendors and other business partners to help educate and mobilize mining community voters this fall. It is vital that our supporters are fully engaged and equipped with the tools and information to make sure mining’s voice is heard on November 6. 
We have re-designed and enhanced our Mine the Vote online platform to achieve these goals by allowing our supporters to:

Planning is continuing for this year’s WV Coal Association/Friends of Coal State Journal insert. This special publication will print in late-July. It is a great opportunity to get the message out that coal is and will remain the economic bedrock of the state’s economy. This past year’s edition included production, employment, coal severance data, membership profiles, editorial features and other key information.

We are in the process of developing an editorial plan for this publication. If you have a story idea, would like to submit something for consideration or would like to reserve advertising space, please check out the following editorial calendar.

• Deadline for materials: May 25 (This is for all articles, photos, graphs, cover, etc)
• Ad Space Deadline: June 1. (Please contact sales at the State Journal)
• Deadline for ads: June 8 (Coordinate through the State Journal)
• Layout/Changes/Approval Process: June 8-15 (Last minute changes)
• Publication Prints: July 23
• Publication Distributed: July 27

The West Virginia Eleventh Annual CEDAR Golf Classic will be held on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at the Twisted Gun Golf Course in Wharncliffe, West Virginia. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. with golf beginning at 10 a.m. promptly. Contact Bud Clapp at bud.clapp@nscorp.com for more information.

The WV Coal Mining Institute, the WVCA and the Central Appalachian Section of SME will be held at the Stonewall Jackson Resort May 3-5, 2012.  Registration information has been sent out via e-mail with detailed information. If you did not receive please let us know and it will be resent.

Planning is now underway for the 40th Annual King Coal Festival in Williamson later this summer. The Action in Mingo (AIM) group is continuing a series of meetings with the goal of creating an amazing four-day event marking the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the birth of the King Coal Festival.

The next scheduled meeting for the AIM group will be May 18, at 5 p.m. in the Williamson City Council chambers. For more information on joining the group, contact Mae Stallard at 304-235-5560.