Jalynne, While you have to be a member of ISGB to attend the lectures/demo/classes part of the Gathering, the Bead Bazaar is open to the public at a nominal admission fee (Lowell was $5.00). You can come in and buy beads and either prearrange a meeting place to meet us or look at the message board in the hotel for any RCB messages. So....we can all definitely get together!! Patti