Pre-registrations for our Nov. 18 Vermont Statewide Housing Conference have hit 400!

You still have time to register online. But ... at 4 p.m. Nov. 12, we'll be closing online registrations to give us time to process the attendees database in time for the event.

The good news: We'll be accepting walk-in registrations the day of the event.

You can pay the $50 fee at the door with check or cash. Please note: We cannot accept credit card payments at the door. Check (payable to "VHFA") or cash only.

This is the latest of several quick bios we'll blog of speakers scheduled to appear at the Vermont Statewide Housing Conference, Nov. 18 in South Burlington.

Read about other speakers scheduled to present at the event and register to attend at the conference Web site.

The VHFA Socially Responsible Committee's Community Awareness Program (CAP) will hold its second event Nov. 10.

Barbara Rachelson from the Lund Family Center in Burlington will speak on how to "adopt" a family for the holidays. She'll walk staff through the steps of the process and will outline the typical needs and challenges faced by families in need.

CAP is a voluntary program that encourages VHFA staff members to gather on designated lunch hours to hear from a variety of presenters speaking on issues pertinent to our community and how we can help make it a better place to live.

VHFA has published its 2008 Annual Report/2009 Wall Calendar.

This is the eighth year we've published the report in the form of a calendar, in an effort to give the report a longer "shelf life" than a typical annual report might enjoy.

Each month of the calendar features a homeowner VHFA helped with a mortgage, or a multifamily project we helped finance.

Planning for the publication begins each April, and photography typically takes us to the four corners of the state.

Homeowners in this year's report are from Swanton, Montpelier, Hardwick, Burlington, Danville, and Arlington.