2025 Annual Conference - Registration now open!
You are invited to attend our 46th Annual Conference organized by the Executive Committee of the Rural Planning Caucus of Virginia, which will be held from October 15-17, 2025 at the historic Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke, Virginia. Please consider bringing an item or items that represent your locality for the silent auction on Thursday October 16th which goes to benefit our scholarship program.
The conference begins Wednesday afternoon with a workshop on the Giles County Trail Center and Mountain Lake, showcasing funding sources, flora and fauna, history, and tourism. Dinner Wednesday night will be in Mary's Barn, preceded by a welcome reception at 5:30 p.m. at the Salt Pond Pub. Following dinner we will kick off our first annual Game Night! Thursday morning focuses on the role of the planner in disaster response scenarios including post-disaster funding, damage assessments, temporary housing, and donation management, followed by a session on solutions for affordable housing projects. After lunch, there will be a session on state funding sources focused on rural issues. Following a short business meeting (open to all attendees) a session on ethics in AI policies will be followed by the annual hike up the mountain at 4:45 p.m. A reception in Mary's Barn begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by dinner, a silent auction to raise funds for the scholarship programs (bring an item or items that highlight your community) and entertainment including our ever popular annual awards ceremony!
The conference concludes with Friday morning sessions on planning and zoning basics, whether you are a new planner or need a refresher, and legal and legislative issues. Unless noted, all sessions will have AICP Certification Maintenance (CM) credits. *CM Credits for the 2025 conference should be available in the late November - early December timeframe.*
Virginia RPC is an organization that is dedicated to identifying, publicizing and satisfying the unique planning needs of small towns and rural areas. Every year the RPC Executive Committee works hard to organize a conference where rural planning professionals from around Virginia and surrounding states can discuss important rural planning topics and network to better promote and sustain resilient rural communities.
2025 marks 46 years that RPC has been hosting an annual conference for rural planning professionals. Over the years, we have supported the next generation of rural planners by offering an annual scholarship to planning students to continue their studies. Since 1999, RPC has awarded over $14,000 to college students at Virginia universities with planning programs. In 2022, RPC launched a new mentorship scholarship to allow for rural localities to send a manager along with a new staffer.
Please visit our Past Conferences page to see what kind of conference topics and activities we have covered in prior years.
Conference Schedule
The 2025 conference is expected to provide full conference participants with around 10-12 CM credits - including legal credits. If your two-year AICP reporting period is almost over, you'll appreciate these CM credits!
The draft conference agenda can be found here:
Mentoring Scholarships
Are you a rural Virginia local government manager/supervisor (i.e. mentor) who would like to bring a new planner/staffer (i.e. mentee) to the conference but can't justify the conference expenses of sending more than one from your locality?
Then this scholarship is for you - two for the price of one! Often times, rural localities cannot afford to send more than one staff person to a conference. To address this, RPC is pleased to offer a manager's scholarship to cover the 2 full days of lodging and meal expenses of the manager (a value of over $350). The only expense the manager would pay is the full conference registration of $125. The manager's scholarship is contingent upon the full registration and lodging of the staff attendee. Both parties must attend the conference to be eligible. Please complete the below form and email it to RPC Chair, Will Cockrell for scholarship consideration - which shall be awarded on a first-come, first serve basis.
Registration is required
Payment in Full In Advance Or At Event
Registration for the 2025 conference includes annual RPC membership for the period October 17, 2025 through December 31, 2026.
Registration cancellations will be accepted until Monday, October 06, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Cancellation Policy:
RPC must provide attendee estimates to the venue for meal planning purposes. Once these estimates are provided and the food is ordered, we cannot provide refunds.
No registration refunds will be given after 12PM (noon) September 15, 2025. However, a registration may be transferred to another attendee up until 4PM October 13, 2025 for no charge. Please contact Will Cockrell if you need to transfer a registration.
Registration for the 45th annual conference of the Rural Planning Caucus of Virginia. Registration is required for those attending the conference sessions. Since guests of registrants are not likely to attend conference sessions but would join for meals, guests do not need to register and pay a registration fee since their meals will be included in their lodging costs which is separate from the conference registration.
Example: Suzy Q Planner and her spouse want to come to the conference. Suzy signs up for a full registration. She also makes a double lodging reservation for two nights. She and her spouse's meals are covered in her lodging costs and she only pays conference registration for herself since her spouse plans to explore and hike while she is in conference sessions.
2025 Conference Registration Options:
Full Registration - $125.00: This option is for those that also have lodging at Mountain Lake and whose meals are already included in their lodging costs.
Day Attendee Option 1- $205: This option is for those who do not have lodging at Mountain Lake and includes one day of meals (i.e. for those attending just Thursday). Cost includes the conference registration and meals for 1 day (including applicable meal taxes).
Day Attendee Option 2- $285: This option is for those who do not have lodging at Mountain Lake and includes two (2) day of meals (i.e. for those day attends attending the full conference). Cost includes the conference registration and meals for 2 days (including applicable meal taxes).
Life Member Registration - $100: This option is only available for those RPC members who have been designated Life members by the Executive Committee.
NOTE: Conference registration fee does not include meals. Meals are included with lodging costs. If you sign up as a day attendee, RPC will provide your name to the hotel so that they know you have already paid for meal.
Please consider bringing an item or items that represent your locality for the silent auction on Thursday October 16th which goes to benefit our scholarship program.
Lodging & Meals Information
Lodging for the 2025 conference is at Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke, Virginia. Lodging is separate from the conference registration cost. All meals are included in the lodging costs. The 2025 lodging rates are:
2025 Lodging Rates
Single - $183.00 per night (plus taxes )
Double – $268.00 per night (plus taxes)
NOTE: The per night lodging rate includes a meal plan of breakfast, lunch and dinner and your meal GRATUITY. You do not need to provide tips. The double lodging rate include two meal plans.
Lodging Information:
1) When making reservations, please mention that you are attending the RPC conference.
2) For those that desire to arrive earlier than the conference or stay later after the conference ends, Mountain Lake Lodge will be offering the same lodging rate two days before and two days after the conference.
3) Mountain Lake Lodge requires a first night's room deposit that is guaranteed with a credit card when reservations are made.
4) Hotel check-in is at 4:00 PM and check-out time is 11:00 AM.
5) RPC's block of rooms will be released on July 16th. Once our block has been released, RPC cannot guarantee availability or the state rate at this point.
6) Lodging Cancellations/ Refunds: In order to receive a refund on the deposit provided when your reservation was made, all cancellations must be made within 14 days prior to arrival. Any cancellation after this date results in the loss of the one night deposit provided when the reservation was made. This is the policy of Mountain Lake Lodge and RPC has no control on lodging reservation refunds.
7) Reservations cannot be made online. You must call the below number to receive the special RPC lodging rate:
Mountain Lake Lodge Reservations:
(540) 626-7121 EXT. 8
Reference " Rural Planning Caucus" Lodging Block
Conference Sponsorship
Becoming a RPC sponsor is easy. We offer sponsorship at multiple price-points, and Silver, Gold and Platinum Levels come with conference registration(s). If you are interested in learning about our conference sponsorship options, please visit our Sponsorship webpage.
Thanks to the following organizations who have already agreed to be 2025 sponsors: