After two years above the Mason-Dixon Line in Madison, Wis., and Pittsburgh, AAN heads southwest and then west for its annual conventions in 2004 and 2005.

The San Antonio Current will host next year’s confab, with seminars and meetings to be held at the city’s downtown convention center. For sleeping rooms, AAN will utilize a hotel on the city’s Riverwalk and within walking distance of the convention center.

AAN used a similar arrangement last year in Madison.

“We’re very excited to be hosting the 2004 gathering,” says Simon Mulverhill, publisher of the San Antonio Current. “San Antonio is an ideal AAN convention city.”

Mulverhill will be running — presumably unopposed — for the one-year post of Convention Chair at the June 8 annual members’ meeting in Pittsburgh.

“We’ve got the famous Riverwalk, history (the Alamo), great Mexican food, theme parks (Seaworld and Six Flags), over 50 golf courses, and the best margaritas in the world. Somehow, we’ll work in some business as well,” he says.

In 2005, AAN heads to another city with pretty decent Mexican food, San Diego, where, after years of persistent badgering and pleading, the Reader has agreed to serve as the host paper. It will be the first time the convention has returned to Southern California since the association’s meeting in Los Angeles in 1989.