Good luck to you two. I definitely envy you.
There are relatively few smials of the Tolkien Society in the U.S., and Texas does not have one. Just curious, but is any Yank out there a member of one of the state smials? I have always wondered how those work. I know there's a very active one in New York State.
For most of us in the U.S., the closest thing to a "national" organization is the Mythopoeic
Society , which is devoted to the writings of the Inklings. I am a member of that. They have their conference in August at the University of Oklahoma (a place definitely not as interesting as the Oxenmoot
) Next year's conference is at Berkeley.