Self sufficientish meet up 2007 September 15th

[Andy Hamilton]

I think we should call this the selfsufficientish will we ever meet up, meet up Failed to materialise last year, surley over half a years worth of planning should make up for that.

Right then those that want to come make sure that you book off 15th september now, its a Saturday anyway so hopefully as many as possible will be able to come.

Location, I think that North midlands perhaps derbyshire could be nice, it is easier to get to from london and Bristol as there is a direct train to Derby. By road up the M1 and you are there (sort of). Is this good for everyone?

Need to organise the actual venue - DO we camp, hire a hall, have a veg show??? Is it one day, two or even 3?

If we do need to hire a venue or whatever then we will have to book somewhere by about May I would have thought.

[Shirley]

Can't guarantee it for us - it's 8 hours on the train and both David and the kids will be back at school etc.

Price wise it would cost us £100 to travel down.

[glenniedragon]

Maybe we should do regional things? cut down the travel miles for all of us (and the carbon emissions) The Midlands would be a bit out for us as we couldn't get there before the Sat because of school and we'd have to leave early enough to ensure that all are present and correct for School/work on Monday- the 15th is as good as any- would we camp or what would be the plan? If regional groups are the way to go I could look into any possibilities around Taunton if you like- but I'd need a rough idea of which SW-ishers would be coming.

kind thoughts
Deb

[Kev]

Sound's good. I would be up for it. Although it would be a long journey on the train from here. It would be a good weekend away.
Kev.

[green-girl]

Well unless there's another planned for around January 2009, I won't be on that side of the world

[Thomzo]

Hi
Well I quite like the idea but not sure about the camping. I guess if you find a venue to meet in (a large pub would probably do the trick) then we can all make our own arrangements for accommodation.

Can the overseas members join us by webcam?

Count me in and if anyone from the south west feels like going then perhaps we can share a lift.

Zoe

[Shirley]

Well unless there's another planned for around January 2009, I won't be on that side of the world

Does that mean that you'll be over here in Jan 2009?????

[green-girl]

Hi Shirlz,

Yeah somewhere in the vicinity. I'll be spending December and some of January in Hungary and the surrounding areas. I then plan to spend a little longer seeing as much of Europe/UK that I can.... and that the budget allows!!

[mattachinelee]

(Sorry slow picking up this thread, hope the discussion is still live)

I like the sound of a meet up, but why not find out where people will be in the first place? Is there a quick way to map out where people are (pins in maps sort of thing?) Also, what about using the Freecycle network to locate a campsite/venue with sympathetic views. Alternatively, find a venue which has the added benefit of being worth a visit for those of us still earning our self-sufficientish stripes?! So we get real life demonstrations and whoever's place it is, gets a bunch of us able to do some work for a few hours.

[wulf]

For a big scale thing, with (camping) accomodation, facilities, stalls and demos, why not hook into something that is already running? Is there going to be a big green gathering or similar this summer? Riding piggy back on something like that might be much more effective for a lot less work.

However, perhaps regional clusters would be more of an -ish way forward rather than something big and centralised? If you've got two or three people living in fairly easy reach of each other, that would be enough to meet up, perhaps do something fitting (like dig an allotment or share some craft skills) and share a meal together (with lots of home-grown and home-cooked contributions). If it could be wangled that all the hosts had broadband and webcams we might even be able to have a larger "gathering" but with minimal additional travel costs.

And the other thing is to keep an eye out for who's near places you're travelling to. My wife and I enjoyed coffee and a good long chat with Andy and a friend of his last week when we were in Bristol for a day; those little opportunities for face-to-face meeting are great ways of knitting us together.

Wulf

[Shirley]

I think hooking into something else is a GREAT idea...

What's on... around the country, around that date??

[the.fee.fairy]

I'm up for either a BGG meet, or camping somewhere in September. Pretty much anywhere England wise is good for me (sorry Scots, welsh and Irish, but the train is too expensive for me, i'd have to either fly or spend 24 hours in a coach ).

And, i've got a brand spanking new tent that needs a good airing!
Anyone in the South East, i live near Stansted Airport, so travelling buddies are always welcome, as are casual pub partners!!

[Andy Hamilton]

ok, left this topic for a while.

The uncentralised thing sounds definetly like an ish way forward. I was just pondering on it. A good excuse for like minded people to meet up in a localish place, sounds ideal.

What if we pick a date, say sept 15th. Pick a person to round people up in each area, one for London, one for the south west, one for midlands, one for Sydney, one for Aberdeenshire. We all meet on various campsites or wherever with home grown food and homebrew and have a bunch of little parties. A brief mobile phone chat with the next mini party or a shared youtube account could join them all up. The broadband and webcam thing could be fraught with complications (I think), instead a few clips of the day or nights events put up as private links on youtube could work?

In short it would be good to meet up with other ish folk and it is whatever works. With a definite date we all have a day we can work around to get it organised.

And yes wulf, was good to spend some time with you and your wife when we met up.

[Boots]

Righto, well I'll just nick over to Sydney ... so whatcha reckon Nev 2 or 3 days should do it, huh? Then you'll need to allow another day for me shrug of the saddle slump, so I can walk properly again


aaaaaaah just gotta luv them city folk...... no idea have they?

[Cassiepod]

Count me in.

I don't know how many folk are in the Aberdeen area but we will have an 'undefined' garden by that point that we could gather in and could accomoadate a few tents if there were some longer distance attendees. (hope the OH doesn't mind tooo much)