Mass June meet....

I know it is right off the heels of our May meet, but I figured I would post something about a June meet to get the ball rolling in order to have more people attend. Plus with some of us going to CIV here in a few weeks we might as well getting something set now so we can plan ahead in case we have it early in the month.

I know Father's day is the 17th which will probably not work. I know I will probably end up doing a cookout anyway so it wouldn't matter to me. June 8th and 9th I will be in Ohio visiting my family and friends so they can all see the wookie cub. All the other weekends are open for me. I think the first weekend would be out for probably Chris since I know he is going to CIV and not returning home right away from L.A.

What should we do for an activity and where should we have the activity? My wife suggested having a cookout in a park some where. I know Dean Park in Shrewsbury is a pretty nice up to date one that might be good for this.
If we want to go together with Richie for the Hotdog Sarifari that could be done it sounds interesting enough.

So let's hear some ideas and get something planned out. If we plan early enough we can make sure everyone has their calendars clear for a meet.

jorge

 

Not sure what to do yet myself. I am focused on CIV right now.

I will try and come up with a few ideas. Anyone else have anything to contribute..let's hear it.

 

Depending on what we do, June 2, 16, 23, 30 work for me (and of course, any given Sunday).

June 9th and the Hot Dog Safari are out for me as my daughter's dance show is that day (even though it looks as though she's not going to be dancing as she was put in a cast yesterday due to a broken ankle growth plate - yes, she's devastated!)...

Drive-ins are good. Oceans 13 comes out on June 8th.

Hopkinton State Park is similar to Dean Park - only you can swim there.

Mini-golfing....

I dunno. I am open to ideas....

 

For the next three months, Saturday days will be difficult for me. Saturday evenings and Sundays work, though.

 

There's a bit of an age difference between Zach and Spencer, but it's always helpful to have another adult to converse with. Now that you know where our house is, perhaps you and Christa should get together at some point to let the boys play. I can give you her email address if you'd like to set one up.

 

I'll offer up casa de wormie for a cookout location if anyone is interested.

 

I'm open but these days my plans change in a micro second to you guys pick and I'll do my best to make it.

 

As long as the meet is someplace we can get to easily, my wife and I would love to come.

 

I would say that most of our houses are pretty easy to get to. Mine for example is off of route 9 in Shrewsbury. Chris's place (milford) and Mike's house (hopkinton) aren't too bad to get to from 495. I would offer up my place but with our schedule for vacas and stuff in June and July it wouldn't work. Plus the house isn't big enough to fit everyone. I was hoping we would have moved by now but the place isn't ready yet, which is kinda a blessin' with all the problems I have been having at work.

 

If you have a flak jacket and a pistol my place is always a go. Off of 146, easy to get to.

 

My place is right off of 495 @ Rt. 20 so, I would be game for a BBQ as well. Be warned though.... I have a 90 pound wookiee (golden retriever) who loves company and I don't have a gas grill.... LOL I swear I will never convert - there's nothing in the world like the taste of charcoal BBQ.

I have a huge yard for games and a large deck for hanging out on....

So the offer is here too.

 

If you are on Rte 20 right off of 495 then you aren't too far from my work.

 

I am up for anywhere. I would offer up my house but my better half is 8 1/2 mos. pregnant and it would just be to much for her.

 

Not right on, Rt. 20 Jorge but just off of it... so, I probably am right near your work.

I'll PM you. =)

 

Jeez WoV, I probably drove by your house everyday for the past 6 years going to and from work without even knowing it!

 

Giving this a lil bumpy bump. I know that a few of us were at CIV (Mike, Chris, and I) so this went away for a minute but we should get things moving on another meet it will be June in a day or so. The only dates I can't make a meet would be 9th and 10th the family and I will be in Ohio visiting my family and friends and it will be Spencer's first time meeting all his great aunts and uncles plus my crazy friends. lol Since time has slipped away from this weekend would be out as well.

So we have open 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, and 30th. I am open any of those dates. I know the 17th is Father's day so I am not sure if the rest of the dad's want to do anything that day or not. I don't really care if we plan something the wife says the day is wide open for me. lol If the 9th and 10th work out for the rest of yall then feel free to have a meet.

Next is location. I know Wormie said something about his house. If that is still option Mike let me know. He lives in Hopkinton and it is pretty easy to get to his house.

I know we have had a lot of cookout type meets and activity meets since I have joined the ranks, which I think is pretty fun and I enjoy them a lot. I do think at some point we need to have a meet to discuss boards stuff. I know a few of us have tossed around ideas about our group as well as other things. I do think it is time to get some things in motion so we can become a force amongst the fan forces.

Anyway, let's get some planning done and get this hammered out.

Jorge

 

My house is still available. Father's Day is definitely out though. (for me at least)I say have it later in the month. Say the 23rd or 24th?

 

Good morning Gentlemen....

the 23rd, 24th & 30th all work for me.

My place is still available as well. Whatever works!

=)

 

I agree with you. It would be nice to do more than just cook out(not that i dislike cookouts)

I am up for most weekends but that could change any minute when the baby is born.

Just a little heads up. The official FIS website should be ready this week. I will keep you posted.

 

Hmmmm,

A meet to discuss 'important stuff'. Isn't that what should take place at the meets anyway? I honestly think there is nothing 'important' to discuss. This is just fun for me. When I first met Chris and some of the guys a couple of years ago that is the first thing that came up. This is for fun. Nothing to be taken serious enough to overshadow the basic idea of what the FIS is: a set up for friends and new friends to enjoy each other's company under the premise of what all brought us here and one the greatest ideas on Earth, Star Wars.

We're all friends so to me talking about T-shirts and a FIS site is not serious. It's fun.

Here, let me solve two issues:

T-shirts- Mike, send me a finalized larger file image of one of the logo's you created. I'll head down to the T-shirt place and see what is up. Done.

Website- Matt M was on that a while ago and seems to be back on it. Done


What is left? Summertime BBQs, Six Flags trip, Snatch n Grab Grindhouse Extravaganza 07', All niter drive in at the Cape, Chris' BBQ etc etc etc Then the Cons in Autumn.


Now I truly mean no disrespect to Boston being I only know two of you but the meet Chris had at his house for Boston about two years ago really emphasized what can happen if you take something meant to be fun and try to go 'serious'. Pointless bickering and debate, arguing and the loss of fun.

Another thing is that all of us are so busy that the FIS tends to be second fiddle the majority of the time. If Chris and Jim were not willing to drive up to the Worcester area so much I doubt this would survive so kudos to you guys.

What can't be discussed at meets should be discussed here, not an endless discussion but something like here is the idea and two weeks from now we move on. IE

White or black shirts:

After two weeks if only 3 members have responded to the thread and the choice was say
white then so be it. It's white. At least that's about as serious as I'll get LOL

 

It's funny guys, I was thinking about this "serious" thing this morning too. What do we have that we should be serious about?

I was thinking about SMF in November (for the new guys, SMF is short for Super-Mega Fest which is a Comi-Con at the Sheraton Tara in Framingham every year which Wormie usually heads up and does a wonderful job managing).

I was thinking about the Relay for Life that one of us posted a while ago that fell through the cracks.

I was thinking about the Hot Dog Safari that Richie went to last year and posted this year.... again, the timing was just off and there was no time for planning.

Should we have participated in these events (the Relay and HD Safari) - perhaps but, because we didn't plan for them.... well, you get the idea.

Basically, I was racking my brain as to how we could get our presence out there a bit more without stressing out our already busy lives much more.

A serious meet? Yeah, we should talk business but, keep it to the business that needs to be discussed.

I do think, though, that if we are going to try and be a presence at SMF this year, we need to start planning for it now. Make the decision about which charity our raffles will benefit now. Why? So that we can enjoy it when the time arrives and possible pick up items for the baskets on sale along the way to November.

Just my two pennies. Not trying to get anyone riled up.... just expressing my thoughts.

I was also thinking that we need to pick a date, time and where if we are to meet in June. We are running out of weekends fairly quickly! =)

Perhaps I was thinking too much! LOL

A quick note about July.... I will be going into Boston for the Pops concert again this year - should anyone be interested. It's a great time!

 

Hey again Wifey.

As far as SMF goes, DarthWormie was our point man for that last year, and I would expect him to be so again this year.

 

I agree with everyone's assessment that the meets should be more fun than serious. No Roberts Rules of Order & such (although I did bring up a point of order more than once at the Washington, DC meets). We can meet and discuss things and not get too "serious." And besides that, I'm of the opinion that if more than three of us meet in any one place, that should be considered a meet. I mean, in my back yard, we were throwing frizbee and discussing SW stuff. QED, it's a meet. SW should come into it somehow, but I've discovered that's not hard with this crowd! We may consider doing some minutes, especially if something of importance is discussed / resolved.

 

I don't think our meets need to be 'down and dirty, 3 hours of serious business' either. I was never a fan of that much seriousness when I first joined the Boston boards. But, I do think that there are a couple of things that need to be addressed that that shouldn't take more than 20 minutes or so. Alot of the stuff Aaron touched on is definitely important for this chapter and can be addressed quickly as well.

The SMF planning is definitely something else that we could talk about. It never is too early to start planning for that. In fact, maybe there is a way we can do some fundraising to help cover the cost of the table or even raise additional money for whatever charity we choose to go with this year. Here's my .02¢ on choosing a charity, I'd like to keep it to a small, local charity. Not that things like MDF or the Jimmy Fund aren't important, but these charities are extremely high profile and bring in millions annually. I'd like to use our table to perhaps bring attention to equally important charities that for whatever reason fall through the cracks and out of the view of the public eye. I think if we channel our efforts, we can do that.

I also think we need to address the future of all the area FanForces. Interest is at an all-time low right now. Maybe that will change with the Clone Wars cartoon on the horizon, but maybe it wont. I know other people have addressed similar concerns. Now I'm just throwing this out there and I'm sure it will become an instant lightning rod, but maybe...maybe we (southern NE FF's) should consider joining 'forces' and merging into one large FanForce (ducks head to avoid many objects being thrown). I mean, we pretty much are already there. The same people who regularly post in Boston also post here AND on the Rhodie boards. Why not take the last step, come together under one banner and cover the MA, RI and maybe even eastern CT?

I don't think touching on these topics will in any way dampen any of the fun we always have when we all get together. If anything, I think addressing these may help bring people who have 'strayed' from our ranks back and maybe even bring a few new members in. New blood is always a good thing. Ask Keith Richards.

So there's my thoughts. Let me know what you think.

 

Sounds good to me....

I know that I haven't met you guys other than here and via IM'ing, etc. but, I have frequented these boards for the last 2 years.

I like the idea of keeping the SMF fundraiser donation local. I know you/we donated to Doug Flutie's organization last year and thought that was wonderful! I know that Curt Schilling and Cam Neely have organizations as well.

What do you propose as a fundraiser to offset the cost of the table at SMF and how much is it this year?

I guess the question now is still....

Where do we meet and when this month (if we are still meeting).