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Richmond,VA Should members be allowed to bring their young kids to our regular Tuesday evening meetings?

Discussion in 'NorthEast Regional Discussion' started by JoeRichmondVA, Apr 10, 2007.

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Should members be allowed to bring their young kids to our regular Tuesday evening meetings?

Poll closed Mar 25, 2012.
  1. Yes, everyone should be able to bring their kids,

    33.3%
  2. No, it should be just for adult members.

    66.7%
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  1. JoeRichmondVA

    JoeRichmondVA Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2006
    There has been a lot of discussion about whether kids should be allowed at our official Tuesday night dinner meetings. Please post your thoughts.
     
  2. Shivann_D

    Shivann_D Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 28, 2006
    I voted no only because its a meeting...it is an event like the movies, or the Windy Hill thing then that is fine. Meetings should be meetings and we all know, those with younglings that sometimes you cant focus on more than one thing while they are Daddy Daddy or Mommy Mommy....just my opinion
     
  3. TD6829

    TD6829 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Dec 7, 2006
    Greetings!

    I voted NO, even though I have yet to attend any meetings myself.
    (I'm such a slacker!)

    Either way, meetings should be for the grown ups only. Easier to keep up with information (good, bad, etc.) Other outings (Golf, movies, etc) should be open invites - to promote friendship and help the younglings learn the importance of the force.


     
  4. JEDIMASTER_VIDAL

    JEDIMASTER_VIDAL Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2007
    i vote no, even though i love them it can get pretty anowing with daddy daddy thing. i think it should be the adults.
     
  5. James3

    James3 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2006
    Looks like the pattern is clear but I am going against it anyway.

    While the meeting is nice to have as the adults talk there are the rare times where it just may not be possible to have a sitter or whatnot for the hoodlums. I sure as heck don't want to miss getting great Italian in Colonial Heights just because I need to go home to drop off the boy or something.

    With that said as a parent, anything my child sees or hears is ultimately my responsibility. Heck, we had the great JUICE BOX fiasco after the kids watched Zathura for close to two weeks. It is my job to make sure that my children understand what is and is not proper behavior. Unlike when we were kids, there are way to many people that feel they can do or say anything they want in a public setting and when asked if they could watch it just a bit due to kids, normally the response comes out in the form of **** You/Off/etc. Anyway, I am rambling, I reckon I am used to going anywhere I need to with the kids in tow. If I am remembering right there has only been one or maybe two times that I have taken one or more of my pack with me but at the same time I can only think of one or two times someone has done or said something in a meeting that would be an issue.(Yeah, I am glad Troy and Tony's "thing" at Five Guys was not seen by any hoodlums! [face_skull])

    Anywho, that's my thoughts. Tony, you may fire when ready...
     
  6. TGaines1

    TGaines1 Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2007
    Here's my point of view. Firstly, as a parent, I love kids. Secondly, this club is for adults. That being said, we should have kid friendly events from time to time such as whats going on 4/22. That way everyone gets to share. Lastly, if someone (James/anyone) gets stuck and wants to come but has the kids, well, that is absolutely no problem in my book as long as it doesnt happen that there's kids at every meeting. As an adult, I can drink a beer or have a smoke with my friends and not feel like I have to be a fine upstanding parent with kids in the room as I dont do this around mine. For those of you that came to my house, you know not even my kids were allowed downstairs. So I say lets try to keep it adult oriented and keep the kids at a minimum.
     
  7. ItsThatGuy

    ItsThatGuy Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 12, 2006
    Sorry James, I love you like a brother, but I disagree.

    We all know when the Tuesday meetings are! I can tell you that the meeting in November is going to be November 20th. Wow! I can see into the future...No...All of our meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month, unless other wise posted. We know far enough in advance to make arrangments for the little ones!

    But I do like Troy's idea. We are becoming a larger group. We should have more events that are family friendly! I don't hate kids, in fact I love kids, but I think we adults should have at least Tuesday night to call our own.

     
  8. utinnigirl

    utinnigirl Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2007
    I voted no and I did so for the same reasons that Troy and Tony have already stated. I understnad if you absolutely must bring your child, but it should not happen often becuase like Tony said we all know that we meet the third Tuesday of the month. The meetings should be adult oriented.
     
  9. jediknight88

    jediknight88 Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    I know I am not a member of the Richmond Fanforce, but thought I would share how the Tidewater Alliance handles this.

    The Tidewater Alliance has an age requirement of 16 years or older for members.

    We know and understand that our members also have younglings. With that being said, we try to keep children away from our official meetings as much as possible, because children are children and they can be distracting during something like that.

    We understand that while some people might be able to find sitters and everything?s, that some just can't, due to money issues, time issues, what have you. So what we do is ask those parents (Myself included) that if they do bring their children, that they pay close attention to their children and make sure that they do not interrupt the meeting procedures.

    All of our parents (Myself included) know that if our children, no matter how well behaved they are have tantrums, get bored, ect, I mean their children, that?s what they do. We ask all of our parents that if their child starts causing interruptions that they acknowledge it, and politely leave the meeting if they have too. We don?t do it saying "Hey your kid is a problem", we do it so that the meeting can run smoothly.

    What we also do is set up annual events, such as picnics, Christmas parties, Halloween parties, outings, ect (I am not going to list them all as there is alot). This gives the parents and children more events that they can do together and have fun with the rest of the members.

    Hope that helps.

     
  10. James3

    James3 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2006
    Interesting, I was under the impression that theforce.net allowed 13 and older per the law. Isn't the Tidewater Alliance a Fan Force group?

    It would seem to me that there would be a conflict. The fan force deal is most likely the biggest SW group and one of the few that the under 18 crowd can be a part of. Most if not all costuming groups require 18 or older, there are groups that you have to pay to be in, which of course rules out any minors and pretty much most of the prop making communities are not kid friendly.

    Bottom line is for our Richmond group, we sit around on a Tuesday night for a late dinner and some have a few drinks. We spend the evening shooting the bull and enjoying each others company. It isn't really a formal meeting except for the 5 minutes we let Joe do his CR thing and even then we are joking around most of the time. I realize that the point of this poll was specific to myself, and some of the other folks that have the little ones but at the same time where does the age limit stop?
     
  11. ItsThatGuy

    ItsThatGuy Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 12, 2006
    Thanks for your comments Alucien!

    James, good point about the age. I guess we need to have our CR start a new poll on that one.

    I say 16 and up, but everyone under 18 needs a sign parental form/waver so we are no in anyway held responsible.

    BTW, James, some FanForce groups actually charge for memberships? That?s ridiculous, seriously?
     
  12. JoeRichmondVA

    JoeRichmondVA Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2006
    From what I can gather, FanForce chapters have alot of leeway as to what member ages they will accept, how their structure is set up, etc. I'm looking into the official requirements more to see what exactly it indicates about ages, if anything. That's a different issue than the kids on Tuesday night question.

    I also don't want to get hung up on 'meeting' vs event. 96.75% of our planning and coordination is done here, the 'meeting' itself is just a formality.

    My thoughts on the matter are this: I think the idea is that if the doors are open for everyone to bring their kids on Tuesday nights, well I bring my two, which means my wife comes also, James bring his family of 5, Troy brings his 5, Danny brings his 5, etc, and then we aren't having a FanForce get together, its just a bunch of families sitting by themselves that happen to like Star Wars and ended up at the same restaurant. Heck, if everyone donated the money they save by not bringing their families to the Tuesday dinner, we can buy everyone their own FanForce table banner in just a few months. ;)

    Good discussions though, lets hear more peoples points of views.
     
  13. NoTwoSides

    NoTwoSides Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Mar 25, 2007
    Does this 'kid' thing pertain to me, since I'm 16?
     
  14. JoeRichmondVA

    JoeRichmondVA Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2006
    No no, we aren't talking about you :)
     
  15. James3

    James3 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2006
    No dude this has more to do with single digit aged kids. Truth be told I am still not really sure why the whole deal came up. We pretty much meet the same way every month and there has only been one time when my son came with me more for the fact that he wanted Lasagna and see everyone then any other reason and one time when Danny and Annie came to their first meeting with the family. All other dinner meets have been the Fan Force members that post on here. Truth is most of the conversations would be boring to kids and if you have Allen, Troy and Tony all together then it could get a little crude as they tend to feed off of each other. [face_devil] The one thing I have noticed over the past year is that we tend to behave in a manner appropriate to the setting. If we are in a restaurant where kids are around we tend to tone it down a bit, yes even ones that didn't come with us. And on the other side of that when we were at Penny Lane Pub and Five Guys (when it was empty of pretty much just us) then you never know what is going to come out.

    Party on dudes!
     
  16. Julie3

    Julie3 Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Dec 6, 2006
    Here's my 2 cents for what it's worth....

    I personally have felt the Tuesday night thing is for the grownups... well all you geeks at least! ;) At the same time I do not really understand why this is being brought up. There have only ever been a very small handful of meetings that I am aware of that involved kids in attendance. Of course 1 of them being mine and he's still raving about how cool it was to hang out with you guys. That was once in a year and I really didn't think it bothered anyone all that much. Personally we try to make every effort possible to kick James out of the house at least once a month by himself, but sometimes life just happens and things don't work out as planned. IF kids are being constantly brought to the meetings, causing chaos and disruption then YES it should be addressed to the responsible party and if it becomes a constant problem, which I doubt, then sure there should be a rule set in place that says no kids allowed, but I haven't seen that happen and feel you're all grown ups and those of us with kids understand and realize the impact kids have on something like this. Even at the family friendly events we had over the last year every effort has been made to ensure you guys have a kid free zone to address your formal meeting stuff - at our house it's the living room where there's doors to be shut as us moms shue the monsters upstairs to the playroom or outside. At Joe's the geeks head downstairs, the kids upstairs and the moms in the middle to buffer the two. Personally, from a non-member having to put up with all your all's stuff, and juggling schedules of what now feels like 4 kids' weekly activities, I'd say the moms here have been doing an excellent job of allowing your play time to be as kid free as possible and we'll continue to do so, cause for whatever reason we must love you guys to put up with all this madness! :)

    Just an outsiders point of view.....
     
  17. jediknight88

    jediknight88 Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    Interesting, I was under the impression that theforce.net allowed 13 and older per the law. Isn't the Tidewater Alliance a Fan Force group?

    It would seem to me that there would be a conflict. The fan force deal is most likely the biggest SW group and one of the few that the under 18 crowd can be a part of. Most if not all costuming groups require 18 or older, there are groups that you have to pay to be in, which of course rules out any minors and pretty much most of the prop making communities are not kid friendly.


    The force.net does allow individuals 13 years or older to register and partake in the Forum activities. But as far as I know, there is no rule stipulating what ages are or are not allowed to participate in a Fanforce. The administration pretty much lets the Fanforces run themselves, although I do hear that a new set of guidelines are in the works.

    We used to allow kids 13 and older into the Fanforce, but the problem we ended up having was we had a few parents that used us as a ?babysitting service? per say. Some of the parents wouldn?t pick their kids up on time. One time we had to wait outside of the Library for 2 hours after it closed before the Parent showed up, and then asked us why we didn?t take their child home. So that is why we changed it in our group.

    I say 16 and up, but everyone under 18 needs a sign parental form/waver so we are no in anyway held responsible

    That is what we do now. We dont really have anyone under the age of 18 in our Fanforce except for one person, and his parents are active in the Fanforce. But if we did have a situation where a 16 or 17 year old were to become a member, we would ask the parents to sign a release form stating that the Fanforce is in no way shape or form responsible for transporting children, and that the parent must be able to be reached in case of meeting cancellation, ect. But again we usually never have a problem. As far as the really younger children are concerned, we have never had a problem with parents bringing the child. Parents usually can tell when they need to excuse themselves to try and calm down a child. Heck we even have a set of parents that bring thier child with a portable dvd player and headphones. We understand that sometimes you cant find a sitter, and thats ok. We try to accomidate everyone.

    Edit ItsThatGuy, our Fanforce has a yearly membership due. We put this money into a treasury for banners, our website, t-shirts, supplies for when we have functions, like our annual picnic, Christmas Party, Halloween Party, ect. Heck we just used some of the treasury to pay for our 2 3x9 foot banners and to reserve our shelter for our Annual Tidewater Alliance Picnic/BBQ. Our dues arnt that much, they are only 25.00 a year. I truly helps out and is better than one person shelling out the bucks for stuff.
     
  18. James3

    James3 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2006
    WOW! people actually left their kids and didn't pick them up????? Did they actually know y'all that well to do that??? I would have been calling the police telling them that the kids were left and either the parents were in some kind of emergency and were not avaliable or otherwise they abandoned their children. In all the years I have put in coaching soccer, I have never heard of such a thing.
     
  19. Shivann_D

    Shivann_D Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 28, 2006
    my 2 cents....I am in the group that feels that the kids should be able to attend the Family events, ie the gokarting, picnics etc, but not the meetings. I know for a fact that my wife would never sit in a restaurant with my 2 4 year olds and eat dinner while I was having a meeting, and she would never expect me to do the same during her Mothers of Multiples meetings. Meetings are meetings whether we are all sitting around shooting the breeze with intermitent formalities or actually having a formal meeting.
    As far as the dues go...I dont see any reason not to have an annual dues to help out with banners, food, events, etc, even if it is only $10 -$15 per year.
    With regards to the age limit... If a kid is 16 and able to drive then I dont see a reason not to allow them to join in the reindeer games but it would be good to have a waiver from the parents stating that they have given him/her permission to go on outings and such. At age 18 anyone should be allowed to join in. This shouldnt be a kidsitting service.
    And there you have my thoughts for the day...enjoy
     
  20. James3

    James3 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2006
    I will be damned if we are going to start having dues! Jason's group may have that and it is all well and good for them but there is no way in hell that we are going to start being responsible for paying money every year to be friggin Star Wars fans.

    My wife and I host the two biggest and possibly the most expensive meetings of the year and THE ONLY thing that we ask is that everyone come and have a good time. I don't give a crap what it costs. That is my way to contribute to the group and have a way for us to hang out together and have fun. I don't pay to be in the 501st, the Rebel Legion, The CSA, or any other group that I am in. We bring food here and there for the food bank, We have tried to do a clean up the park deal. When we started the Drivers Wanted deal I put in my twenty bucks to get them done. I CHOOSE what I do and don't want to pay for. I do not see a need for everyone to be putting in money and then have someone responsible for that money and how it is used.
     
  21. jediknight88

    jediknight88 Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    WOW! people actually left their kids and didn't pick them up????? Did they actually know y'all that well to do that??? I would have been calling the police telling them that the kids were left and either the parents were in some kind of emergency and were not avaliable or otherwise they abandoned their children. In all the years I have put in coaching soccer, I have never heard of such a thing.

    Believe it or not, it really happened. The Library security guard was calling the VAPD when the parent drove up.

    Your right, they didn't know us that well, I think it was only the second time we had met them. But I know for a fact that I wasn't going to drive the child to his house.
     
  22. James3

    James3 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2006
    Dude! I don't blame you for getting a tough policy after that! That is total Bravo Sierra! You did right by sticking to your guns though. Not taking them home was a VERY good idea.
     
  23. ItsThatGuy

    ItsThatGuy Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 12, 2006
    James settle down...settle down...

    I have my opinions over the whole paying the dues thing, but I will keep that to myself. But the minute someone trys to implement that here - see ya!

    The last thing we need is more politics here. I know to some this poll seems like politics, but I see it as a clarification.
     
  24. James3

    James3 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2006
    Dude, I had Mexico and am much better now. :D

    Politics is exactly what I don't want. This is supposed to be the Family friendly, come how you are, we are all a bunch of Star Wars fans looking to get together and have a good time.

    I was originally invited on to this board by Jim(StrangeWings) who saw that I was working on putting together a summertime get together for the Mid-Atlantic area TCSS folks. That is where Eddie and Joe came in to play as well. At that time the joint was a little quite so I did my Hiya's and invited the fine folks here to come on over too. Well, short version of this story is the date shifted and there ended up being more Richmond Fan Force folks then TCSS people and I got the privilege of meeting some incredible friends. That deal had as many or more kids then adults and I am pretty sure that everyone had a good time. I know I sure did.

    The idea of getting together on Tuesday nights at 7PM were pretty simple. We wanted to find a time that worked well for as many as possible and quite honestly kids should be going to or in bed by the time we meet. Kids were not really a factor at all. The idea was everyone was off work by then and could hang out for a few hours.

    Sadly, this is going to become politics no matter what. We have brought up several things beyond kids at dinner and that is the way it goes. So now we look to discriminate on possible attendance based on someones age? What if there is a single mom that is really in to it and wants to come but just downright can't get a sitter for whatever reason? Think through this a bit. I do not understand this "babysitter" mentality that a few people seem to have. It is not our job to worry about other peoples kids. It is not any of our authority to dictate that some one can not bring their children to a dinner.

    Ah, Screw it! ESB is on HiDef I am going to watch that.
     
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