where we go from here

Chris brought up a valid point in reference to the jedi orders activities during the dry spell from now until celebration 3. Now that film con is over there aren't a whole lot of Star Wars related excuses to get together. But just because that may be the case, does not mean our momentum should suffer. Posts will still be made, and we are still very busy. There's a lot of ebay selling yet to be done to finance other projects and this undertaking will keep us relatively busy.
I will be very hard to get a hold of for the next couple months because the retail industry will be a bullet train from thanksgiving through to New Years. After that I expect to get down to the nitty gritty with Chris, Steve, Jimbo, and whoever else doesn't enjoy their free time very much.
I just wanted to mention I was very proud of our entire group for taking home that trophy. I think the ONLY reason we won that thing was because we had diversity. The visual range of going all the way from the classic Jedi to Jango, to Kit and Ki Adi proved we were versatile AND could play all of our respective characters. There were tons of high quality Jedi and aliens throughout the convention but our going in as a team was what nailed that thing home for us.
I want to give special props to Nate for being a fun guy to be around and for sacrificing his eyesight for a short time. To Lance for hand making his entire outfit. Lance you were a trooper this weekend, what with dealing with that cold all the time and other things. I'm glad you had fun.

 

Hey, thank you Mark. I also had a blast hanging out with you and meg and everyone else. That was my main reason for going was just to hang w/ the crew. This past weekend was just amazing. Now all we have to do is go to a few "clubs" have a few drinks and have fun. Thank You all for a great weekend. And sorry for taking that extra detour through Rockford and Rochelle.

 

It was great, We are going to go back for sure. Got to see a lot of "cool" things if you know what I mean. Thanks to the Thirsty Ewok. ;-) . I am glad we won the contest. Because of that we are now on the Map for being a kick a$$ Fan Force. The movie helped some to. And Mark some of the pictuers you took, well we cant put up on the site. if you know what i mean. ;-) But all in all I realy enjoyed my self. I wish that all the other memebers could of gone as well.

"We are now the ultiment FanForce in the Midwest . . . There will be no one to stop us this time"

 

I'll stop you at the city limits if your ego gets any bigger.

 

Hey everyone this weekend was great, and we had a good turn out from our group for FILMCON. I had a gret time with all the members that went to filmcon we had alot of laughs and hope that we all maybe learned something while we were there. The Quad City Jedi Order did what they do best, meet, greet and conquer but I have to say there was alot of good costumes there and we have to admit there was some competition. We will all need to get together and do something sometime soon.

 

I would put this weekend on the level of Celebration. When Nate, Steve,and myself started the order this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to happen. Winning the contest with our group was one of the highlights of my star wars career. I must thank again the person who made this possible, Eric Larson.

 

Congrats on winning the Contest.

With the downtime between movies it's going to be difficult for a lot of the Fan Forces to find stuff to do.

I know for a fact that with mine we only have three members at the moment and probably are going to have three members till the start of Episode III.

But one thing I would suggest that you look into is doing Charitable events during Christmas like Toys for Tots or helping with the Salvation Army.

I know for the Spice Miners we are looking down that route and we are trying to get something set up where we can be at one of the malls in Costume. Hoping to gather toys for the Marines.


Yours Truly,

Universal

 

There's always something to do next, depending on where you look....

1) conventions - The Midwest has a fairly sizable number of conventions, from Chicago to Madison and up to Minneapolis or down to St. Louis. They're a great place to meet up with other fans, pick up neat stuff, and have fun; on the down side, there are registration, hotel, and transport costs, but it's something to consider.

• Capricon - Chicago area - February
[li[OdysseyCon - Madison - April[/li]
• DucKon - Chicago - June
• CONvergence - Minneapolis - July
• Archon - St. Louis - September/October (?)
• WindyCon - Chicago - November
• FilmCon - Madison - November

(and that's not even counting any cons in Iowa that I don't know about....)

2) charity events - Toys for Tots, blood drives, hunger walks, anything... not only does this help the community, but it says something about you as a group

3) fun and games - fun activities take on a whole new dimension when done with a Star Wars group...

Whatever you do, keep it fun and you'll succeed!