We haven’t had one for a year and some folks think the time has passed but I disagree. We need something to revive interest in this li’l club of ours. I would be pleased to be involved in organizing, sending out personal invitations ;), and such but remember that I am a boring person who has no idea how to have fun (<–True Fact!) so I’ll need some help planning and selecting venues and so on. If we divide the labor it should be no big pile of work for any one person.
Questions to ponder:
When is a good weekend? Should we wait until Fall when folks are done with vacations and to give people time to plan their travel?
Should it be spread over the weekend, including get-togethers on Friday and Saturday nights and touristy things during the day?
Anybody know a place that serves food, has a large enough back room, isn’t too crowded, and where we haven’t already worn out our welcome?
Being a boring and stuffy person, it’s easy for me to suggest some groundrules for behavior. Please remember that this is supposed to be fun for everybody, not just a few, so:
No trashing any of the venues. It ain’t 1968 and we ain’t The Who.
No illegal drugs. I would’ve thought this was a no-brainer but it turns out it isn’t.
No public sex, pretend or real. Okay, MINIMAL public sex. Some people are even more easily offended than I and I refer you back to the “fun for everybody” statement.
Tijuana? The Happiest Place on Earth? I was sorta thinking someplace in or around Chicago but it’s a thought. But we’re brainstorming and in a brainstorming session there are no bad ideas.
Methinks you are going to have some attendance issues…take a look around and see how many ChiDopers as of least year’s gathering are still currently enrolled here, and you’ll see what I mean.
While I live in Chicago, lately I’m rarely anywhere near Chicago.
But if I’m at home that weekend, I’ll definitely engage minimally in some implied public sex with other Dopers.
And might I suggest, one of the days, a bar-b-q/picnic at one of the many lovely beaches in town? Perhaps Montrose Beach?
Some of the previous Chicago ones: no, not really, but while that was sometimes part of the fun* it was also a sore point. There is no reason why this one can’t be perfectly respectable, like that beach party idea.
Elsewhere, they have been described as “drunken frat parties” but I guess drunken frat parties have milded down in recent years because they are more “people talking loudly” than “at least nobody died.” There have been momentary exceptions and some people have exagerated those incidents to make them sound more like a scene from a Cecil B DeMille epic than they really were, but you know that the people here have more in common with Napoleon Dynamite than Napoleon Bonaparte. Real “shocking” incident: The zipper on a busty attendee’s blouse kept creeping lower. She didn’t notice it but the guys did and one took advantage of a whiteboard in the room to chart its progress. Not exactly *Penthouse Letters * material.
Yes, but I know some of the places they hang out so I crossposted there. Plus some people complain about the same old cliques being at these things. It’s time to form NEW cliques.
Minimal public sex really doesn’t interest me much (but might be fun to watch!).
My problem is that I work every other weekend (12’s) so I would either need advance notice to get the time off or I could not go-and just play like I did (huh?).
Anyhoo, having lived near Chicago for most of my life, I can say with certainty that I know of nowhere to go. Chicago is a place I plug into to see museum exhibits, new shops and the like.
I don’t get out much (Jeebus I’m boring).
But whirly-whatever sounds like a blast–and more family oriented, if that is needed. I can go either way.
Apologies if this sounds less than enthusiastic, I am interested, just have a headache at present.
