I think it’s time we start planning another big ChiDope. I’m proposing the last weekend of March 2002 - the 29th, 30th, and 31st. Why, you may ask. Well, it’s far enough away that people can get good airfares, it’s not too close to when Spiffled is typically planned, the weather at the end of March in Chicago is typically starting to get nice, no sane person would want to come in the dead of winter, and, well, I told a bunch of people in chat and on AIM that I would suggest end of March/early April, and that turned into the last weekend of March after some folks said they couldn’t come in April.
I propose that we have the main dopefest on Saturday at a bar that has electronic trivia games, because dopers would clean the floor with everyone else in the place. This would probably end up being somewhere in the city. The drawback to this is that cheap hotels that are not disgusting are tough to find. There are plenty of nice hotels in the downtown and surrounding area, but they are not cheap, and folks would probably either want to take a taxi to the main event, or bum a ride with a local. We can probably track down something that isn’t prohibitively expensive, but the best bet for out-of-towners on a tight budget may be to see if they can stay with a local doper.
I also propose a Saturday afternoon trip to The Pleasure Chest in Chicago because I think it would be … interesting… for a bunch of dopers to go to a sex/leather shop.
A couple of notes on ChiDopes, that I copied from my post in another thread:
DopeFests are what you make them. I’ve seen a number of posts in the past, that imply people sometimes feel intimidated or uncomfortable attending some of these dopefests. If you’re not comfortable with Drunken Debauchery, I think Cranky’s idea of finding a like-minded doper or two to attend is a good thing. That said however, the attempt for “A Quiet ChiDope” a couple of months ago was not particuarly quiet. The same core group generally attends these things, and the core group for ChiDopes is generally not a quiet bunch.
That said, some notes on ChiDopes:[ul][li]A lot of the people who attend ChiDopes like to drink, flirt, and generally have a wild time.[/li][li]No one will make you drink, flirt, or have a wild time if you don’t want to.[/li][li]Plenty of conversations happen at ChiDopes that are not about sex. I just can’t happen to remember any. ;)[/li][li]If you are having a conversation that is not about sex, people won’t come and interrupt you and and make you talk about sex.[/li][li]This is not an exclusionary group. If you show up, people will be friendly and talk to you.[/li][li]Hookups have been known to happen at ChiDopes (since we are such a friendly group), but again, if you don’t wanna, nobody’s gonna make you (unless you’re into that sort of thing :D).[/li][li]And a note to some folks (who I can’t remember) who thought they had to be personally invited to a DopeFest. If the notice is publicly posted, everyone is by definition invited.[/ul][/li]And, since this is a DopeFest thread, here’s my sig. 
