OMGWTFRLFBBQ!!!!!1111 Poll (for the 2006 Gathering)

[Martin Blank]

People will stay for segments of three days. Initially, it will be that each person may purchase one segment. If there is still room after initial interest has died down, then those who want to be there for six or even nine days will be considered, space available. Each one of these segments is whatever the price is. The idea is to cap the number of people at 25 at a time, because any more than that and it's just too much. In fact, the cap will probably be at 20 guests at a time, so the 60 count is probably the highest likely one we'll have. If they stay for only two days, it's still a segment's price. Think of it as purchasing admission to a (very small) theme park for three days, and then you have the option to use one, two, or three of those days.

As for scheduling, I'd like to put it around Spring Break. No two schools necessarily follow the same Spring Break schedule, and there are those with religious concerns for Easter, so the Gathering is going much longer partially to accomodate them.

[Kits]

Would it be naughty of me to use my employee rate and just stay at a hotel nearby and come visit during the day?

[Jamie Bond]

I was going to ask the same thing... regarding the limit to the number of people: Is your concern, MB, about room WITHIN the place we are staying, or the organisational problems of having too many people? If im coming from BC, any of these choices are going to be quite expensive (In either time or money or both) and it would suck to stay for only 3 days.

[Teranfirbt]

Depending on interest, you may want to expand it to 2 "sessions" of 5 days (the first and second groups would overlap one day, which would be good as sort of a big meet and greet...)
And what about Greg and Liz? Would they be staying the entire time? I would take a guess and say the session that include Greg and Liz would be a tad more popular than one without...

[Phong]

Hrmm? Now we're starting to talk about sessions, and 3-day periods and blah. I thought this was supposed to be a get-together of friends? This really is starting to sound too conish.

And isn't Blaze's place a better deal for anyone who wants to stay more than 3 days?

[Infin8Cyn]

I'm totally confused. Way too much info. Not enough Coffee.

All I see:

[Blaze]

No no... that's pretty much just what it said. Just one question... how do you know "turtle"? That's Car Stereo One of Toledo!

[Deacon]

[quote="Phong";p="545239"]I thought this was supposed to be a get-together of friends? This really is starting to sound too conish.[/quote]
I don't know what you mean by "conish", but the problem is that we're dealing with the real world, here (HAHA REAL LIFE), and with real people in physical locations with limited budgets we have to consider actual logistics. Stuff costs money, takes up space, requires planning, etc. I have to say I'm very glad MB is heading up this effort, as I think he's probably the one here I'd trust the most to be handling such things, and such things DO need to be handled.

And isn't Blaze's place a better deal for anyone who wants to stay more than 3 days?

Meh. Regardless, like the "Other Place" mentioned mainly due to amenities like hot tubs and more and bigger beds and pool table, etc. Don't get me wrong, Blaze's place would be great, too, and either way would work for me, but I like the idea of the rental a little more. I hope two things:

1) Wet bar shall not be shut down.
2) We can have a bonfire slash wienie/marshmellow roast and such.

Either way, unless something major and unforseen changes, I will almost certainly be planning to be there regardless.

[Gowerlypuff]

I cannot come from the UK to spend 3 days there. It would work out at something stupid like $400 a day for me (unless people want to pay for my airfare).

[edge]

1) Wet bar shall not be shut down.
2) We can have a bonfire slash wienie/marshmellow roast and such.

word

[Infin8Cyn]

[quote="edge";p="545328"]

1) Wet bar shall not be shut down.

word[/quote]

To your moms.

[Jezebel]

It seems a bit complicated at first, but it really isn't. Greg and Liz will be there the entire time, as will Martin and myself. Greg has stated that he doesn't want more than 20-25 people at a time, so what Martin was trying to accomplish was spacing it out in cycles of 3 days. That way costs as a whole go down per person.

Our estimate for how much things are going to cost is about $2002/$3856
$80/$154 per person for 25 people, for the entire week. Those numbers are probably a bit off because they don't match up exactly with Martins, but it's pretty close I imagine. This would be if all 25 people are staying the entire week. Costs would be less if we had 10 people staying one week, and 30 people staying for 3 days and so on. Chances are it will be less than 150-200 dollars per person for a weeks stay at either blazes or a different place.

Another thing we are concerned about is liability. That sort of thing is covered with rentals, but would not be covered at Blazes. You can say that it's not a big deal, but if someone falls down some stairs and decides to sue Blaze and/or his grandfather for damages it would be. That is not something we would be willing to risk and drawing up liability papers for possibly 60+ people would be kind of difficult.

We have quite a lot of bugs to iron out still, so try to stay with us as we get them worked out. I'm going to compile a list of specific places to vote on, so that we can get that nailed down. We also need to work out people paying ahead of time for reservations, and any possible cancellation fees they might charge in case too many people back out. Last year Martin ended up paying for quite a lot of things out of his own pocket because so many people didn't show up at the last minute. We simply can not afford something like that to happen when dealing with something like this on such a large scale.

I hope to have everything set in stone by the end of this year at the very latest. Space will be limited, especially for week long stays though. So start saving your dollars but we can not guarantee space for anyone.

Martin is a lot better at explaining things than I am, so if you don't understand any of this, just enjoy this picture of Locke until he gets home.

[Infin8Cyn]

In general it sounds as though the place lacking DVD Players is the better option.

[StruckingFuggle]

Besides, is there any real lack of DVD players?

It involves travel, so I for one would have my laptop, and I tend to bring the A/V wires to hook it up to a TV wherever I go, and I'm sure I'm not the only one...

... Though why would we need so many DVD players, anyway?

[NotQuiteDead]

Where in Western NC you looking to go? This sounds like something I can do!