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[Michael Thomas <mdthomas AT mindspring.com>]

Rachel Cox wrote:

> uzoma nwosu wrote:
> >
> > What do we want to do about the location?  I think that the sooner we get 
> > a
> > regular spot the sooner we can focus on festivities.  You guys like to 
> > have
> > fun, don't you?
>
> The only problem with a regular spot is that it'll always be an
> inconvenient one for the same set of people.

I agree with this -- also see the advantages that Uzoma speaks of
in having a consistent location. However, if we rotate meetings to, say,
3 locations, we will reap the benefits of consistency to a lesser
degree  and it will take 3 times longer to start seeing those benefits.

This being said, it's also kinda fun to go in and take over a new place
for an evening... as long as our group has the energy to keep booking
the new places.

BTW, in my experience with setting up the meetings at Tyler's I found
that after having the first gathering, setting up the rest of the
gatherings at Tyler's simply required letting the proprietor know when
we wanted to do it.

> I vote for rotating, so that we can all
> have at least an occasional meeting that isn't completely out
> of our way.

I suggest that we try to minimize driving time, not necessarily
distance. Gotta remember the Cary-RTP-Cary commuters that jam I-40 every
day... Keeps us Chapel Hill-Raleigh-Chapel Hill commuters sailing along
at 80+ m.p.h. while scoffing at the herds in the other lanes.

I think it would also be cool to do what we can to encourage car
pooling... good for the environment, and I know it would force me to
clean out my car at least once in a while..

<GEEK Ignorable=yes>

Or even better, we could create a computer model of where every
potential participant works and lives -- or more precisely, we'll
determine the most probable pre-gathering location for each participant
and the most probable post-gathering location. Can't forget that some of
the potential participants work strange hours, work and live in the same
place, etc.

Then, we'll attempt to find, say, the 3 geographical spots in the area
that minimize "total driving time," where total driving time is defined
as the sum of the driving time from all pre-gathering locations to "the
spot" added to the sum of driving time from "the spot" to the
post-gathering locations, for all potential participants.

Now we have to make our model realistic by adding:
1) predictions of the traffic changes in the triangle over the next few
years.
2) predictions of the pre- and post- gathering locations of future
potential participants

After we find our 3 geographical spots, we simply build our own super
cool, super geeky hang outs there. Since by definition they will be
conveniently located, they'll pay for themselves.  Our meeting problem
is solved!

Then, every few years we run our model again, close our old hangouts and
build new ones.

<GEEKY>


> Cheers!
> -Rachel
>
> --
> Rachel Cox                        |           rachel.cox AT interpath.net
> Web Developer                     |                       919.253.5965
> Interpath Communications          |           http://www.interpath.net
> Careful the wish you make... wishes come true, not free.  -S. Sondheim
>
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