proposed grand opening date: 25 july 09

General
#1

IF we can get the space leased
THEN IF we can get stuff moved in and somewhat set up

i propose we have our kickoff/grand opening/maker community social on the 25th of july for 3 reasons:

  1. my favorite rapper, int80 is available to perform
  2. it will give us time to make contact with the community and promote the event
  3. it will give us time to prepare for the festivities

other proposed times:

any weekend in august other than the first which is when a lot of us will be at defcon.

#2

we are go for the 25th, who wants to help coordinate?

#3

I will lend assistance.

#4

for the event we need:

items:
food/beverages:
homebrew beer
snacks, etc.
baked goods?

exhibits:
stuff people have made/fixed up
photo booth - playertwo

raffle items:
things people would like to donate to be raffled off
mame cabinet - playertwo

silent auction items:
chrisA - softmodded xbox w/ xbox media center

people:
someone to collect admission at the door
bartender to work the kegs
someone to hawk items in silent auction
promoters
promoters
promoters

#5

I’m down for brewing. I would also be available for setup and such. I will be out of town from July 10-17th.

If we are going to brew we are going to have to keg it. And what ever we brew will need to have a short shelf life.
I’ll be able to help with ancillary. I’m not sure I’ll have time to organize this.

Erik

#6

so, do you need someone to acquire a keg[s]?

#7

We also will need tables / chairs

#8

I think that everyone that either in this thread, or we make another thread that people can reply to saying if the are coming and how many people they are bringing so that we can better estimate how many people are coming, and what they are bringing {Food, Snack,Plate, Cup, Napkin}.

So in my mind we are going to need…

  • Everyone to bring some item:
    – 1x Person to bring Cups / Plates / Napkins
    – 1/4 of attendees to bring 2-liters
    – 3/4 of attendees to bring snack items

And in a silent auction you don’t really “hawk” items, the ones I have been to work a couple different ways. You have the items sitting on a table and you do one of two things:

  1. You have slips of paper and boxes for each item, people write their name & max bid on the slip of paper, and put it in the box. At the end of the night the person with the highest bid wins the item.
  2. You have a sheet of paper next to each item, you write your bidder # (or name) on a line of the paper, and your current bid. Throughout the night people circulate around the tables and if they notice someone outbid them, they can write down a new bid.

Also, when people bid they write their Name / Phone Number / Bid amount so that we can contact them if they win.

At the end of the night, or at a designated time you end the bidding and people can start paying for the items they have won. I think method #2 would work better for an auction.

In any case, we will need one person to work on setting up the auction.

I think that what might work best for us in setting this all up is if we have put different people in charge of each major component of the party, then have another person in charge of coordinating the different people.

So from the list above we need:

  • Person in charge of coordinating Snacks / Beverages / Utensils
    ---- Responsibilities would include getting different people to bring different items so that we do not end up with 10 bottles of mountain dew and a box of cheezits.
  • Person to organize the Raffle
    ---- Responsibilities would include soliciting donations for the raffle then putting a price on tickets for said items, and then organizing the sale of tickets and finally picking the names / tickets out of a box and distributing items.
  • Person to organize the Silent Auction
    ---- Responsibilities would include setting up the table for the silent auction including paper / pens, collecting items as people arrive, when the auction is finished contacting the winners and collecting the payments.
  • Exhibit Czar
    ---- Responsibilities would include organizing the exhibits and helping people set up their stuff when they arrive.

Any other suggestions?

  • Paul
#9

I know that Jason has a line on tables and chairs. We’ve rented from one particular place for our Arsclan meets. As far as kegging goes I’ll talk to Matt. We may need to get rolling on this this weekend. I have three different beers I could brew each at a 5 gallon yield rate.

If we get them all in the primaries by this weekend they should be perfect by the 25th.

Erik

#10

RE: hawking, i was thinking having a person there to explain what the items do and why they’re cool. not everyone there will know why modding an xbox makes it much more than an outdated game console :slight_smile:

  • Person in charge of coordinating Snacks / Beverages / Utensils
    ---- Responsibilities would include getting different people to bring different items so that we do not end up with 10 bottles of mountain dew and a box of cheezits.
  • Person to organize the Raffle
    ---- Responsibilities would include soliciting donations for the raffle then putting a price on tickets for said items, and then organizing the sale of tickets and finally picking the names / tickets out of a box and distributing items.
  • Person to organize the Silent Auction
    ---- Responsibilities would include setting up the table for the silent auction including paper / pens, collecting items as people arrive, when the auction is finished contacting the winners and collecting the payments.
  • Exhibit Czar
    ---- Responsibilities would include organizing the exhibits and helping people set up their stuff when they arrive.

these are great suggestions. has anyone organized an event before to sort of organize the organizers?

#11

I will volunteer for exhibit czar and brewing coordinator. Here are the kits(yes they are all ales. I do not have a lagering fridge yet.)

I have:

-English Bitter
-Honey Weizen
-Liberty Cream Ale (very appropo)

I know that Jason has;
-Random IPA

I’m thinking of having a massive brew party this weekend so that we can get these things brewed up and in primaries. The sooner we do it the better. It would be good to have a few other brewers there or anyone who is interested in the process.

Erik

#12

I vote either the cream ale or the bitter. Not a big fan of honey beers…

#13

Uh I was going to brew all of them.

#14

LOL. works for me :slight_smile:

#15

We should also submit this event to the Hackerspace Wiki event list: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Events

#16

Actually… nevermind that looks more like a list for large Con events rather than small local events.

#17

We do have an events google calender tho. We need to make sure that whoever cordinates events/classes should also update that calendar as well.

#18

Yeah, but I would imagine it will mostly be people that already know about us that are subscribed / check to the calender, and I was just wondering if there would be some way that we could tell the hackerspace community at large that we are getting started.

#19

Paul,

The Propagandists are working on that. I don’t know where they are at in that process. Craig is a good contact.

Erik

#20

I just checked, I will also be out of town the weekend of the 25th.
This makes me very sad.