Thomas, looks like the mountain climate is close to what we have here. (temperature-wise) I would say May to early June, avoiding Mother’s Day weekend. I wonder if there are regular annual things already planned by others at that camp? You mentioned Bluegrass, and the 4H group itself?
Yes. Blazing bluegrass has a festival. This spring festival was June 8th to June 11th. I tried calling the fairgrounds manager just a few minutes ago and got her answering machine. She probably isn’t in office today, but by Monday I will try to see if I have a more solid idea of who and what is going to be scheduled around this time next season. But I’m sure that we will be able to work around it without much problem…
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Work around it? No, I want to attend. 
In all seriousness, I wonder if the facility is large enough to accommodate everyone, if we might possibly raise awareness if we were there at the same time as another activity.
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the blazing bluegrass festival takes up all locations at the 4-h camp unfortunately. HOWEVER i can try seeing how close we can get it scheduled so that if anyone WOULD want to attend would be able to with a little layover.
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Looking good Thomas.
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There we go. Took me a few tries to get it uploaded properly. It kept wanting to upload as a link for people to download, haha
So these are the letters from the judge executive and the economic development director. So the next thing on the list would be figuring out whether we want the meet up to be before or after the blazing bluegrass festival. The fairgrounds manager suggested having it after. That way there wouldn’t be any bumping heads if the music people decided to come and set up early. She says that we would have basically as much time for our Meetup and clean up after the music festival because nothing else is scheduled after it as far as she knows at the moment.
Just wanted to pass it by and see how close would be best. The last festival that they had for the spring was June 8th to the 11th. So if anybody wanted to come early and attend the music festival as well, I can see about getting a scheduled close to the south end of it so that members can enjoy both.
now that i have the letters, i can also look around and see if any of the local business owners would be interested in donating or helping somehow.
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i cant promise anything of course, but i may be able to talk to the local hotel and see if we can get an event discount for people coming for the meetup as well. but if there are any suggestions or concerns, i wanted to pass it by the group before talking to them
Any comment is appreciated. some of this is new to me, but i am motivated to help in any way i can.
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Thomas,
Wow! You are really doing a great job of promoting and organizing this next meetup! I would think after the bluegrass gathering would be good. You can never please everyone, just try to find a week that works for most everyone. Family things happen that keep people at home. My wife Joy and I were hoping they don’t think we are a huge group, with all the buildup!
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ive tried telling the people I’ve spoken to that it was more of a “gathering of like minded friends” and compared it to when some of the fishermen locally have get togethers to show off their new fishing equipment. they seem to like the idea of something less formal and friendly. based on the responses on the forum, i don’t plan on doing any flyers or anything. but keeping it mostly word of mouth.
With the move is already going to be jarring enough, I figured that I will do everything that I can to keep it as close how the Meetup has been done before. But the option will be there for a group discussion if there is a desire for the event to get larger. But i would hate to make it overwhelming for anyone.
My dad has gotten really excited with all of this as well. He has experience in organizing meetups and fundraising events for a few different groups, such as boy scouts, the fraternal order of eagle, Nationwide photographic, and a couple churches, when I was younger. It got him tickled that I was doing what I could to help and he has been advising me through the process. It’s actually been very nice to see him this interested. He hasn’t been this engaged since he lost his ability to walk. Makes me feel good that he seems to have a sense of purpose in doing what he can to help the group as well.
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This all sound great Thomas…Thanks so much for everything you’re doing.
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Good morning Thomas
First I would like to thank you very much for all you are doing and the time and effort you are putting into this event .
I might make a suggestion of getting a show of hands of the number of people that might attend the event . I would hate for you to go to all this effort and expense to have only a dozen or so people show up .
You might want to get some feedback on having the woodgas event every two years vs every year .
Again thanks much for all you are doing .
Wayne
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Appreciate the feedback bud!
Next time I get a chance, I’ll take a video of the drive down to the campground. It might be easier for some members if they can see how the roads look. I know there was some concern about that earlier.
Can certainly go ahead and set up an early sign up sheet. Never hurts to plan ahead and get a rough idea of who all would be interested in coming
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Thomas,
I am pleased with the new location you have found for the event, especially the 4H camp. I will be there, God willing! Can’t speak for the rest of my family, because it is farther from home base, harder to just pop on by for the day. 
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Ditto what Wayne and Mike said. Thanks Thomas for all you doing. I second that a sign up sheet would be good as would a intenerary sheet( Thursday thur Sunday)
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Let’s get a quick head count. Go here:
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Its more of a radio button, just click around on it until it goes in. 
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The poll is a great idea! It would at least give us a rough idea of who we can hopefully count on making it. Even with word of mouth I am certain that there will be plenty of people that will be interested in coming to experience wood gas for the first time just as I had for my first meetup.
From my point of view, if the group only has a handful of members with working units and real world knowledge able to come to the meetup, I believe we could still consider it a success.
Certainly speaking from my limited experience, even if there was only a couple people when I had shown up to Argos I would have still enjoyed myself greatly just from being able to see how the units worked and the knowledge that was available. It really was one of the most enjoyable things that I had participated in, being able to talk to like minded wonderful people that had so much knowledge and experience to offer.
There are lots of people that don’t know that they want to learn more about wood gas yet. Because they don’t know it exists unfortunately. I have only ran into a couple of people that were even familiar with the concept. But from my initial conversation with the people I’ve spoken to so far, they seem to be very interested. And it would be nice if they had the same opportunity that I had to see working units in action and to learn a little bit more as well. I am honestly shocked that there is anybody that wouldn’t be immediately curious to learn more about this technology. This sad part is that they had for the most part never had been given an opportunity to learn about it.
I know this for absolute certain. Everyone I have spoken to are more than accepting of the concept, and we absolutely will not be considered an eyesore in the background of someone else’s gathering.
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Need some volunteers to work up a 20-ish minute presentation, to be given at the Meetup. It is a whole different environment, so some of the old schedule habits will necessarily need to be modified! 
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