I wouldn’t give out any personal information on the public forum, like your phone #. Save that for private messages. You can edit it out yourself. When people sign up for the Meetup, and I show the signup sheet, I always block the personal stuff. just name, town, how many people are you bringing, and food donation.
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Thanks for clarifying Mike. We definitely don’t want to run into insurance issues. Thomas is very eager and getting some traction locally. I spoke with him just now and clarified the insurance setup. He’s going to talk to some folks there and see what the requirements would be and how to best go about it.
Thanks Lemlers and Mike R for your advice on this, you’ve been way deeper down this rabbit hole than the rest of us!
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Yes Mike R. is right, we were always able to just add on to our liability business insurance like a trade event, similar to a reunion., usually there was no extra charge but a couple times it was like $75.
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just got off the phone with the economic development director. there seems to be good news. He spoke to the local insurance agency that insures most of the events that come through, specifically referencing the Blaze of Bluegrass festival that uses the same location. there’s always a great turnout for that festival each year.
The Insurance company gave aa rough quote of $250-$350 for Thurs-Sun morning (not daily rate) for the groups gathering to be considered an “Public event”. so even worse case scenario it hopefully seems to come in comfortably within budget.
I Made an appointment with the judge executive for this Friday (hes out of town atm) to pass it by him to see what hhe thinks, since he seemed so open and willing to help anyway he can. he assured me that the group would have full community support and acceptance. as well as offering to write a letter of support.
After the meeting with the judge executive on Friday ill have more solid details with his recommendations on how to proceed. I may be able to talk to the insurance company sometime next week to get a more clear picture of pricing options depending on private vs public, etc…
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But Im more than happy to hear all concerns. its nice to hear about some hurdles that have been experienced so that i can prepare for them and work through them.
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Wow!
So, you guys are getting with it. I like it.
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If things are the way they sound from Thomas, it’s hard to argue against using this option. Facilities look excellent. Costs etc sound perfect. Geography works well. Distance would probably allow us to bring more aparatus, etc.
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We (ADAPTech) have been moving towards developing a similar event here. We aren’t interested in competing with the DOW event, but I believe there are southern folks that we don’t draw out with a yankee meetup. This move might accomplish that.
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We have been throwing around several ideas about such an ADAPTech event.
That could take many forms…from an all out event to an open-house program the week before the DOW meetup. Or combine it with a hands on workshop …cutting welding etc. Maybe there are people that need welding lessons. Rocket stove practicum…water purification intensive…Maybe people want to fire up the sawmill and make lumber or run the chunker or cook charcoal, or bring their guns and step out back to the target range, or roast a pig or explode some grain and make puffed caramel corn, or take the char boats out to the lake.
Sort of similar to when the European guys came through before Argos.
If we did that, it would be more structured and programmed etc. Maybe we could have a hands on workshop…class project sort of deal where we build a charcoal gasifier and convert a lawnmower or somethings and then haul the project to KY for the meet uP…??? We also have all the rest of our campus and tech.
Bob was just commenting on the idea of coming here and to Wayne’s place as part of the same trip…Same idea.
Also, our proximity to Wayne and Lisa enhances the possibilities. Also, between us and Wayne, there are large supplies of wood chunks etc in the region.
We might would also coordinate this type of function with some of our mission group involvement and/or our University groups, though that seems like it may be mixing too many different things.We have been getting involved with some engineering schools at colleges and universities.
Just some thoughts to throw out there. -
We would not be against hosting this event or even the DOW event sometime in the future also. That’s kinda what we do.
We are in the middle of a transition between businesses so we can focus more on developing ADAPTech. Part of that development includes expansion of the infrastructure of the campus. We have been doing that already, but still feel we need some more dormitory space. We expect to deal with that in the next year or so…perhaps camper space etc. So, while we could manage to host the DOW event even now, it will get easier to do so in the next few years. -
Perhaps there will be a need or desire for a rotational system to move the main event around the country. Perhaps annual regional meet ups and a big rotating annual meetup? ??? Or maybe just establish a rotation meeting once a year. We have had the thought of doing a separate gathering here at ADAPTech on the off season. So if we have the DOW meetup in the spring, maybe we could do something in the fall and overlap some of our other groups/classes etc. The north stays cooler in the spring than we do. And we are picking okra nad watermelons when Bill Schiller is already shoveling snow in August… Who knows. I personally believe there are more poelpe out there that we don’t know about because they are too far away.
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If this KY thing would work out…we would consider that to be very good, and would put our support behind the effort.
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I have a couple other thoughts to add:
Could we expand the event so that people could arrive on Wednesday and leave on Sunday. It always seems too short. I hear people every year say so. And if we would do the next item (#8), it would seem even shorter. -
I suggest some of us could put some effort into coordinating a “program” of sorts, for the event. The last couple of years when we did a little bit of that, everyone seemed to think it was a benefit. Modules, classes, lessons. Scheduled events throughout the event to give everything a direction and get everyone on the same page. Something defined ahead of time, and written down, so people know what to expect. a schedule. (examples: the lesson Don put together about the history of woodgas, the parade, the fund raising raffle, a discussion panel (or 3) made up of different "experts, Jakob or Wayne making a presentation of long distance trips, Chris or Bob or Jesse making a presentation on their experiences making and using automixers, featured woodgas story times, Matt’s charcoal journey, Gilmore making charcoal. etc, etc, And that’s just a list I threw together in 3 minutes…
But not so busy as to become burdensome and change the atmosphere.
We already have all of those human resources, we just need someone to pull them together and coordinate them just a little bit. -
As has been mentioned some, it is important that someone competent have their head in the “hosting” situation. Do we have someone able and willing to manage that in KY. The facilities look excellent. We could continue to help with some of that coordination probably…But obviously, not living there will make it some more difficult for us to be the primary up there. Atleaast form a logistical perspective. We could probably do more with the programming side of things if desired…
There’s probably more to say…later. Billy
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Hey bud, love the enthusiasm!
Wanted to go over some of the stuff you mentioned, I 100% love the idea of trying to organize and stuff like that. I’m in the middle of producing a couple of tabletop display models with information booklets that I was going to use to take to my local school to do some education outreach, maybe even a PowerPoint presentation showing the history of wood gas and how it functions. That might be able to help with this
I would definitely be interested in helping organize stuff for something structured and programmed so that people could have tables that they can move from one to another and have various things going on at each place to learn. Especially the Hands-On project where people can see a gasifier being built, or converting something in real time would definitely be something that would keep people’s interest alive
My area certainly has plenty of room to accommodate. And unless there is anyone that is opposed to it, I’m more than open with doing what I can to organize stuff from my end. I live very close to the courthouse in my county, and I grew up with a lot of the people that run our county. So being able to get the information around would certainly not be an issue, and organizing things shouldn’t be too difficult.
There’s no reason why we couldn’t organize multiple programs, not just the DOW but a joint event would go a long way in my area. Hands-On events like that are very popular here
I don’t want anybody to feel like I’m stepping on anyone’s toes, and if there’s anyone opposed to my helping, I’m more than willing to step down. But it almost seems like the perfect storm of having an area and a local community that I am already involved with that are more than excited to take part and help in what ways they can.
we have a coupe very large lumber yard just down the road from my house as well as a half dozen or more smaller ones in case more wood is needed. so that should be ok.
The county judge executive is already on board, as well as economic development director, the fairground manager seems excited as well.
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And I was already sitting down to mention that I just got done talking to the owner of the largest hardware store in the county. He is a good guy and I thought that he would be very interested in this. Turns out he is extremely interested in supporting the group as well. He has a history helping local events like the local lumberjack event that had Husqvarna and stihl participation.
He told me that he is absolutely interested. Making sure to nudge me and tell me that as soon as I had my display models up and running to bring them down to his shop. He really wants to see them working, and told me to get back with him about helping the group in a more tangible way once we get the ball rolling.
Hopefully I can get the word in the ear of some of the other local stores and businesses and get their involvement as well. I want to help because I truly truly believe in what we are doing.
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A workshop and/or structured program sounds like a great addition!
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absolutely. IF others were into the idea as well, i would love setting up a sort of “flow chart” of tables where each person that wanted to do a showing, or display could have their own section dedicated for floating observers. and maybe have a structured itinerary sort of setup that would have a few dedicated time slots for some. the slide show/informational thing would be a real kick for anyone who is newer to the idea.
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but the important part is to make sure everyone is comfortable with the thoughts ahead of time. definitely want to make sure everyone is comfortable with the setup and not try to make it too jarring. a year sound like a while but it will sure fly by.
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Closer is better for me it was around 1500 miles one way for me, and I really liked the way it was where it was more like little booths with with demonstrations. I am not much on setting in a class. I realize most people are different. Just giving my opinion. Glad we are discussing early my wife has to put in for vacation the beginning of the year always. the days are usually taken by the time I let her know
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That’s kind of the feeling that I had been getting. Especially with the change in venue, I would hate to try changing too many things at once. But with our facility here, everything is more together in one spot, so I think everybody’s Booth displays like we had it in Indiana will work out very well… I think the best route would likely be to try keeping things pretty close to how they’ve been working in previous events in order to keep everything running smooth and everyone comfortable with the transition
I’m going to shoot Billy a message. I am also interested in his idea, and could possibly set up another gathering here in the off season. No reason to limit it to just one event and try cramming everybody together at once. We could spread it out a little bit and get some real mileage out of the year. That would lessen up the stress and keep people’s interests alive throughout the year and not just a once a year blip.
On Friday I have another meeting with the county judge executive to hammer out a few more details, as well as trying to get letters of support from some of the offices that I could use while contacting local businesses to drum up some more community support. Thankfully I’ve already got the largest hardware store in the county on board.
If there are any questions or concerns that anyone has that they would like me to ask the judge executive at the Friday meeting, feel free to shoot me a message or post it here. Wouldn’t hurt to have a full list before I go
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Thomas, How far are you from Sterns? I was there about 30 years ago. Brother in law had relatives that lived there. Dan
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Stearns is 2 miles down the road. i got rental property in stearns. so VERY close
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Thomas,
Do the mine still operate and the trains go in and out of there?
Dan
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Unfortunately they have shut down all of the mines here. But they have still kept the mining camp that has a museum up for tourism. They have kept one of the steam engine trains up and running, they do rides every now and then with it.
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All right. Just came from the courthouse. The economic development director and the judge executive are going each do a letter of support. I should have that in a couple of days. It should make it easier on my end to get stuff organized with the businesses. Seeing if anybody would be willing to donate. Certainly helps to have the letters instead of just walking in, haha.
When would ideally be the better time to get stuff set up for tentatively? I assumed roughly around the same time for next year, but wanted everyone’s input before I go to make any reservations or tell the fairgrounds manager a set time
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some people were talking about doing it earlier in the year. I don’t know how this plays out for everyone though.
Also being much further south heat might be a factor
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