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A couple Members have inquired about the possibility of doing an EVENING meeting, and doing it in the suburbs. I think that sounds great.

Personally, I'd like to do two a month - 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, but that's just me. I'm committed to moderating the 2nd Wednesday group. I know Mike Carson was interested, perhaps he/others can chime in with their thoughts.

My concern is that having meetings in the suburbs may be difficult to get to. For example, if a meeting were held in Lake Forest and I live in Lansing it would become virtually impossible to attend .

I work in downtown and live in one mile from Indiana.

Hi everybody,

As I'm living in southwestern suburb, I would really welcome a Group meeting in the 'Burbs.
However, I think there are a few things which should be considered:

In which suburb should the meeting be?
I think it should be considered to create a poll where people can vote for their preferred 'burb/area in order to better determine where to hold a suburban group meeting.

What day of the week and what time of the day?
In my opinion, this is also something that should be included in the poll.
i.e. if you decide to hold a group meeting in 2min down the road from where I live, I still won't be able to attend if it is held Mo-Fr somewhere between 8am - 7pm.

Hoping this input will by somewhat of help, I'm looking forward to getting more and more involved in this community.

Bluesly Yours
mamboblues

I think it's good to have regular meetings in the Loop - same Bat-time, same Bat-channel, as they used to say on my favorite tv show.

Between Loop meetings, it would be great to have satellite meetings -- they could be very informal, probably a bunch of people getting together over coffee/lunch/drinks to get up to speed on what's happening with the group. Obviously, that could be especially effective if one of the participants was able to go to the general meeting downtown!

That way, the in-between meetings could be very flexible and very local to interested parties.

We would be happy to host/coordinate such a meeting for northshore people here in Evanston in between general meetings. In fact, I'll make a standing offer to gather people at our office (1718 Sherman in Evanston)or a nearby coffeeshop Thursday Jan 3 at midday (or some other time/place that works for people) if folks want to have a "northshore" meeting.

Hi Guys. I live in Joliet. I had talked to John about possibly starting a sister group for the Plainfield/Naperville area but and still keep everything going in coordination with this site. John and I did not feel that it would be good to have 2 separate sites or groups in the Chicago land area. The daytime meetings are just hard for me to attend due to my work schedule so I suggested some more informal evening meetings in the southwest burbs area. We would keep the agenda content very close to John's daytime meetings so that if someone could not make the day meeting, they can catch up at the evening meetings and not miss anything. We think that this would offer a lot more flexibility and help promote more attendance and group activity.
I'm actually looking for a good central location that will be suitable to have the meetings.
Thanks
Mike

It'll be all about timing.

It'd be great to get this central hub going strong on the 2nd Wednesdays for a few months, and as folks want to start up other groups in the area, try to set it up so folks from THIS group can attend those others too - and vica-versa.

We'll find that we'll be stronger and more effective in the short-term (and thus, long-term), if we get this group formed first, formalize some things (and leave some others loose), and all participate in making it better and stronger...

The other thing we need to do is set up a business model which will best facilitate this whole endeavor. I've been thinking a lot on this as an opportunity for a pretty cool new business model - open source LLC.

Hi live in Yorkville (pretty close to naperville and plainfield), so a meet up in the Naperville or Plainfield area would be great. Maybe just meet for coffee at a starbucks on a saturday or something...

If/when you want to do a meeting there, let me know. I'd be happy to help you get it going - even come down and help you run it, if you like. Naperville would be a great place for a new group to meet.

Let me know.

I'd prefer to meet downtown, however due to my work schedule I might not be able to make it between 11-1. How about doing it online in addition or instead of live meetings? There are webex-like software packages allowing for online meetings.

I found www.dimdim.com it's an open source app for online meetings.

What is Dimdim ?
"No downloads, Dimdim is a free web conferencing service where you can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and broadcast via webcam with absolutely no download required for attendees."

The only limitation might be ability to have up to 20 participants connected at the same time, perhaps they have more powerful packages. It may cost less than the lunch you provide for us, or we may pay for it.

I am going to test it within few days.

Hey guys I'm up for the Naperville area on a weeknight or saturday morning (saturday morning would rock). There are tons of places, any Panera bread or Starbucks could work. I'd defiantly attend both meeting spots for sure.