It's pretty darn exciting that Chris has gotten so involved in what once was our "pie in the sky" fan party that we've been dreaming about. Looks like he's really excited about making it happen!

Since I won't be working and I'll have more time on my hands, I'm offering my organization skills to help with pulling off our little shindig. I know it's almost a year away, but I'm excited - so I started up a separate website just for info on the party.

There won't be much on it yet, but I wanted you guys to check it out. It really was easy to make. Googlepages is pretty much amazing. So if you want to do something else or want to change the page in any way, let me know.

The _link_ is http://fropatro.googlepages.com/home

I want to think of a way to make a little chart that shows "Who's Coming." We can have, "Maybe Coming" "Coming" Or "Sadly, Not Coming." And have a growing list. But I don't know how to add that to the site. It's easy to do on those little party websites where you send out e-invitations. But that's something we can think about later. Like I said - this is months and months away!

Post edited by: HstryQT, at: 2007/09/01 15:39

It may seem months away, but from someone who has planned a family reunion before, it sneaks up on you before you know it. And when you're talking about getting the word out so people from all over the country can make plans taking into consideration work, vacation, etc. it is definitely not too early. Is the page such that we can set up several people to work on it as we get information? I'm thinking, maybe we can divide up the workload...someone work on hotel info, sightseeing, area restaurants, etc. Of course, first, we must have a firm date. I'm copying below my comments on the blog. I'd encourage anyone to post their ideas here, as well as there, for maximum viewing. http://frommymindtoyoureyes.blogspot.com
Ramblings 8/30

Chris's comments on our gathering:

Who's in school or teaches?

If so, when do you get out of school?

Do we want to do it over a holiday weekend (like Memorial Day weekend?)

Do we want a picnic? Or do we want something inside for weather purposes?

I was thinking what we could do is have a free picnic for the Fro Patro' (or meal, depending on weather). We would advertise it to all fans through all the websites and stuff and hopefully have a few people come out. Then we would have a big show somewhere in Nashville. Could be cool.


My thoughts...please add yours!

I'm retired from teaching, but my new job is tied to the school schedule. I think I'm pretty much free in June and July. And if not, I'll take off.

Holiday weekend...double edged sword. People would be more likely to have 3 days off, but Memorial Day may be early for those wanting to make a vacation out of it and have kids in school. And when school gets out is so different all over. Even around here, a lot of the private/smaller schools are out by Memorial Day, and the public schools go through the first week of June. But the kids issue may not affect most of your Core folks. I'm with whatever works to get the most people there. I had wondered earlier when we first started talking about it, tying it to either right before or after Fan Fare in Nashville in case someone might like to hit that as well. (for you non-country fans, that's a huge event in Nashville where the country stars come out to meet their fans).

I'm thinking, plan an outdoor picnic with a backup location. Maybe plan a place to go to church together on Sunday for those who want to participate. Carmen, myself, Lori, Cathy, etc. whoever else wants to help could put together some sightseeing options. And a concert? Definitely!

Here are some 2008 dates to ponder:
Memorial Day falls on May 26, so the Sat. before would be the 24th.

Fan Fare is June 5-8, 2008 (that's a Thurs. through Sun.) You definitely wouldn't want to have it the same weekend...there would be all kinds of hotel issues. I've heard they get booked up very early. Either the weekend prior or after might be nice.

The 4th of July falls on a Friday, which would also make a nice long weekend.

That's my two cents. (whoops, maybe my two dollars, I never know when to stop writing!) Risa

I am a long way away, but I really want to help anyway I can. Once we get the date I would be more than happy to look into hotels, camp grounds.
I will be more than happy to come early to help with anything you need when it gets closer.
I say early, maybe at the beginning of the week of the event.

Yes this will come up fast. I was in charge of planning a linemans rodeo for the utility company I work for. The time went really fast. 1000 people showed up so it was quite a job, but I loved every minute of it....

Hey,
I think it might be a good idea if we had a phone conference so that we call and get together and plan this out. I sit on the planning committee for the Walk to D'Feet ALS here in Jacksonville(a major charity event) and that is what we do when we can't have face to face meetings. If ya'll think this a good idea, let me know and I will set something up. I would be willing to take minutes of our conference and then email them out to all of you. During the conference we can divide up jobs, pick a date and that sort of thing. Then we could set up another phone conference and follow up on our assignments. Let me know what ya'll think.
BTW-- I think we should have T shirts for this event and I want to design them.
Carmen

I'm going to try all I can to go. If anyone needs to contact me my AIM is dejayouxo or you can email me at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Sligh Fan Gathering

My two cents:

Risa, as far as _link_ing to Lori’s new site, when the time comes, I can initially put up a news item about it (“Fan Gathering Event Site”) and also put it under Chris Sligh _link_s (under Main Menu). You would have to go to Chris Sligh _link_s and click on the item to _link_ to the new site.

I think that the weekend of the show will ultimately have to be determined by Chris’s schedule. We can use the time period of Memorial Day weekend through the Fourth of July weekend as a starting point. If Chris can’t come up with 3 - 4 weekend choices in that time _frame_, then expand it to early May through late August. Once we have 3 – 4 choices of dates, we can take a poll on the fansite to find out the most popular weekend (and retake the poll, if necessary to whittle it down). If you want to do another poll on “Who is Coming” (yes/no/maybe) _base_d on the chosen date, we can do that, too. Right now I’m just talking about tallies – no names.

Lori, while you are designing this site, keep in mind that we may want to use it not just for Nashville, but as a site for any future fan gathering event (maybe at some other location the next time).

In the meantime, we can be looking for activities to do and decide if it will be one, two or three days of activities. I was thinking about the picnic idea, and don’t know how practical it would be. Where would we get the food from? We are all flying in from somewhere – and we don’t know our way around Nashville. What about tables, chairs, paper goods, plastic tablewear, etc.? If it rains at the last minute, we can’t just run inside somebody’s house. Then what do we do with the food? Tent rentals are $200-$300 for a 20’ X 20’ tent, $600 for a 20’ X 60’ tent (just an example from a Nashville tent rental place). Well, maybe spread out over many fans it’s not that much of a cost…

I’ll throw out the following idea which to me seems to be more convenient for all:

http://www.buynashvilletours.com/tours/nv-grayline-general-jackson-lunch-cruise.html

This is 4 hour cruise with a lunch buffet and country music. If it rains, we can stay inside the boat, and if it’s nice out, we can stay on deck or go inside. I tried to find out how long the music lasts, and I couldn’t get an answer. The woman on the phone said at least 2 hours. One has the choice of listening, or roaming around the decks. I think that we may be more interested in talking to each other than listening to the music, but we could do both… It’s $65 per person and they want two weeks notice. The woman on the phone didn’t seem very knowledgeable, so I would call again to verify things. Anyway, I’m putting this on the table as an option. Let me know what you think.