COMPLETED (Until next year) - Electronics/Microcontrollers/Computers Meetup?

[Chris Savage]

I am hoping to be able to pay for the venue - If anyone wants to help, I won't turn it down, though

I can assist. Of course, we need to find something first. LOL

P.S. - Request - please bring a couple more of those tablets. 

[granz]

@ZappMan, would it be all right for me to post about this in your site?

Yes, it would be OK 

Great, thanks.

[granz]

Anything in general. Being low income, gotta plan.

Save up all your pennies from your allowance, and your paper route. 

More seriously, I am selling off some of my stuff to raise money for this trip. You may want to look around for stuff to sell. I've gotten a huge amount of stuff by dumpster diving (AKA garbage picking.) You can find lots of stuff in dumpsters at colleges, and if you can find an e-waste site that will let you pick through it, you can find a bunch of good stuff there. I have gotten a couple dozen laptops/notebooks, over a hundred tablets (more than just that one haul,) phones/phablets, a nice video camera, an entire Canon digital SLR outfit (including case,) a nice oscilloscope w/ probes, the TRS-80 CoCo set, working LCD monitors, and hundreds of cables/power supplies/etc. Just today, I picked up a whole mess of old 120GB tapes which fit an old tape drive that I purchased a couple weeks ago. There was even another old HP oscilloscope which just needed a good cleaning. Most of that stuff could be sold on eBay - even if only for twenty dollars; five of those sales will give you a hundred bucks to use for things like that.

Offices are getting rid of stuff that is just a bit old, just because they upgrade, or close one/some offices. My main computer is a nice ThinkPad that came with Windows 10, and had 64GB of RAM, already in it; and my "netbook" is another nice ThinkPad with 8GB already in it. Both of those came from e-waste, and could easily fetch $50 or so on ebay. While I was there today, a woman came in dumping stuff from an office that her company was shutting down - and yes, I got some good stuff from her box.

[granz]

I can assist. Of course, we need to find something first. LOL

Yes, it is getting pretty frustrating. Just today, I had three rejections for no availability - it seems like there must be something big going on in Erie that weekend.

@MicroNut, have you gotten anywhere with your church?

P.S. - Request - please bring a couple more of those tablets. 

Absolutely; I had already planned on bringing several of them with me.

[granz]

@ZappMan, would it be all right for me to post about this in your site?

Yes, it would be OK 

Great, thanks.

Done, thanks again.

[JKnightandKARR]

Anything in general. Being low income, gotta plan.

Save up all your pennies from your allowance, and your paper route. 

More seriously, I am selling off some of my stuff to raise money for this trip. You may want to look around for stuff to sell. I've gotten a huge amount of stuff by dumpster diving (AKA garbage picking.) You can find lots of stuff in dumpsters at colleges, and if you can find an e-waste site that will let you pick through it, you can find a bunch of good stuff there. I have gotten a couple dozen laptops/notebooks, over a hundred tablets (more than just that one haul,) phones/phablets, a nice video camera, an entire Canon digital SLR outfit (including case,) a nice oscilloscope w/ probes, the TRS-80 CoCo set, working LCD monitors, and hundreds of cables/power supplies/etc. Just today, I picked up a whole mess of old 120GB tapes which fit an old tape drive that I purchased a couple weeks ago. There was even another old HP oscilloscope which just needed a good cleaning. Most of that stuff could be sold on eBay - even if only for twenty dollars; five of those sales will give you a hundred bucks to use for things like that.

Offices are getting rid of stuff that is just a bit old, just because they upgrade, or close one/some offices. My main computer is a nice ThinkPad that came with Windows 10, and had 64GB of RAM, already in it; and my "netbook" is another nice ThinkPad with 8GB already in it. Both of those came from e-waste, and could easily fetch $50 or so on ebay. While I was there today, a woman came in dumping stuff from an office that her company was shutting down - and yes, I got some good stuff from her box.

So far, I my area, I can't locate and E-Waste sites. I just got a credit card, so can probly just use that

[MicroNut]

First of all I apologize for the late response. I didn't check the library since I assumed Jim was checking it out and I didn't hear otherwise. I know the road to the library is under major construction for a round about for the next 2 years so it is difficult to get to.

Since you mentioned churches that may work. My church is looking into doing activities that will be open to the local community for outreach. So it is possible as long as we open it to the local community, have one of the leaders (an elder) of the church present and approval from our elders. It just so happens I am an elder and on the outreach committee. There is an elder meeting this Wednesday and I will discuss it with them then. The date is an issue though. September 14th is when we have our Children's Festival which is our biggest outreach activity and having this on the 13th would be too disruptive to the festival. It would be in Meadville which is 40 miles south of Erie on Interstate 79. There are 3 or 4 motels in the area.

My church does have a large meeting area. We have an annual Thanksgiving dinner there and had up to 300 people so we have plenty of tables. Food is no problem as long as we leave the room as we found it and there is no alcoholic beverages. Also no gambling but I will see if we will permit raffles. I don't see any problems with vendors being there. So if I get approval we would need to do another date and we would need to do setup and cleanup.

[granz]

Okay, so, are we open to another date?

[MicroNut]

Ok, today I talked to one other elder, who repairs computers, and the church janitor. They are both ok with it and I will be talking to the other 2 elders and the minister Wednesday. So if I get the green light and a list of possible dates I'll check with the church secretary about availability since it is used for parties and receptions for the church membership. Those are very infrequent so it should be open. Also I'll post a few pictures and find the dimensions. My guess on the size is it is about 3/4 the size of a basketball court without the bleachers. There is a small kitchen off of it, bathrooms, most of it has a rug and one corner is wood floor and a area for coffee. It is also at the main entrance so there is no need to use any other part of the building.

[granz]

My church is looking into doing activities that will be open to the local community for outreach. So it is possible as long as we open it to the local community, have one of the leaders (an elder) of the church present and approval from our elders.

That sounds great; I like the idea of inviting the local community - more people to enjoy the show-and-tell.  Would you be able to put out the word that we will show off to the local community, but also welcome others from the community who would like to show off their projects, and do some buying/selling/trading? (Who knows, maybe we will end up with some more friends on Savage///Chats to talk about our hobby.  )

Ok, today I talked to one other elder, who repairs computers, and the church janitor. They are both ok with it and I will be talking to the other 2 elders and the minister Wednesday. So if I get the green light and a list of possible dates I'll check with the church secretary about availability since it is used for parties and receptions for the church membership. Those are very infrequent so it should be open. Also I'll post a few pictures and find the dimensions. My guess on the size is it is about 3/4 the size of a basketball court without the bleachers. There is a small kitchen off of it, bathrooms, most of it has a rug and one corner is wood floor and a area for coffee. It is also at the main entrance so there is no need to use any other part of the building.

That size fellowship hall sounds pretty good. We'll await your report after the meeting.

Are there any folding tables and chairs, or will we need to bring our own?

Also, please find out how much it will cost us to rent the fellowship hall. Something else, you mentioned earlier that there is a no gambling policy, and that you were going to see if the raffle would count as gambling; could you check into whether door prizes are considered gambling, too?

Okay, according to Blackjack and the Law (1st ed.) in the Wikipedia article on gambling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling) gambling includes payment for the chance, random chance and payout. So, maybe it would be safer to just not have a raffle. Door prizes would not qualify as gambling since there is not going to be any cost to get in and no random chance to win. Even if we have random chance at winning some of the door prizes, there is no cost to the players. I would have to agree with your Church's policy against gambling though - whatever it is (we do want to be polite guests.) So, please check with your governing body to see what they think.

[granz]

Last night, Brian (@MicroNut) told me that we are approved for renting his Church's fellowship hall. All that we need to do now, is for me to send him the money.

So, it looks like we are on for 13 Sept, and that we have a place. This will be a bit further for Chris, but it is considerably less money. Hopefully, he can send us the specifics soon.

[Chris Savage]

So, it looks like we are on for 13 Sept, and that we have a place. This will be a bit further for Chris, but it is considerably less money. Hopefully, he can send us the specifics soon.

Yeah, I would need an address so I can reserve a hotel / motel in time.

[MicroNut]

As Granz mentioned it was approved with the following conditions

1. The church is NOT available September 13th due to our children's carnival

2. The cost for janitorial services is a $100 donation that can be collected the day of the event

3. The duration can be all day.

4. A leader of the church (me) must be present

5. This is to be open to the church and community.

6. Food can be brought in but supplies such as plates, etc, must be provided by the group hosting the event.

7. The arrangement of tables can be moved but must be put back in place at the end of the event. Also additional folding tables are available.

8. Vendors are allowed.

9. Raffles, requiring a purchase, are not allowed. Door prize giveaways are allowed.

10. Access to other rooms besides the kitchen and bathroom under supervision only.

Address
First Christian Church
503 N. Main Street Ext Meadville, PA 16335
Web Site: www.fcc1.org


Meadville is a small city of approximately 30,000. It has most of the major chain stores and pizza parlors including many local stores. There are also some motels in the area.

I have pictures but when I put a link to my dropbox I cannot post with the link. I get a java must be enabled message.

[granz]

So, back to finding a date. Right now it looks like this:

• 02 Aug - Not good for Brian & Chris
• 09 Aug -
• 16 Aug -
• 23 Aug -
• 30 Aug - Not good for Chris
• 06 Sep - Possible first choice?
• 13 Sep - NOT AVAILABLE FOR BRIAN'S CHURCH
• 20 Sep - Not good for Chris
• 27 Sep - Possible second choice?

For scheduling purposes, we really need to firm up a date pretty soon. That way we can all start preparing.

How does the 6th, or the 27th, of September look for everyone? @Brian, are any of those dates unavailable for your Church?

[MicroNut]

Those 2 dates are good for me. I will contact the church secretary on Monday to see if those dates are open.

Here is a link to the pictures https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ealh1x10em6ofbwhtyx2u/church.zip?rlkey=6qnydrrdu1drpvniqnh58cnvs&dl=0