I know I'm resurrecting the dead, but, I was searching for interest in a chat room, & came across this topic. I was wondering if there were still any interest in this at all? Even a chat room, where we could exchange ideas in real time, I think, would be beneficial. Someone mentioned an IRC server; I have been on them before, and they are a great medium. I do not keep my PC on all the time, as I try to reduce my COL as much as possible. But, again, is there any interest in either a meet & greet type event, or a chat room? thanks!

Hmm, I can't help but think that the govt is spending boodles of money to fund events, many seemingly a riduculous waste, and yet they get their events paid for time and again.

I wonder if there is some way to solicit big ticket sponsorship for such an event. Companies like mine shell out millions every year supporting various non-charitable events as well as charitable ones.

Then again, who here would want to deal with all that bureaucracy?

This reminds me of trying to attend and/or put together similar events for Dutch Oven cooking get togethers. They have them all over the place, usually hosted by a local DO club, sometimes, as with the big IDOS event in Utah, they get thousands together. If it can be done for cast iron, I reckon it could be done for us. What we lack is the independent community organization of local clubs to host these sorts of things. Well, maybe all in time I suppose.

As survival proponents (instead of calling ourselves 'survivalists", which has a less desirable connotation these days), would you say we are more gregarious or more isolationist in our social tendencies? I know this forum is socially attracting us together, but how would we fare under local scrutiny? Would we want other folks in our community to recognize us as being associated with preparedness? I know that for me, there would be mixed feelings about making this information too public.