DPF Meet & Greet 2014- Intro Thread

[alabaster]

Good morning everyone.... I'm starting a threat to get an idea of where and when members would like to get together for 2014.

As time goes on, we'll start a thread for each M&G that we plan on having, SE, NE, SW, NW, etc.... We're hoping to get input from everyone for this at an early stage, and then we will sort details throughout the year. Once we get an idea of where we're going to hold them(In general), the Mods will either choose a specific location, or delegate that responsibility to someone. I think first off, we should decide on how many M&Gs there will be... Should we do 4? Should we do more? Keep in mind this is the 2nd annual M&G coming up in 2014, and 2013 M&Gs had limited turnout, so we want to accommodate as many as possible... I'm not sure what the reasoning was, but I have a feeling it was because people had little to no knowledge of who they'd be meeting, and the logistics were settled in somewhat of a short order... Without much notice. It set quite a few people on their heels, being unable to plan a trip like this, so let's work together from jump street to make it easy for everyone. I believe we started '13 with talks of having an East and West and decided to go for 4 regions in hopes of getting more participation. I think we should hold between 6 and 8 this year so people don't have to travel as far....

Please let us know what your thoughts are and if you are interested in helping plan one of the M&Gs. We may need a lot of help depending on how many folks decide to go next year.... So get your thinking caps on and let the ideas roll!!!

 

[Gazrok]

For the SE one, I'd be cool going if in FL, GA, or AL, and I had enough time to plan.

 

[WILD MAN]

For the SE one, I'd be cool going if in FL, GA, or AL, and I had enough time to plan.

Same here, but not in the summer, spring or fall would be best, summer is just to hot in the SE.

 

[Gazrok]

Agreed on the season consideration.

 

[jimLE]

spring and fall are great for me.but wiill go with summer if that works best for others

id deffently go to one in texas-louisiana-arkansas-oklahoma-
maybe to one in colorado-kansas-arkansas-missouri-mississippi-

 

[alabaster]

Okay, so it seems so far like I'm THE ONLY PERSON who actually wants to go in the summertime!!! Oh well... I'll go camping in the summer by my own crazy self and I'll meet up with the rest of you looney tunes in the fall, I suppose....

That being said, I am leaning towards September, then. I'll talk with the rest of the mods about regional splits/locations, and I'll work with them to try for late September for the southern areas at least. maybe the northern regions will want to do it a little earlier, but we'll figure that out as we go.

Now that we have an idea of when(Spring or fall- Leaning towards fall so people have time to plan), what do yall think about regions? 2013 had us split up 4 ways. NE, NW, SE, SW.... But only the NE M&G had a turnout, and even that one was lower than we'd hoped. Perhaps that was due to short planning lead times, or perhaps it was so people could see if anyone had a good time or not.... Not sure. I hope we get as much input this year as possible so we can get as many people as possible!!!!!

Keep the ideas coming! If you have ideas on where, when, and games, contests, or activities that we can all do at the 2014 DPF Meet & Greet, please post it here!!!!!

 

[mountain scout]

Okay, so it seems so far like I'm THE ONLY PERSON who actually wants to go in the summertime!!! Oh well... I'll go camping in the summer by my own crazy self and I'll meet up with the rest of you looney tunes in the fall, I suppose....

That being said, I am leaning towards September, then. I'll talk with the rest of the mods about regional splits/locations, and I'll work with them to try for late September for the southern areas at least. maybe the northern regions will want to do it a little earlier, but we'll figure that out as we go.

Now that we have an idea of when(Spring or fall- Leaning towards fall so people have time to plan), what do yall think about regions? 2013 had us split up 4 ways. NE, NW, SE, SW.... But only the NE M&G had a turnout, and even that one was lower than we'd hoped. Perhaps that was due to short planning lead times, or perhaps it was so people could see if anyone had a good time or not.... Not sure. I hope we get as much input this year as possible so we can get as many people as possible!!!!!

Keep the ideas coming! If you have ideas on where, when, and games, contests, or activities that we can all do at the 2014 DPF Meet & Greet, please post it here!!!!!

Hi all you preppers, I have a suggestion, and an offer on the subject of the Annual or semiannual in our case." Meet & Greet" This is for anyone interested in the southwest area of our great nation. We have 120+acres of mountainous dessert land private property, With a well and 10000 gallon water storage tank, an outdoor kitchen, restroom, with running water, a antique gold mill that will work, trial runs, a 4x4 training track to teach people what they and their 4x4s are capable of, an underground Cave House 5000,sq ft, a greenhouse, a large shop, and lots of old equipment, and classic cars & parts. We are Located in a low traffic area and easy to get to. We are about 60 miles east of LasVegas NV. I would suggest we use this facility for a DPF Meet & Greet, our area it is reasonably centralized in the southwest area that would take in Southern Calif, Southern Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and any other close states that wanted to participate.The object of this event in my opinion would be to share knowledge, and to teach survival methods, We would offer our facility for whatever you Preppers think is fair, or on a donation bases for people that cannot afford anything or we can let the moderators work it out. anyway this is just an idea to start with, so let me know if anybody would like to pursue this option farther, I'm sure we will find more activities as time goes on. Have A Good Life All. " Mountain Scout"

 

[hills have eyes]

sounds instering nevada or cal

 

[mountain scout]

sounds instering nevada or cal

Hi Hills have eyes, If I understand your question right, We are in Arizona 60 or 70 miles east of Las vegas Nv. A few miles of dirt road of the main road.I hope this answers your question. Have a Good Day. "Mountain Scout"

 

[jimLE]

hopefully this next one will turn out a hole lot better,seeing how folks has more time to plan ahead..

 

[mountain scout]

hopefully this next one will turn out a hole lot better,seeing how folks has more time to plan ahead..

Hi jimLE What time of year would be best for you if SW people would except our offer ? You are not to far From here. 6 or 8 hours. maybe? nice drive. we are in an area where it gets pretty warm, so the best time here would be late April or early May for a spring date, and for a fall date late September to last of October, lot of possibility's, Any way it's to early to tell yet, we will see where this thing goes, and what kind of response we get, Cheers "Mountain Scout"

 

[jimLE]

now im thinking of a road trip when i get my tax return..should have plenty of money at time then...

 

[mountain scout]

now im thinking of a road trip when i get my tax return..should have plenty of money at time then...

Hi jimLE. if you are thinking of a road trip to our place, come on any time! just let us know in advance so we can be here, everybody is welcome by appointment. we do a lot of out back camping so we need advance notice. Have a Good Life! and thanks for your interest. "Mountain Scout"

 

[jimLE]

sounds great..i just have to wait till i know how much of a return i'll be getting when the time comes.then and only then.plan any trips i'll be makeing..

 

[mountain scout]

sounds great..i just have to wait till i know how much of a return i'll be getting when the time comes.then and only then.plan any trips i'll be makeing..

Thanks jimLE for the reply. Hope you will be able to drop by some time. anytime is good keep in touch. later! got work now,check back later. cheers! "Mountain Scout"

 

[mountain scout]

Hi all you preppers, I have a suggestion, and an offer on the subject of the Annual or semiannual in our case." Meet & Greet" This is for anyone interested in the southwest area of our great nation. We have 120+acres of mountainous dessert land private property, With a well and 10000 gallon water storage tank, an outdoor kitchen, restroom, with running water, a antique gold mill that will work, trial runs, a 4x4 training track to teach people what they and their 4x4s are capable of, an underground Cave House 5000,sq ft, a greenhouse, a large shop, and lots of old equipment, and classic cars & parts. We are Located in a low traffic area and easy to get to. We are about 60 miles east of LasVegas NV. I would suggest we use this facility for a DPF Meet & Greet, our area it is reasonably centralized in the southwest area that would take in Southern Calif, Southern Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and any other close states that wanted to participate.The object of this event in my opinion would be to share knowledge, and to teach survival methods, We would offer our facility for whatever you Preppers think is fair, or on a donation bases for people that cannot afford anything or we can let the moderators work it out. anyway this is just an idea to start with, so let me know if anybody would like to pursue this option farther, I'm sure we will find more activities as time goes on. Have A Good Life All. " Mountain Scout"

Thanks! All you good people for the likes. And if we get serious in using our location, I will look into the insurance for the shooting and such. As far as people knowing where we are, That is not a problem because it is already common knowledge. In fact we are on u tube, under "Taylor mountain Adventures in Dolan Springs Az." Thanks again And keep up the good work. "Mountain Scout"

 

[jimLE]

are there any updates on where the diffrent areas will/might meet up at?

 

[Brent S]

are there any updates on where the diffrent areas will/might meet up at?

I would love the idea of mtn. scouts location, but would be a tough trip from ne ga. I would make the effort to anywhere in the s.e. though. There are tons of federal lands around here, the smokey man national park is a great location. I went to cataloochee, in the lower right corner of the park, about a year ago. There's great campgrounds, rivers, etc. a big plus are all the elk, literally hundreds of them that gather every evening in a valley. No hunting except with a camera, but you can't have everything!

 

[Jake-prepper_hopeful]

I would love mountain scouts location! But I live in central Illinois, I would love to make the trek but it would take a big chunk of change

 

[jimLE]

im thinking that it might be a good idea to with time(s) of year that'll work for those with child/children..like spring break,summer break.or some other time of year that'll work for them..

 

[alabaster]

Man.... It looks like I'll be moving this year. I'm not sure if I'll be able to head up a M&G or not.

I'm going to be in Florida by the end of the year and it's taking all of my time & resources to get things together to make the journey. I understand about the weather, but I'm concerned that parents won't be able to make the trip if it's during the school year(As JimLE mentioned).

I'm thinking of actually doing something IN Florida once I get back down there. If for nothing else to get myself reacclimated to the surrounds, resources, and pitfalls of being on a tropical zone again.

I'm going to post this link in the shoutbox for people to weigh in on and see how much interest there is. If it seems like enough folks, I'll start asking for volunteers to take on a Regional Leader position so we can really buckle down and organize things. If anyone is interested, please take a second and paste the link into the shoutbox when you log on so that we can keep the link in the forefront, and hopefully on other members' minds. Thanks for your interest and effort.

 

[Gazrok]

To be honest, I'm fine with summertime really.

 

[jimLE]

good luck with the move alabaster.hope it all goes well and right

 

[Brent S]

I'd make the effort to meet some of our group if it's within 7 or 8 hrs. !!!!

 

[Silent Bob]

Man.... It looks like I'll be moving this year. I'm not sure if I'll be able to head up a M&G or not.

I'm going to be in Florida by the end of the year and it's taking all of my time & resources to get things together to make the journey. I understand about the weather, but I'm concerned that parents won't be able to make the trip if it's during the school year(As JimLE mentioned).

I'm thinking of actually doing something IN Florida once I get back down there. If for nothing else to get myself reacclimated to the surrounds, resources, and pitfalls of being on a tropical zone again.

I'm going to post this link in the shoutbox for people to weigh in on and see how much interest there is. If it seems like enough folks, I'll start asking for volunteers to take on a Regional Leader position so we can really buckle down and organize things. If anyone is interested, please take a second and paste the link into the shoutbox when you log on so that we can keep the link in the forefront, and hopefully on other members' minds. Thanks for your interest and effort.

Are we thinking this to be a national one? Would we want to make this an annual meet up or just a one time deal? Since I've never done a meet and greet. Are you looking to make this one that is just simple or a bit more extravagant? Just want to get a feel for what you had in mind before I started projecting this on my board.

 

[alabaster]

SilentBob, we've had this discussion a lot over the last couple years... I feel like it would be best to hold regional ones and then a national one if demand is there. I would like to do it annually until they all get enough support, then the biggest one would default to the National M&G. That could give us the ability to hold another regional one, totaling 5 annually. That's my plan... We have to get something going though. I don't want to spend as much time as I did last year to end up out with one other fellow. If that's the case, I will just plan a camping trip and make it an open invite to all DPF members, which I'm not opposed to doing anyway.

Originally, I wanted to make it a trip where we could all help teach each other something. If each person was willing to do so, then we could all pitch in on supplies, etc. I am a little more into survivalist prepping, so primitive skills would be of interest to me, but that's not to say that "All things prepper" wouldn't be welcome. Fire starting, primitive shelters, foraging, etc... I think someone mentioned teaching people to can veggies. Who knows. After I brought that up, it seemed like more people wanted to just meet up and get to know each other, kind of like a big camping trip. Totally informal and unscheduled. I was thinking more along the lines of a convention, and I think most members were thinking more of a Meet & Greet, which is how that name came up. I'm willing to do what I can to help organize, but I don't want to plan something out that's so rigidly scheduled that no one's interested. Ultimately, this will have to be a command decision.

I asked last year for 3 other people to take the lead for their regions, and will likely do the same thing again this year. I think I need to put up a banner on the homepage to get interest going. That way every time someone pops in they'll see the M&G thread. Maybe we need a party planner to handle all that!

 

[Silent Bob]

SilentBob, we've had this discussion a lot over the last couple years... I feel like it would be best to hold regional ones and then a national one if demand is there. I would like to do it annually until they all get enough support, then the biggest one would default to the National M&G. That could give us the ability to hold another regional one, totaling 5 annually. That's my plan... We have to get something going though. I don't want to spend as much time as I did last year to end up out with one other fellow. If that's the case, I will just plan a camping trip and make it an open invite to all DPF members, which I'm not opposed to doing anyway.

Originally, I wanted to make it a trip where we could all help teach each other something. If each person was willing to do so, then we could all pitch in on supplies, etc. I am a little more into survivalist prepping, so primitive skills would be of interest to me, but that's not to say that "All things prepper" wouldn't be welcome. Fire starting, primitive shelters, foraging, etc... I think someone mentioned teaching people to can veggies. Who knows. After I brought that up, it seemed like more people wanted to just meet up and get to know each other, kind of like a big camping trip. Totally informal and unscheduled. I was thinking more along the lines of a convention, and I think most members were thinking more of a Meet & Greet, which is how that name came up. I'm willing to do what I can to help organize, but I don't want to plan something out that's so rigidly scheduled that no one's interested. Ultimately, this will have to be a command decision.

I asked last year for 3 other people to take the lead for their regions, and will likely do the same thing again this year. I think I need to put up a banner on the homepage to get interest going. That way every time someone pops in they'll see the M&G thread. Maybe we need a party planner to handle all that!

Perfectly makes sense to have a regional one, where everyone can get to it within a few hours. I know that the former group that I had once belonged too, has a state meet-up each year and state sponsored regionals depending on the organizers. The last one they had was around the Caprock area near Amarillo. I didn't attend, but they had a little of everything there, a firing range, demonstrations, the meet/greet, etc, all held over a 2 day period. From the threads that I read, the turn out was pretty good, and when I say turn-out, you had people driving almost 11 hours to get to it. I know that JimLE, DBarry1973, and I discussed the idea of having a regional one. DBarry1973 had a placed down by Houston that he was willing to offer up as a meeting place, but for me, considering time/etc...just was a bit out of my way for this summer.

I'd be very open to working on a national one and to line up vendors...etc, if we were thinking of having it at a hotel meeting/conference site during the summer months. Knowing that might be a way off, but when your talking vendors, its going to take time. I know the one that they had at McKinney had a great vendor turn out and I plan to attend next year.

The banner is a great idea Alabaster.

 

[QuietH3art]

You guys do realize that it's already Summer 2014 and no meets are scheduled? I would like to suggest something to get a ball rolling on regular meetings amongst DPF members. Start small and work your way up. To me, a meet and greet is a one-day, several hour meeting to start getting to know one another face to face. No, no one is going to drive 12 hours for dinner with strangers. Okay, I would do it, but I love to travel and I met my best friend by doing that. But we can go smaller than that. I know there are several of us here in North Carolina. For most of us, the center of the state is a 2-3 hour drive. I would be more than happy to arrange a dinner meeting for anyone willing to drive 2 to 3 hours. And the planning needs to include time and space to sit around talking for a couple of hours. And maybe that's where you start to plan the bigger event. Alabaster, I know you're most likely about 4-5 hours from me. I go to visit a friend in Maryland at least twice a year and probably go right by you, at least until you move to Florida. Brent, you're probably 7-8 hours from me. I went to Alabama in March and will probably head down there again in the next couple of months. I think we need to take advantage of opportunities to get to know each other face to face.
We all have profiles here and most of us have included our general location in our profile. Is it possible for anyone to actually access the membership list for location information? The idea being to start a Conversation with those that we believe would be within a reasonable distance of us for a meet There's also the threads for the different locations but if people aren't regularly checking for it, they won't see it.
I think it's really important that we consider these meets to be part of our prepping. Just meeting each other, any scheduled training at future events is icing. Imagine if the grid goes down. No internet, no phone. But for whatever reason we have to get out. It's important to know like-minded people and to know how to get to them or for them to get to us without any means of communication. Do we all want to become isolationists at that point or do we want to work together with people we know to form new communities. Numbers usually means the difference in many survival situations.

 

[jimLE]

good points there LW..like you pointed out.there's diff regions for each of us.one thing each of us can do there..make a post in said region(s) and make sure that your following that topic.this way you'll know when someone else makes a post there..this way you and everyone else can keep up with what region everyone lives in.and maybe learn their distance from you as well.and if you feel comfortable enough about it..set up a meet with them in a public place of some kind..and make sure there's plenty of other folks there as well..like other customers and employees and all...

 

[Brent S]

I like the idea of small groups a lot, but am still interested in regional camp outs as well. I'm in the top right corner of Georgia, and would love to meet a small group for a weekend camp out. Traveling is tough for me now with my wife so I'll, but I've learned in life that if you want something you can figure out a way to make it happen.