[PLUG] [ANNOUNCEMENT] PLUG Advanced Topics November 19th, 2009 **NEW NIGHT and LOCATION**

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 11:56:26PM -0800, Michael Dexter wrote:
> Dare we try this venue again if they can guarantee that it will be quiet
> and we get to use their parking?

Another problem with Club 915 is that it is an open space, with
lots of different activities.  Unless we rented the whole club,
there would be people playing pool, rehearsing fashion shows,
hanging out in the disco lights, or just doing what drunks do.

We had none of these problems, or anything approaching them, in 
the (very large) back room at Roots.  It is quiet, less expensive,
there is plenty of parking, and there are a few real chairs.  They
do not have chairs for it now, but if we rented more chairs we
could probably fit 100 people in there for a special event.
I don't know whether the three block proximity to Free Geek
matters much, but that might help with staging for hardware
laden demos.

The disadvantages of Roots are (1) the additional transit trip
from downtown on the 14 Hawthorne bus. (2) potential light problems
in the summer months - they are on the southwest corner of the
building.  (3) we need to bring our own power strips if we have
a large crowd with laptops.

Roots moved stuff so we can get at the controls of the vertical
blinds, so light control might be easier now.  The space works 
well for Personal Telco's monthly meetings, and the more geek
functions we hold in there, the more they will accommodate our
needs.

The big room space at Northwest Lucky Lab is also available, but
we are told that gets crowded in the summer months.

All three venues have adequate wifi.

So, I propose we try Roots again for December, perhaps on the
same third Thursday to accomodate schedules, and see how people
like that.  We can try Club 915 again in January, and then argue
preferences after we've given a fair trial to both.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs