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August/September 2005 Meetup

Discussion in 'Local Prius Club Main Forum' started by TonyPSchaefer, Jul 25, 2005.

  1. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    I just finished watching the Cubs pull out another nail-biter. It occurred to me that I guess I've been a little delinquent in organizing another meetup. I'm not saying these two thoughts are related, those are just the order in which they happened.

    So let's throw it out there and see what happens. Who has thoughts for a location? Anyone aware of any public events we can crash?

    I heard on the radio over the weekend that there's a Toyota dealer having some sort of "Toyota Celebration Days" or something like that. I wasn't fully paying attention so I can't remember the details. I mentioned before that perhaps it would be cool to have a bunch of Prii lined up and we can field questions as real owners talking to other owners and perspective buyers.

    This is the working list of those who can/will/might/are considering attending the IREA event discussed throughout this thread:

    Saturday: (6 Prii)
    BLNfanMatt
    FireEngineer
    Sparky?
    Tiffany?
    Helmkera?
    Drifter?



    Sunday: (7 Prii)
    BLNfanMatt
    FireEngineer
    Helmkera
    Bill60546
    Sparky?
    Tiffany?
    Drifter?
     
  2. FireEngineer

    FireEngineer Active Member

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    Let me throw out 2 events.

    On August 13 and 14 the Illinois Renewable Energy Association will be holding the 4th Annual Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair in Oregon, IL. Illinois Renewable Energy Association It seems that someone with a Honda affiliation will be there to talk about the Insight. A good opportunity to tout our Prius.

    The other is the Toyota take over of Millennium Park on September 8.

    ****Start Article****

    [align=center:27d07f5861]MILLENNIUM PARK AND TOYOTA MOTOR SALES, U.S.A., INC. TO FORM SUMMER 2005 PARTNERSHIP [/align:27d07f5861]

    [align=justify:27d07f5861]The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs has announced a new partnership between Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. and Millennium Park. As part of the agreement, Toyota will rent parts of Millennium Park for a private event on Thursday, September 8. To compensate for the use of the space, which will be closed to the public, Toyota will pay a $300,000 rental fee, plus an additional contribution of a $500,000 sponsorship to support free public programming in the park.

    “Private rentals are an important source of income for the park,†said Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg. “However, if park users are going to be inconvenienced by a partial closure, there must be a compensatory benefit for the public. In this case, that benefit will be realized through Toyota’s major sponsorship of free public programs throughout the park.“

    During the private event on September 8, The Crown Fountain, Lurie Garden, Wrigley Square and the Millennium Park Bicycle Station will remain open to the public, as well as the Harris Theater box office. The remainder of the park will be closed for the entire day.

    “The Toyota event will also be a useful test case for this type of rental. If it is successful, we may consider similar partnerships two to three times a year during non-peak times in the future,†continued Weisberg. “Toyota is honored to partner with the City of Chicago as a major sponsor of free concerts and events in Millennium Park. We hope these concerts are enjoyed by everyone and keep the city thriving, growing and evolving,†said Jim Lentz, Group Vice President and General Manager, Toyota Division.


    Chicagoans and visitors are encouraged to visit the rest of the park during the partial closure, including The Crown Fountain, the Lurie Garden and Wrigley Square, or to return the following weekend for the park’s “Blockbuster Weekend†featuring free performances by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
    [/align:27d07f5861]
    ****End Article****

    Maybe just meet and then parade around the park in our Prius.

    Wayne

    I apologize, Wayne, but the embedded PDF was causing Adobe to launch every time and this was reaking havoc on my home PC. I have pulled the PDF article and pasted it as straight text. -Tony
     
  3. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Thanks a bunch, Wayne.

    Oregon, IL - for those like me who didn't know, is South of Rockford, a little to the West. Here's a Google Map.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1440+N+Limek...,1.714279&hl=en

    It's a bit of a haul. But I think that if a good group of us show up, it would be pretty fun. And it really would draw a lot of interent for the Prius. I mean, if someone is going to be there to talk about the Insight, there should be a swarm of people there to talk about the Prius. It's just a question of sales ratio (oh, did I just say that?).

    I will send an email to the "Contact us" link on the website that Wayne provided above. I would advise that others do the same. It's one thing to receive an email but something quite different to receive a dozen. I'm just going to mention that there's a group of Chicagoland Prius owners and we are interested in coming out and making our cars availble for public display and discussion. We should all try to stick to the same line.

    The private Toyota event in the park seems like it's an employee event rather than a public event. For that reason, I'm sure they wouldn't want a group of people from the public coming by and crashing it. My company has annual employee picnics and we don't necessarily welcome people to come by just because they bought our products.

    Additionally, it's on a Thursday. I'm sure they will be doing their thing during the day. I - for one - will be at work.

    But overall, I think the biggest "bang for the buck" would be the Oregon, IL event.

    Thanks again for bringing this to our attention Wayne.
     
  4. jimofdg

    jimofdg New Member

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    Then there's the exotic distinction of being able to say that you drove all the way to Oregon, and they didn't stop you at the border.

    I agree that crashing others' events is poor form. Though I notice that the "get around" slogan has not been used by our Regional Transportation Authority in many years, so I would like to suggest the name "Get-around" for a get-together in which the drivers move around the periphery of some landmark.

    I greatly enjoyed our last meetup, at which I was privileged to see the faces of onlookers as yet ANOTHER Prius passed them. After a while even the motorcyclists noticed.
     
  5. helmkera

    helmkera Junior Member

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    I'm a newbie and am curious to see the faces behind the names posted here.

    I like the idea of the Oregon meeting: a road trip, a meeting at an alternative energy fair, and being able to talk to others about our cars. I dropped a note to the fair contact asking about it and about bringing out a Prius (or two or more).
     
  6. helmkera

    helmkera Junior Member

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    Those folks are fast:


    From: Sonia Vogl [mailto:[email protected]]
    Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 2:35 PM
    To: Helmke,Richard A
    Subject: Re: Fourth Annual Renewable Energy Fair


    That would be great! We have a transportation exhibit area where you can have your cars and talk with visitors. Let us know the names of the others so the ticket takers will let them in free. Thanks!



    Jul 27, 2005, at 1:19 PM, Helmke,Richard A wrote:


    I just noticed your flyer on the upcoming event. I see you have Honda and some grown alternate energy cars being shown. Would it be worthwhile for me and several other owners of Toyota Prius cars to bring them to the fair and be there to talk about our real life experiences driving a +50mpg vehicle to work every day - summer and winter? Speaking personally, its been a hoot to commute in comfort with a car that doubled my mpg. We would be personal owners, not Toyota employees or marketing types -- just happy owners.
     
  7. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(helmkera\";p=\"110833)</div>
    WOW indeed. I'm still watching my email for a reply, but it's great that you've gotten a hit already. And in for free even!

    I cross-posted about this event on GreenHybrid.com mentioning that we here are interested. I figure that if anyone from North-Central IL or South-Central WI is interested, that would be great. I say we flood them with hybrids! The Madison, WI group always has such great tun-outs.

    helmkera, if you don't mind, please reply that we are gathering names and will have a list for them as soon as possible.

    BTW, for a "face behind the name", that's me in my avator.
     
  8. sparky1015

    sparky1015 New Member

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    This sounds like it could be fun...add me to the list.
     
  9. FireEngineer

    FireEngineer Active Member

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    Since this is a 2 day event would we target one day or would we split it and some folks do one day and some the other. I wouldn't mind being there both days, love to catch some of the events besides selling the Prius. Besides, I'll be out that way (OK, a little further south on I-39) Sunday anyway for the Mendota Sweet Corn Festival, free all-you-can-eat buttered sweet corn at 2:00.

    Wayne
     
  10. helmkera

    helmkera Junior Member

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    Well, I don't have the legs for tights ;-)

    I told Sonia that we are from the same group and are working on a list of names (since she got your mail too).
     
  11. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    MMMmmmmm sweet corn [Homer drool]

    I got an email back from Sonia Vogl of the IREA and she started with "Do you know a guy named Richard?" Haha.

    If you read helmkera's post, you saw that she mentioned letting us in for free. In my email, I mentioned that we have up to 45 Prius owners registered in the Chicagoland group.
    The $5 entrance fee helps pay for the rental of the fairgrounds. I personally wouldn't think of not paying $5 for an alternative energy fair. To me, it's worth $5 for the opportunity to show off Priapus.

    It sounds to me that with a larger number of members, we move up from the "Transportation area" to a "special area up front in the parking lot just for Prius owners". Excellent.

    To Wayne's thought, I mentioned to Sonia that we would work to get her a firm number of attendants for each day.

    (I have a mailgroup of everyone's email address. I'll send out a group mail this evening. You're going to get an email from me because I'm just not interested in picking through and removing individuald addresses from the group list.)
     
  12. tiffanyjoy

    tiffanyjoy New Member

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    I would definately like to go, just waiting to hear if my husband is going to have a job interview in Atlanta that weekend, but for now, i'm a "yea".

    ps. Oregon, IL has some really nice state park trails, and also a really weird mall that my husband and i walked through a few years ago.
    here are some pictures from our trip...

    http://photos.aberration.org/pics/020126-c...castle_rock_sp/
     
  13. FireEngineer

    FireEngineer Active Member

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    I'm in for all day Saturday and most of Sunday (I have to skip out at 1:00-go to Mendota-eat sweet corn-retrieve family-back to Oregon). What a great time to wear my new Prius T-shirt. Now to do a little paint touch-up to look super pretty.

    Wayne
     
  14. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Alright.
    Here is a list that I will edit on an ongoing basis. If you see your name on this list, it means that you're going. Question marks mean that you did not specify a date or that you're not sure yet. Out of respect for the event coordinators, we should try to have definite numbers on Monday, August 8.

    [It made more sense to have the list in the top-most post. Go to the top to view the list]
     
  15. helmkera

    helmkera Junior Member

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    Count me in for Sunday (not sure if I can make Saturday at this time). I think $5 / day is a contribution to supporting fairs like these and not a factor in attending.
     
  16. tiffanyjoy

    tiffanyjoy New Member

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    I will know for sure in the next week or so, don't count me out yet! but if i go, my husband Brian will be going with me, so thats another person, but not another prius.

    the reason i am waiting to find out if he has an interview that week/weekend is because my family lives in atlanta so if he has an interview we are gonna take a little mini-vacation :p
     
  17. bnlfanmatt

    bnlfanmatt Member

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    I'm up for both days. Whoever is going for both days, I assume you're staying near there? We should all try to coordinate the same hotel, and line up our Prii there as well. :lol:
     
  18. Bill60546

    Bill60546 Member

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    Due to school Sat is definately out. Sunday is a definate possibility.
     
  19. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    I posted on GreenHybrid and am starting to get nibbles from the Madison, WI group so some of them will be joining in the festivities.

    Play nice.

    By the way, the reason my name's not on the list of attendees is that I will be out of town that weekend. I could ask my friend to reschedule the wedding, but I don't think that rescheduling to allow my attending a renewable energy fair with a group of hybrid enthusiasts just wouldn't go over with the bride's mother.

    Oh cruel fate. THIS is the meetup that I miss? I can't decide if it's irony or just bad timing.

    But my non-attendance isn't going to keep me from trying to ensure a strong turn-out.
     
  20. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    I made sure to send the info to all the members of the Madison Hybrid Group last night. I'm glad to hear that a few of them have begun contacting you.

    Since we are not strictly a Prius group, we have all the hybrid represented. So you could get an 400h, Highlander, or Escape mixed in with your Prius group. (I hope everyone is o.k. with that!)

    I know people from the Madison Hybrid Group would be interested to talk to other hybrid owners and sharing ideas or learning from Prius owners.

    I, like Tony, will not be able to attend , but hope there is a good turn out for the event.