PA NERD HERD NEWS

June 2011, Issue #8
Circulation 508, 138 Past Meetups


Welcome to our newsletter. We will try to publish one every month. The goal of this newsletter is to help you get the most out of your membership in our group! This group is about fun. There is no charge to join but some events may have a cost associated with them. Everyone is welcome.


FROM FEARLESS LEADER, PETE
Well I thought I wrote a May newsletter but I didn’t! That was a surprise. Maybe it is age related. This month I don’t celebrate another birthday. It’s like the old joke, “I’m 39 but I won’t tell you how many times I have been 39”. (Thanks Jack for the joke.)

Meetup also surprised me by sending out a notice about our group breaking 500 members. They stated that less than 10% of all meetups ever hit the 500 number so it is a rare event. It is nice that 500 people want to belong to our meetup but really it’s about having fun, not hitting magical numbers. In any case, it is a rare event and although meetup congratulated me, it is the leadership team and it’s you. It is especially Kyle who started the whole thing rolling. Congratulation everyone!

I have learned some good things and some bad things about my Kindle reader. First, there are a lot of really great SciFi books out there from unknown authors for $2.99. Second I can read a couple a week which makes this a more expensive habit. The next discovery is both a blessing and a problem. I don’t have to store the books. They don’t take up any space. Part of the problem is that the Kindle locks everything so that you can’t read it on any other device without the Kindle software. This kind of makes me irritated on the out of copyright books. I have heard there are all kinds of cool things you can do with the Kindle. Do we have any Kindle experts that are willing to share?


HERE ARE THE EVENTS CURRENTLY LISTED ON OUR MEETUP SITE!

The Nerds vs. Joel Hodgson - MST3K: Chaos at the Colonial
o Sat Jun 02 8:00 PM Colonial Theatre 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, PA (map)

Nerd Vs. King Buffet $9.99 Best Chinese Buffet Ever!
o Sun Jun 03 12:00 PM King Buffet 500 W Germantown Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA (map) King Buffet | 500 W. Germantown Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462 is in the Plymouth Meeting Mall. If you turn in to the Mall from Germantown Pike turn Left go up the... LEARN MORE

Nerds vs. Dave & Buster's Plymouth Meeting Mall
o Sun Jun 03 2:00 PM Dave & Busters 500 W Germantown Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA (map) This is scheduled right after King's Buffet we can have lunch then work it off afterward. http://www.daveandbusters.com/ LEARN MORE

Nerds vs. Cartoons: A free outdoor shorts screening
o Fri Jun 08 8:00 PM Corner of Dekalb & E. Airy Street Dekalb & E. Airy Street, Norristown, PA (map) Stephanie (one of the resident Nerd Herders) is hosting a FREE screening of independent animations, conveniently located a few blocks from the Norristown Transportation... LEARN MORE

Nerd Herd Leadership Meeting (Open to all)
o Sat Jun 09 12:00 PM Fox and Hound Pub & Grille 160 N Gulph Rd, King of Prussia, PA (map) Do you love/hate the way we have been running things? Now is your chance to tell us! This meeting sets the tone for how we run Nerd Herd for the rest of the year. Open to all. LEARN MORE

The Nerds Vs. the Knights... NJ Renaissance Faire!
o Sun Jun 10 10:00 AM Liberty Lake 1195 Florence-Columbus Rd, Bordentown, NJ (map) We've enjoyed attending the PA Ren Faire... but I thought we might give the New Jersey one a try. From their website: "Welcome to the village of Crossford, home of the... LEARN MORE

The Nerds vs. The Satellite of Love: MST3K: The Beast of Yucca Flats
o Fri Jun 15 9:45 PM Colonial Theatre 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, PA (map) This showing features not only the above named movie, but two shorts (Money Talks, and Progress Island) and a bonus RiffTrax short (The Calendar: How to Use It). Details... LEARN MORE

The Nerds Vs. The Lyrics - KARAOKE
o Sat Jun 16 9:45 PM → RSVP Bistro 30 202 E. Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, PA (map) Come by and have some liquid courage... and get on stage to sing a song! Karaoke is always a good time... we drink, we socialize, we (well, some of us) sing, we dance on... LEARN MORE

The Nerds Vs. The Browncoats - Serenity Now Screening!
o Sat Jun 30 6:00 PM The Rotunda University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (map) The Pennsylvania Browncoats present Can’t Stop The Serenity Philadelphia 2012 (aka CSTS Philly!) (http://www.cstsphilly.webs.com/) ... Featuring a "Special Hell... LEARN MORE

The Nerds vs. a Large Gelatinous Mass: Blobfest 2012
o Fri Jul 13 7:00 PM Colonial Theatre 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, PA (map) This event runs from July 13th to the 15th (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). It consists of a live show on Friday night (no actual screening of the movie), followed by the... LEARN MORE

Nerds vs the Philly Geek Awards
o Fri Aug 17 6:30 PM Academy of Natural Sciences 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA (map) Hey ya'll the 2nd annual Philadelphia Geek Awards have been scheduled!! Friday August 17 is the date, Academy of Natural Sciences is the place, black tie is the dress.... LEARN MORE

AND MORE COMING SOON….



NERD HERD YARD SALE

Do you have something nerdy you want to buy or sell? Got too many Transformers or something else cool? Well we know people that will want it as long as the price is right! Send me a listing and I may (or may not) list it. The advertisement is totally free of charge.



NAVIGATING NERD HERD MEETUP HOME PAGES

Here are a few things that will make your membership more rewarding!
1. Login and look at the home page every week. At the bottom of the listed UPCOMING events don't forget to press the link that reads "MORE MEETUPS". Not all of the meetups are listed and this allows you to find the other scheduled events.
2. Create your own meetup event! Yes, you have the power to create events. All you have to do is to contact any of the Organizers listed on the site with the event title, description, date/time and location.
3. Don't forget to look under Recent Meetups to see what you missed! If you really wanted to attend something that you missed then maybe others will too and you can just recreate the event. Please do not duplicate an event that already exists.
4. The Discussions Board (button near the top of the home page) can be a fun place to discuss events or even just talk to other members about topics of group interest. Don't forget to look under MORE and PHOTOS for other fun things to see.
5. Don't forget you can contact Meetup, me or any member of the Leadership Team if you have a problem that we can help with.
6. You do not have to tell us that you will not attend unless you already told us that you are attending. In addition, many events require us to make reservations so it is requested that as soon as you know you will not attend to let us know.

HOW TO MAKE SUGGESTIONS FOR MEETINGS

You may be scratching your head and doing a pixel by pixel search on the Meetup page for our Suggest a Meetup link. You could have sworn you saw it somewhere... Well, stop looking. It's gone.

Why, you ask? Do the organizers hate suggestions? Nothing could be further from the truth. We love suggestions. We hunger for suggestions. If there was a cheerleader squad made up on suggestions, we'd want to sneak into their dressing room.

However, the problem with Meetup's suggestion feature is that you can put up a suggestion... and it can become a meetup even... but it doesn't require a time or a place. So unless someone is willing to step up and figure out those small but important details, it sits there, and sits there, and sits there. Maybe even a few more people sign up for the event that may happen someday, someplace and somehow.

So rather than have lots of unrealized meetups listed on the page, we took away that link. However, if you have a suggestion... please contact Pete or Kyle. Even if we aren't able to host it, if you're willing and have a time and place... we can set it up for you and even make you that event host. Have so many suggestions they're spilling out of your head like a slo-mo scene from Scanners? Pete will be happy to make you an event organizer so you can hosts lots of them. So yes, the suggestion link is gone. But we still want your suggestions. So email us... we like that. It will make our day.


PLANNING A NERD HERD MEETUP EVENT

Are you the host or hostess with the most? Prove it! Talk to one of the leadership members about setting up an NH event of your very own. Kyle and I are always open to ideas. Here is what you need to have your very own event: Have a leader (you) and an idea for an event, have a place for the event along with a date and time. As long as the event fits in with the NH we should schedule it, you will be recognized as the leader of that event and most of all you will have some great fun doing something you want to do with people you like. Here are a few common sense rules that you should consider when creating an event. Most people work on weeknights so anything that is late at night may not be well attended. These meetings are open to the public so while you may like everyone that shows up you don’t know them and it’s not a good idea to have meetups in your home. Public venues are always best.

As we move into the winter doldrums there always appears to be less things to do but that's not true. What is true is that we need more people to get involved in setting up events. Hold a book discussion group at a local bookstore (if you still have one), have a special Dr. Who event at an English Pub (yes we have them in the area), get an ice skating group together, anything that belongs. Don't forget to ask other meetup groups that are doing things we would be interested in to cross-list with us. In short, help us spread the wealth of fun the winter season really is by getting involved. I promise that if you get more involved I can keep the Nerd Herd Demonstrators away from where you live!


LOOKING FOR MEETING SPACE

The problem with doing things with your physical body instead of your astral or virtual bodies is that you need a physical place to hold the meeting! Lots of you belong to multiple meetups and/or know of great places that let us have meeting space for little or nothing. Most restaurants let you have meetings at tables as long as you are eating. Some restaurants actually have party rooms you can have for free if you have a minimum number of people. Libraries, township recreation halls, VFW(s), volunteer firehouses and other traditional organizations with halls generally rent them at very low to no charge.





Thanks for being a member,

Pete & Kyle and the rest of the Nerd Herd Leadership Team