Hi all,
For almost 5 years we've been having meetings at the N Lakeside Cultural Center. We've had something of a sweetheart deal in that we've never paid for the space and we've even had free parking across the street.
Well, the Chicago Park district has taken over the building, changed the locks, and we may well be out of a home. I tweeted this yesterday, but wanted to give more details of what's going on. We may still be able to meet at the location, or even next door at Berger park building, but times are almost certainly changing. (Hmm, the times they are a changin' -- somebody ought to write a song about that
)
Relative to the monthly meetings, the vast majority of the 300+ CSC members on meetup haven't been to a meeting, so this may be a moot point. But, if nothing else, it gives us a reason to re-assess what we're doing in terms of time and location. We recently had our 'northern' group start in Niles, meeting at the library. From what I can tell, libraries may well represent our best option for free meeting space and easy parking options.
I need to get a feel from people of the criticality of being close to public transportation options and how close meetings need to be to make them workable - i.e. how much transportation time are you in for? The organization has essentially no funds, so anywhere that charges a fee isn't workable. For instance, I checked out at least one university, but unless one is a student organization, there will be a cost.
If we go to further decentralization we need to have more people willing to step up and take the role of meeting coordinators. Might you be one of them?
Does anyone know of options within Chicago that won't cost anything? This may be a good time to decentralize with more groups normally meeting at different locales that periodically come together centrally. For instance, seeing as I'm coming from south of I-80, an option for me is the Tinley Park library, located across from the Metra Rock Island line out of Lasalle Station. How about you?????
I'd like to ask some of you to not only make suggestions, but to follow up and find out definitely about them. I can't be following up on 20 leads if that's what comes back.
in the meantime, this is open to discussion,
john