[Sosfbay-discuss] [SC-SM] Fw: Venues for January Gathering

[Andrea Dorey]

Jim,

You are thinking of the
Mitchell Park Community Center,
3800 Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto,
between Meadow and Charleston.
Also close to 101.

Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto is an older facility but  
great for groups, and can be used for serving food from their  
kitchen, has enough floor space for a dancing, can provide dining  
tables and chairs (not fancy) for eating or working groups, and has  
several rooms off the main hall that could be used for smaller meetings.

Gerry Gras and Dana St George also have attended meetings in this  
venue—it shares space with a Palo Alto Library branch and has a nice  
grassy park for picnicking and informal games/sports; has tennis  
courts; has both sunny and tree-shaded lawn areas; ample parking spaces.

I don't know the cost of rental, but Gerry and/or Dana might.  Is  
rented by several groups, including the Humanist Community.
Andrea

On Nov 13, 2008, at 7:53 PM, Jim Stauffer wrote:

> Glad to see some folks taking the initiative on finding a venue.  
> I've not
> heard any formal decision on hosting, but securing a venue first is  
> a good
> step towards making that decision. But we do need to come to a  
> definitive
> answer soon.
>
> I'm having one of those weeks at work where we have to put in some  
> long
> hours so I'm going to be brief.
>
> January can be a tough month to schedule a meeting like this. The  
> first
> weekend doesn't work because a lot of people have been out of town  
> for the
> holidays the previous week. MLK day makes the 17-18 weekend  
> undesirable. So
> it's the 10-11 and 24-25 weekends that we should target.
>
> Location does make a difference. Some folks think a quaint setting  
> in the
> hills is preferable. Although that makes for a nice setting, we've  
> found
> that anything that isn't near a major artery or airport draws much  
> smaller
> crowds.
>
> Also, given that this is a Gathering, and it's being done on short  
> notice,
> we might consider proposing a one-day meeting. It would be much  
> easier to
> organize, and many people are amenable to giving up only one day as  
> opposed
> to the entire weekend. I'll pose this to the CC and see what they  
> think.
>
>
> It would be great if some folks can help checking out venues. We  
> held a
> retreat last Jan. in a big church in Palo Alto on Cowper. I can't  
> remember
> the name, but it was very reasonable. Warner, do you remember what  
> that
> place was?
>
> Also, there's a park (Mitchel?) with a community center on  
> Middlefield near
> Mtn View. I looked at it a few years and remember it being adequate  
> for
> something like this.
>
> Just a little farther east is a high school where I've attended  
> several
> events. Can't remember the name of that either. Do any of you  
> recognize this
> description?
>
> I see some discussions about this on the county lists. Let's  
> remember to
> coordinate all this on this list.
>
> Jim
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SC-SM mailing list
> SC-SM at lists.sonic.net
> http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/sc-sm
>