NavList:

Here's my problem. It appears that October is a very bad time for most of the likely suspects who might attend a "Navigation Weekend" conference at the Smithsonian. This is just two months away, but I have one only two definite "yes, will attend" emails from NavList members. I've also had literally a dozen emails from people saying that October just isn't a good time. In past years, I've had at least TEN commits by this time from NavList members or others I can count on to attend. While this "Navigation Weekend" is intended to be more than NavList members, if we don't have a minimum number of NavList members as a core group, the event may be a failure.

So I have proposed three options to Roger Connor, our contact at the Smithsonian:
1) Continue as planned and work hard to get a few more people to show up in October.
2) Cancel completely for the time being.
3) Preferred option: Re-schedule for late Spring (May 2014, for example).

From my perspective, I think option 3 is the best choice right now, and I think Roger Connor agrees with that. So I'm throwing it out for quick 48-hour discussion. Any thoughts from others who might attend? Would you find late Spring more appealing, in line with the previous Navigation Weekends? And would anyone be inconvenienced by switching from the planned October dates??

I do recognize that there is the possibility that face-to-face gatherings may be starting to seem passé or just not worth the effort of travel, especially as celestial and other traditional forms of navigation fade further into the realm of impracticality and the domain of the backyard "hobbyist". Maybe we should switch to video-conference gatherings at some point in the near future... But for myself, even as a huge fan of modern tech and online dissemination of information, I think there is still a lot to be gained by getting together as human beings ...shaking a few hands, swapping entertaining stories, having a meal and a few drinks together, and all that "reality" stuff.

-FER

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