It seems there are some people who are interested in a meet up with other people concerned with PO. I am extremely interested in doing so. This thread is here to see who would actually like to be involved in this to see if it's worth doing, hopefully it is.

It would be great if we could, as others have pointed out, talk about ways to promote awareness of PO and other things. It would also be great if this becomes a re-occuring thing also but one step at a time i suppose.

So we would need to decide:
Where: ?
When: ?
Who: ?

test

blu

FINALLY! The moderator can post to her own forum!!!!

At any rate, I noticed the query above, and welcome to the PeakOil website.

I used to run the Meetup.org's Chicago Peak Oil group (then associated with the Post Carbon.organization.) We used to meet at a Caribou coffee house on Clark St. South of Belmont, near the old Ivanhoe theatre.

I would love to hold meetings again, we can do this possibly at the Myopic bookstore in Wicker Park on Milwaukee just south of Damen/North ave. It's 4 floors of books and coffee/tea to boot. There's a Starbucks down the way as well. It's a good central location.

Don't forget that there is a south side Peakoil group, as well as a N. Suburban group, I think they're out of Schaumburg or thereabouts. If those meet your plans better, get in touch with them via Meetup.org.

We decided to stop w/the Meetup.org's stuff because they wanted a fee etc. so we did our own yahoo group for a bit, and it kind of dispersed after that.

We can run a thread here if you like, that's what the whole Chicago forum is here for, networking, etc.

I am not going to put my phone number here, let's discuss, and if someone needs it, they can PM me at my inbox (let's see if the mail works well after this weekend.)

First of all, where's everyone located, that's the first priority? DH and I are near Belmont/Pulaski area, Hermonsa/Avondale, just West of Logan Square, near Milwaukee ave. and "The Red Apple" restaurant. (GREAT Polish smorgasbord, not too expensive either.)

I'd LOVE it if we DON't do "trendy neighborhoods" as the parking is hellacious, we have to run out to feed meters and disrupt the meetings. (yes the parking in Chicago just went up too, get the rolls of quarters, you will need them, I am NOT joking.) I don't want to do any meetings at bars because let's face it, on a work nite, it's just too difficult, and I am not into drinking on work nights.
Most of these things succeed better at coffeehouses, etc.

So, there's where I am at..let's see where everyone else is.

Blu

Break the sky, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, since you're new. We usually do this in another forum, but you can post here as well, if all you are going to do is possibly post to the Chicago forum.

It's common courtesy here on the list. We'd all like to know a little about each other.



Blu

A little bit about me: I'm still kinda new to the peak oil issue, I was introduced to it in a macroeconomics class when we had to read the book Plan B 3.0 which I would deffinatly recomend especially to people who are new to the whole issue. I'm a younger guy but I have a lot of passion towards the issue and would like to get involved.

As far as location goes, I'm in the suburbs myself, bolingbrook to be exact. I checked the meetup site and it only shows those two groups are "waiting" I'm not familar with the site so I'm not sure what that's all about. Either way I'm not fond of haveing to pay to organize and I feel that would greatly hurt the over all group as it would hamper new people from getting involved. I think it would be great to organize via this forum.

I prefer to take the metra in to chicago so some where in the loop would be great but I'd be open to takeing the el if need be to some place else.

**What do you see yourself doing in so far as "getting involved"? I ask this, because in the past, folks have said they want to learn, but Peak Oil meetings have digressed into wanting to learn about gardening/Permaculture, or getting involved with local or regional politics, or hands on energy design, or new urbanism, so inevitably, what happens, is that people that once joined a "PeakOil" group end up going to groups dedicated to those other issues, which is FINE, I see that as a logical outgrowth than bitching about things in one spot.
Maybe, what it would be good for, is just being a reading/discussion list with a good introduction towards all of the other lists, like a handout given at the end of the meetup.
Because that's where, up till now, it inevitably led to.



Meetup changed their set up system early on, and we organized for a bit on a (free) yahoo group. It still never went anywhere's except a few of us were friends before we joined up, so we did things together "as friends".
Meetup doesn't charge an individual, it only charges a group/meetup leader, used to be I forget, 40.00, yearly fee, could be more now. They "urged" a group leader to pass the fees on to the people there like a "dues system" so the leader could recapture the fees THEY had to pay. I thought it a bit smarmy, but hey, they've got to live too, I guess. It was a bit like a bait-and-switch in the beginning, when everything was free.

I just wrote to someone who says he is organizing Peak Oil now, who's on Meetup, and give it a day or 2, and I'll see what he has to say, if there's a group going already, then we can just blend in with them and see how it goes. If they are on "standby" because there's not enough folks, we'll see what kind of response we get here.

I think there's a group that is an "alternative energy" group that has 40 members, so in the meantime, you *may* want to see about that one, and check them out.



That's good to know, but Bolingbrook is "out there" so if I can find you a group out in Will Co. or DuPage, that might be alittle easier. Let's see what's going on first with my contact, and I will post on it, ok?

Blu

I am going out tonight to Myopic books, and will see if we are able (minus "chess nite" which is Wednesday evenings) be able to book free nights there up on the 3rd floor. I'd like to see if we can do this, and it's next to an "el" stop on the blue line, and near copious bus routes as well. I think there's a lot of bike racks in the neighborhood, since a lot of 20 somethings bike down there. It's a ratty neighborhood that has been gentrifying for a bit, still has a grunge factor but it has trendy but not overpriced places to eat at, etc.

You can actually find parking in that neighborhood too, if you drive or are coming after work.

Blu

Well I want to get involved in the spread of awareness of peak oil because it seems there are a lot of people ignorant about it. Basically It would be great to get a bunch of people concerned about PO and kind of go from there to see what the group would focus on or it's goals would be.

Well, awareness is one thing. What do you do with it is another thing. What do you YOURSELF think to do with this information? What do you want to do to spread awareness? Talk about what you, yourself can manage first.
What are your ideas?

Blu

Well I figure there's a variety of things, from holding screenings of a documentary on the subject, to holding a lecture/ open discussion on it, engageing in an open forum there's an event called college of complexes where a person can sign up for a day to give a presentation and there will be an open debate with the person on the subject, or something more radical as going on the street handing out fliers to people on the subject. I'm sure there's probably other ideas hopefully this will generate some.

But I wouldn't exactly limit the group to just that, it's a natural progression as you said to move on to other things so it would be good to provide that path to the next step. But as you said we don't want to all just leave so we need to keep a common goal to achieve that will keep the group going.

hey babe were talking bout a revolution

the end for gm ford and chrslyer

ask jim rodgers ; china is the new superpower

byebye america

you should have listened to JC when you had the chance

JC?

jimmy carter

the only peak oil fear in Chicago is the pipe lines and oil tankers are not working ,correct.
Go Black Hawks !!!

I think there's a little bit more concern than that. I know a lot of folks are out there gardening, and I saw a lot of first-timers at my garden centers this past garden season.

So, where do you see the Bears, or Black Hawks, or Cubbies/or Sox going head to head with PeakOil, PeakDollar, etc.? When do you see sports as an Industry collapse, ...and in Chicago?

Which team goes first?

Blu