Hey guys/gals,
This has come up a bunch of times and of course I've readily volunteered to handle things as I did last year regarding dinner for the Saturday night. The club has traditionally gathered on Saturday night to have a big dinner together - a chance to actually all sit and talk since getting everyone together during the show is harder to do. This used to happen at "Grandpa's Growler" in Mechanicsburg until 2007, when the place had renovated, it was extremely loud inside, the service was terrible and the food was worse. Plus, Purple1 had his car damaged in the parking lot, and I think that scared everyone from going back.
Last year I booked us the patio at "Your Place" Restaurant and Bar in Mechanicsburg. Because my first experience with the club at Carlisle was in 2007 during the "CudaGuy" project, we had a HUGE number of attendees then. I assumed we'd have the same number in 2008, and thus told the restaurant that we'd have 30 to 40 people. We had, if I recall, 7. Needless to say, I felt rather sheepish - especially since we chose to have a buffet and they had TONS of food out there for us. We barely dented it.
As of right now, the "have you registered for Carlisle" thread that MEK started has all of 7 confirmed attendees. There's no way I'm going to ask them to roll out a buffet for us again. There's really not even much point in making a reservation.
I think the best bet right now is to see how many people ACTUALLY come out for the show, then decide from there. If we end up with 10 or so on Saturday, I can always make some quick calls around to make a reservation, or we can just go to "Your Place" again and order from the menu. I've eaten there many times with the wife - the food and atmosphere has ALWAYS been good, and they've got good prices. (No "Carlisle Show tax," if you know what I mean.)
I don't want to seem unwilling to help - I'm just not willing to embarrass myself again! If there is a sudden surge of registration before the show, I'll act quickly to get something setup. Sadly though, I don't think this will be the case.
If anyone has other ideas or suggestions, please voice them here.
Jeff
