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Who's going to Portland next month?

B

bob elliott

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Last year at this time the AAW was reporting record numbers for the AAW Symposium in Louisville . This year the the AAW seems to be silent on the subject. It seems crowds won't be a problem this year, despite the fact that the convention center appears to be a larger venue.
So the question remains, who's going to Portland next month?
 
Hi All

There were over 600 registered about 2 weeks ago.

There is always a big rush before the late registration kicks in 15 May.

How many more register is anyones guess
My guess is the totals will be in the 900-1200 range.

Oh! we are two


-Al
 
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Gold Country Woodturners - Our first symposium

We may be the newest chapter (January this year) from Grass Valley California and 10 of us are going, 1/3 of our membership! All pretty excited. More may yet go. See you there.
 
On the road from Iowa....

I expect to have a blast at Portland, and look forward to meeting old and new friends (....that is.... previous friends; age is not an issue!). I'll be driving from Iowa with the ham rig in the truck and will be on 20 meters most of the drive ("CQ TURNERS DE WA0RW"). I thought about flying, but you can't check that many bowl blanks and turning tools when flying, and there's a bit of a challenge trying to schlep them through airports! (Although with the d#@n gas prices closing in on $4/gal, I may regret my decision....!)

I'm also looking forward to getting together with AAW "beer friends" in one of the country's maximum centers of "beer-o-diversity". In 2000, I led a brewery crawl during the Botanical Society of America's national meeting in Portland, and visited 7 different breweries on one saturday.....as well as giving a lunchtime "Botany of Beer" talk at the Portland Brewing Company. I encourage real beer connoisseurs to take advantage of the location of the AAW Symposium this year, and sample the many diverse beers available in Portland. It is one of the "beer Meccas" of the USA".

As the date approaches, I'd like to set up some times at the Symposium for forum participants to get together over a beer (.....or six!) to be able to put names with faces and "talk turning" (...and maybe even beer....). Does anyone have any suggestions? Steve W.?

Cheers!

Rob Wallace

(AAW Hams.....Set-up a SKED with WA0RW..... send me a PM!)
 
Consider Friday Night

Rob,

Consider starting with a special interest session.

http://www.woodturner.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=3603

meet at 730 in a Symposium room see folks face to face kick around a few ideas then head for downtown.

You might even engage the AAW webmaster and the moderators

happy turning,
Al
 
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Wish I could

I'd love to be able to go to Portland for the symposium. Kind of far from the right coast though. I am heading to the Yankee Symposium in a couple weeks in Connecticut. Anyone else going?
 
hockenbery said:
Rob,

Consider starting with a special interest session.

....l
Click to expand...

There are three or four of us that do both (OK, turning takes so much time I have not been on the air all year)
 
Rob Wallace said:
.... In 2000, I led a brewery crawl during the Botanical Society of America's national meeting in Portland, and visited 7 different breweries on one saturday.....as well as giving a lunchtime "Botany of Beer" talk at the Portland Brewing Company. I encourage real beer connoisseurs to take advantage of the location of the AAW Symposium this year, and sample the many diverse beers available in Portland. It is one of the "beer Meccas" of the USA".
Click to expand...
Maybe the pub crawl would be a good Friday night trip? Who would be interested? I am sure for a small fee we could get a bus and get some brewery tours. Would be a shame to have to slow down the imbibment to have to drive back, so many beers, so little time.....

I would be in for that maybe instead (or the same as) a friday night forum.

Rob, would you be interested in chairing that sub? Maybe TURNINGWOOD.COM can help with some of the funding?
 
I'll get some information about a pub crawl...!

Steve Worcester said:
Maybe the pub crawl would be a good Friday night trip? Who would be interested? I am sure for a small fee we could get a bus and get some brewery tours. Would be a shame to have to slow down the imbibment to have to drive back, so many beers, so little time.....

I would be in for that maybe instead (or the same as) a friday night forum.

Rob, would you be interested in chairing that sub? Maybe TURNINGWOOD.COM can help with some of the funding?
Click to expand...

Steve:

I will make some calls to see if something could be arranged to visit a few breweries on Friday night of the Symposium.

A basic question would be how much would people be willing to pay for a bus or vans to take us around the various brewpubs or breweries that evening? We will obviously need a minimum number of participants (I'm guessing between 25 and 35) to make the arrangements possible. As I recall, back in 2000 the all day trip cost about $ 40 per person for transportation costs. Would people be willing to pay for transportation to take them to some of the best beer in Portland? (I certainly would, but I'm a confirmed beer geek!) If we ran from 7:30 pm to 11:30 pm or midnight, this would be the equivalent of a 'half day' tour. I will investigate the possibilities and report back to the group here..... It may take a day or more to get the information we need to set up a pub crawl, but if we have at least 25 or so willing to join-in, this might be a viable possibility.

I'll see what I can find out....would there be any takers for a Friday evening pub crawl?

Rob Wallace
 
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update there are now over 750 registered.
May get 1200.
Regarding logistics of getting around.
The light rail runs right by the Symposium site and hotels into the downtown.
in fact it is free to downtown and back.

Happy turning,
Al
 
Would love to be there for my third symposium but I have been hired to shot a documentary for the National Science Foundation in Alaska this summer. At first I thought I would use that for an excuse to be close to Portland at the same time but my time schedule in Alaska has changed some so I will have to miss Portland. I promise I will be in Richmond (?) in 2008! I do love the symposium, there are great experiences. I wish I could be there to help operate the cameras for a few demos but just didn't work out.

There was a lot of discussion last year after L'ville about the video operation but it all seemed to die away. Does anyone know what they are planning to do? At one time they were using video productions students to help as I remember but have seen nothing about it since then. As a video production instructor I am just curious what they worked out.
 
Video for Portland

hi wood,

The AAW has lined up 23 top notch videographers. These individuals were reccomedned by club presidents, regional symposium officers, or AAW Board members for their excellent videography of woodturning demonstrations. Each of these individuals will shoot 6 demonstrations.
In the past we lacked consistency in the quality of the video. I estimate last year's as 15% excellent, 80% acceptable, and 5% unacceptable. The 5% ruined the demo for the audience.
This year I anticipate 100% excellent.

Our 2007 AAW Videographers: Russell Babbitt, Jim Beehler, Dick Bird, Bruce Campbell, Craig Chambers, Don Ditto, Jamie Donaldson, Bob Elliott, Dave Endres, Lee Holt, Bob Hunt, Kent Krueger, Frank Miller, Frank Penta, Ken Rodgers, Nick Rosenberg, John Rudert, Dennis Snider, Nick Stagg, Frank Stepanksi, Dennis Thomas, George Way, and Andy Zartman.
We also have Dan Robbins in the wings if anyone has to cancell.

Happy Turning,
Al
 
Portland numbers

registrations keep coming in. Close to 1200 for the sessions
and 1500 for th banquette.

930 registrations
180 spouse registrations

It should slow down a bit now. but a couple hundred more is quite likely.

still time to get to the biggest woodturning show on earth!

-Al
 
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