Folks,

I'm still looking for some ideas on how to energize this chapter.

I notice people are coming in and reading here and there but we are still struggling to find our identity as a chapter!

I'm still looking for some regional area volunteers to "help" coordinate area meet and greets. I don't anticipate this to be too much of a time commitment...really...and I can't do it without help from our members...so it comes down to the old saying "many hands make light work"...TOGETHER we will make this chapter be one where we all share different experiences with each other.

In that vein...a friend of mine from another chapter pointed out the fact that other chapters have monthly "General Chat Threads"...it is nothing more than a B.S. session if you will but a way to just...well..B.S. with each other about different topics.

I'll start the first one and title it November since we are so close to November...and each month after this we'll close the previous month's thread and move onto the next month's thread to keep them smaller in size...how does that sound?

Also I've been thinking about the meet and greets some more and as a fall back to not having any regional volunteers here's what I would like to propose to the chapter.

We hold three meet and greets. One in the spring (May) one in the summer (July-August) and one in the fall (September-October). We move them around the state somewhat to allow members from various parts to join in.

There are lots of awesome state parks here in Indiana and whomever can attend different ones great since we won't be able to accomodate everyone and unfortunately if I am coordinating all of these...it is going to have to fit within my driving radius for the spring and fall ones since my kids are in school and all...

My suggestion is that we hold these at the state park for those of us that camp...we can get a campsite. For those that don't we'll simply take a collection amongst those that will attend and rent a pavillion area for the group meet and greet...sound good?

Three state parks that I have personally been too and have a lot to offer and we could maybe start there in 2011 would be Potato Creek or Indiana Dunes (Northwest area), Turkey Run (West/Southwestish area) and Mounds (central). This would give people the opportunity from various areas to come and join the fun!...thoughts?

There are so many other state parks it is really hard to decide which one to go to...I tried to choose ones with some stuff to do (Potato Creek has an awesome 3mile bike path, Turkey Run has the sugar creek to float down in an inner tube/canoe, and Mounds has some really cool ancient Indian mounds on property to explore and hike around...not that these are the best state parks...just ones I'm suggesting we start with next year and we'll change them up for future years.

For me I would recommend Turkey Run for the summer meet since it involves the Sugar Creek activities and if someone wanted to inner tube...summer is obviously the time to do that.

Potato Creek and Mounds with their hiking and biking trails are more suited to spring/fall camping when it isn't so hot out.

What is everyone's thoughts?...I'm just rambling along here trying to get some interest going...

Keep in mind that if we want to plan a group camping event...we'll have to book 6 months in advance to insure that our group is located near each other...so some planning IS necessary.

I'll wait for some responses.

Thanks for reading,
joe.