Hey, it's time the New Englanders have a gathering!

Count me in for either date. It's about a 3 hr drive for me (I think....I'd have to Mapquest it to be sure), but that's no biggie. I'd love the chance to meet some of you.

Edward--I'd love to get one of those hood deflectors. My baby's only 4 months old, and I already have a couple of nicks on my hood. Let me know what I need to do to order. Thanks!

 

Gosh, it'd be nice if this was publicized on some of the other frequented Prius groups (to get more woners to show up), such as:

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/toyota-prius/
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Prius-2G/
http://www.priusonline.com/
alt.autos.toyota.prius

or the more local groups:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/MA-hybrids/ (group created for the last MA meet or two)
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Prius2004NE/
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/priusnortheast/

The last three MA-area gatherings were open to all hybrids. Is this one going to be more closed? It's been nice to chat with the other hybrid owners, try out "the competition," and such.

There have been too few people signed up on meetup.com that I haven't bothered going to any of the monthly meets. One of the groups (don't remember if it was hybridcars.meetup.com or prius.meetup.com) supposedly met at Ken's Steak House on rt.9 Framingham (Natick line).

I don't recall who set up the meet in 2001. That was held at the Paparazzi restaurant in Concord MA on rt. 2. We just got together in their large parking lot, chatted for a while, then went inside to order food. Unfortunately, you really couldn't hear what was going on on the other side of the long table...

Sam Williams did most of the work setting up the 2002 meet, although I did help out gathering names, announcing it, and such. Sam held it at his curling club in Wayland, MA (off-season, http://www.broomstones.com/ ). We had some sponsorship from Westboro Toyota for the hall rental, and otherwise we asked for $5/person for food and hall rental. Craig Van Batenburg gave a nice presentation, and we had open questions and any individual presentations... We also had the Voloci electric motorbike people give a demonstration and test rides.
http://www.kluge.net/~felicity/pics/index.php?group=16

2003 Gilles Labelle (Westboro Toyota) and Jim Dunn had me call for another hybrid meet, Oct. 18 IIRC. We held it at the Worcester Airport parking lot, in conjunction with WPI's Homecoming and 100th anniversary celebration of flight. (Worcester Airport was open to the public, with various personal planes and gliders on the tarmac, and they had a working replica of the Wright brothers' plane. Jim Dunn had the ePlane there, an electric-only plane that at the time was using Prius battery packs for electricity storage.) Craig happened to stop for gas the night before in his Insight, and was parked next to a 2004 Prius being driven by a Toyota Regional employee, and invited him to bring the car. It was the first 2004 Prius in New England, and we got it to climb all over and do test drives/rides in it for the Saturday meet. As for food, we had a pile of doughnut boxes from Dunkin Donuts and some coffee, which Gilles brought. WPI had a bunch of free cookies, and also had a small fee-based grill tent.
My pics are at: http://www2.kluge.net/2004/

2004 went by without a meet (that I know of). I don't really consider the 2003 or 2004 Altwheels festivals much of a meet, as it's difficult to get all the Prius owners or cars together (although most everyone did at some point come by my cars on display and say hi).

My experience is that you'll want someplace where some people can sit down if needed (not everyone can stand around in a parking lot for hours on end talking), with bathrooms nearby, and that you'll want some way to get out of the sun or inclement weather (tent, building). (I got a really nasty sunburn at the 2003 WPI fly-in, and the Altwheels festival.) Unfortunately, the only place that comes to mind in the Framingham rt.9 area is the parking garage at the Natick Mall and the food court there (although that would be really noisy in the food court, and the covered parking spots get filled up quick).

Where will all of the cars fit at the Tennessee's BBQ? On a normal day it is difficult to park there, let alone if you get the 2 dozen+ cars I'd expect minimally to show up... Maybe if you went to the anchor store at the end (what is it now, a Filene's Basement? I know it was a Frugal Fannie's for a while...) you'd get some parking, but...

(I work in Natick, on the Framingham line, just off of rt. 9, so I do know the area well. If I come up with a location (I can ask around at work for more ideas), I'll be sure to post it (If Priuschat will let me in again to post, it's still browser-picky on me...).)

 

To get your bearings, the Tennessee's mini-mall is on the street right across from the Framingham main post office on rt. 30. From the post office, on the left is a McDonald's, Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse, and eventually Walmart and rt. 9. On the right from the post office is Filene's Basement and the fast-food packed mini-mall, an apartment complex, Bennigan's grill/bar, and then rt. 9.

Don't get me wrong, I love Tennessee's (I get take-out dinner once every week or two), I just don't see it as large enough to take in everyone, and the parking could be tricky. There's a little more parking at the ends (Lotus Flower http://www.lotuscuisine.com/ and Filene's Basement), but Tennessee's http://www.tennbbq.com/ is in the middle where there's only 2 rows for parking (and that includes the Papa Gino's http://www.papaginos.com/, Big Fresh, Gold Star Indian http://www.indiangoldstar.com/, and Boston Market http://www.bostonmarket.com/index.jsp). I suppose if people were willing to walk... or if we wanted to do reservations of some form...

Other ideas that people at work came up with:

To stay with BBQ, either everyone park at the Filene's basement and walk to meet over at Tennessee's or similar, or everyone park at Walmart over by the rt. 9 side of the lot and carpool to Tennessee's. Or, there's a bit more parking available at Firefly's on rt. 126 (really close to rt. 30 and 9): http://www.fireflysbbq.com/Framingham.htm (at least we could use the Stop & Shop parking area next door).

Park at Jordan's furniture. eat at Kelly's Roast Beef. sit in comfy floor model chairs, or at Kelly's. be entertained by the Mardi Gras celebrations at Jordan's. send the family to watch an IMAX movie at Jordan's while you talk about car-things. http://www.jordans.com/about/find_store_de...asp?type=natick

You could probably reserve a room at most any of the numerous restaurants in the area. Ideas are the Bugaboo Creek across the street from Tennessee's, and also the Vinny T's of Boston in Natick on rt. 9 (but getting to that location could be tricky as it's on the divided section of rt. 9), but pretty much you name the type of food or the national/regional chain, and it's here. Problem with a restaurant room reservation is that you'd really want to have people be able to mingle, and not stuck talking/listening to the same people on their end of the table if a sit-down meal.

another suggestion was to go to someplace like Lake Cochituate State Park on rt. 30 in Natick. http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/coch.htm Problem there is that you pay per car to enter, and there's no food concessions. Good thing is that there are picnic tables, shade, bathrooms/changing rooms, and swimming for the other family members. So, if everyone wanted to do a pot-luck thing or pack their own lunch, it might be a good idea. There are some other state parks that might similarily work, such as Ashland http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/ashl.htm, Hopkinton http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/hpsp.htm, or Walden Pond (Concord) http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/wldn.htm. (although, if it's a hot enough day the parks could fill to capacity and close early... might be a good idea to call ahead here too...)


unfortunately, most of the area newspapers require a 2-week notice for placement in their what's happening/community calendar sections, so it's doubtful if you could get the word out other than online forums.

(I'll note that my 10-year high school reunion was only announced about a month before the date; myself and a bunch of people already had plans and couldn't make it. I'd suspect something similar with either date in the poll.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mrv\";p=\"108855)</div>

Something like this would definitely get my vote. I think a pot-luck type thing at a park sounds awesome, and way more relaxing than sitting in a parking lot.

 

Bob:
Either date is fine with me, but I will vote for the July date. Looking forward to it.
Aloha

 

Hello Everyone. A lot of beneficial input indeed. Pardon my unprofessionalism as I have never organized anything like this before, not even when I was back in school.

I agree that Tenessee BBQ parking lot is a bit tight as we reach 20+ Prius. I agree that Jordan's Furniture parking lot is a lot bigger and there are restrooms & Kelly's Roast Beef & IMAX right there. But we will need Jordan's permission for sure. Will the Bugaboo Creek's parking lot be big enough? They are a Canadian BBQ house with great food (lcdJunky, hope your bf won't mind).

The Cochituate State Park idea is also neat, but have you been to it lately during weekends? Will there be enough parking for say, 50+ Prius?

I plan to drive around tomorrow (Fri) near the Framingham area (incl. Cochituate State Park in Natick) and look around. mrv if you have other great suggestions, please share. I'd greatly appreciate it. Time is running out. Thanks.

Edward

 

I would be happy to help...

I'm not sure what I could as I am far away (physically) and you haven't decided on a date yet. Nonetheless, once you do decide on a date, please email me and I'll be happy to post it on the site:

www.priusownersgroup.com

I'm not sure if I could make it to the actual meet, though, depending on the date, I will try. I'm in Lancaster, PA so it's a bit of a drive.

Thanks very much for your work in organizing this and good luck!

Russell Frost
owner
priusownersgroup.com
2005 Super White Prius
[email protected]

 

... Pardon my unprofessionalism as I have never organized anything like this before
.
Here's all kinds of encouragement; it seems like you're
doing great! A couple of additional thoughts on venue ...
seems like slightly out of Framingham you've got lots of other stuff
around Rt. 9 and maybe Speen St, largish malls, that sort of
thing, which aren't necessarily a single organization trying to
preserve some kind of "image" [I'm thinking Jordan's here] and
whose rent-a-cops may be less likely to get upset by a
gaggle of Prii occupying an out-of-the-way corner of their parking
lot for a while. Still, if it's generally felt that some kind
of permission should be obtained in advance, hopefully
that's reasonable and the querier won't just get blown off
with an off-the-cuff "no".
.
Any further ideas about presenters? I could probably stand
around and yak prius tech all day, but not in any coherent,
organized fashion...
.
_H*

 

Any updates?

 

We seem to be running out of July. Do we have any definite word yet on where and when? We are looking forward to attending if the event gets off the ground.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bobc\";p=\"110534)</div>

Yippee!

 

I have plans for both weekends (like, reaching 260,000 miles on the Camry this coming Saturday) so I will be waiting for a report back here online after the meeting.

 

It's Jordan's Furniture @ Natick, MASS parking lot

Hi Folks, it's definitely gonna be Aug 6th now and the location is set on Jordan's Furniture in Natick, MA (Route 9). I will leave it for Bob to do the formal announcement including time, directions, details, etc. I am so psyched to see you guys & gals next weekend! Please please come if you can.

P.S. It took me no less than 15 phone calls to the Jordan's Furniture main office to get the permission. The Natick store manager finally gave me the ok this afternoon.


Edward

 

This will be awesome, I can't wait. The timing is perfect for me, too, since my husband will be away. He'd go as a favor to me if he were here, but didn't look too thrilled at the prospect when I first told him. Seems funny that I'm the one that wants to go sit around talking about my car....more of a "guy thing" you would think. :?

 

Perhaps you can convince him with food - worked for me

BTW, still BBQ?

 

It's northwest not south-shore, but if you want a spot to hold the next-next gathering, I volunteer Sparqs Industrial Arts Club in Woburn, MA. We have a nice air conditioned space (lobby, lounge, training room, and machine shops space has something for everybody) to allow folks to chat in comfort along with a big free parking lot.

It dovetails nicely with the Alt.Fuel group that I am helping to organize for people who want to fabricate, customize, and repair their own alt fuel vehicles in the Boston-area (or further since gas mileage may vary!).

Send me an email at [email protected] if you want to discuss.
Cheers,
Tim
Founder
Sparqs Industrial Arts Club
www.sparqs.com