Proposed TASL meeting schedules for 2012

[Al in Raleigh]

It is that time again. What dates would be good for next year's TASL meetings? How about February (Saturday), April (weeknight), June (Saturday), August (weeknight), October (weeknight). The Saturday meetings are full day meetings and weeknights are 6pm to 10pm. I'll bet Charity will cook for us too. She really is a great cook.

We will have welding workshops this year that I promised last year unless my life falls apart again. I think March would be a good time for the welding workshops. We are going to make Bang Stars, Walter Star, and other neat things like a device to erect megatrees easily. I guess you would call it a knee.

The final dates will be when we can get the facility.

Al

[briancadman]

The proposal sounds really good to me. There will certainly be more interest and involvement from the Triad area.
By the way, our tour/meetings last night went very well. We spent a lot of time looking over the displays. I have to share an interesting story though. At one point during the tour, we were all standing next to my CCR talking about LEDs and a guy and his wife pulled up in front of my house to watch the show. He sees a few of us standing there talking and gets out of the truck, walks over to where we were standing and starts asking questions. As it turns out, he is on a light show tour of his own. Interestingly, the next stop on our tour was the next stop on his tour. You can only imagine the surprise on his face when he realized he was running around to visit our displays and we were all standing there in one place. Even more interesting, he too has a full blown light show in Winston Salem, so we exchanged contact info. I really enjoyed the tour/meetings last night. I learned a lot too.
Last night, we all agreed that having meetings and opportunities to get together makes this hobby more fun and helps each other avoid pitfalls. I hope that my sharing above encourages more involvement from those reading this thread.

[Al in Raleigh]

Excellent Brian.If you guys want to host a Saturday meeting or something maybe some of TASL will come to TRIAD. I will do my very best to attend.

[kidcole]

Sounds great Brian. How many of you are active members in the Triad area ? Sounds like you have the nucleus for a great local group there. Perhaps holding your own meetings one day. One of our TASL goals is to help the expansion of other active local groups like TASL .. all using CC as the home site ..

The TASL schedule sounds fine to me.

I would like to include some Pixel String group buy discussion in the first meeting. It would be nice if you (Al) and Mark would take the lead on this, so we can decide on some wiring and connector standards that we will all use. Mark has mentioned a group buy on DIYC for 50 bulb pixel string for $28 each .. That's a $28 CCR ! I'd like at least 12 at that price. Maybe 16. We could consider our own group buy if others running LOR 3 want jump into pixel strings next year.

[Jack Stevens]

It is that time again. What dates would be good for next year's TASL meetings? How about February (Saturday), April (weeknight), June (Saturday), August (weeknight), October (weeknight). The Saturday meetings are full day meetings and weeknights are 6pm to 10pm. I'll bet Charity will cook for us too. She really is a great cook.

From over my shoulder, I heard

WHAT! Ummmmm.... Uh, OK. Cooler weather I can do a crock pot thing.

We will have welding workshops this year that I promised last year unless my life falls apart again. I think March would be a good time for the welding workshops. We are going to make Bang Stars, Walter Star, and other neat things like a device to erect megatrees easily. I guess you would call it a knee.

Looking forward to those. I have a low-end welder I can bring, along with a ring roller and the safety glasses we had at the last one.

Nothing against Walter's mom's house, but do we h ave some other place we can do this? I know; you don't have the parking room, Denny probably has an HOA he has to deal with. I'm willing to host it, but I'm at the extreme reaches of what would be considered the Triangle area. Plus I need to know what outlet you need for your 220v welder so I could add it to my garage.

The final dates will be when we can get the facility.

Al

Still at Swiftcreek? Good facility.

[Jack Stevens]

Brian -

We sort of started at a Starbucks; the one we met at had a small meeting room that could be reserved and used at no cost, hoping people would (and did) buy coffee/etc. They had a time limit of something like 2 hours, so Al reserved it for the first two hours, I'd do it for the second, etc.

We also could get the use of a local Perkin's back room, but people would have to buy food.

We've also met at Al's church, but he had to rent the fellowship hall for that. A lot of room, though. Now we've been meeting at a community hall that has a small kitchen and a few other facilities. There is a small fee for using this but nothing unreasonable considering we're using AC/heat and electricity.

If you know of something similar in your area, and can get it, just announce on here "when" and those of us who can show up will.

[Al in Raleigh]

TomD and I talked about possibly holding the welding workshop where he works. TomD was looking out for us. The welders use 220 Volts at 20 amps (I think) and 120 volts at 20 amps.

[briancadman]

Thanks guys. Mark and I will keep you all posted. It will probably be quiet for a couple weeks to get through the holidays, but a small local meeting after the new year [January] should be doable.

[stormym]

I am confused on the TASL, is this a membership group or more of a bunch of people that just meet up? I am interested in it but was confused?

[walter]

We could have the welding day at melissa's if needed. it is kinda in the middle of all of us.

[Al in Raleigh]

We could have the welding day at melissa's if needed. it is kinda in the middle of all of us.

TASL stands for Triangle Area Synchronized Lighting. We are primarily based in the Triangle but we have folks from all over come to the meetings. We meet at Swift Creek Community Center which is about a mile south of Lowe's/Home Depot in Cary. You are welcome to attend any meeting. We is an informal group with no dues but usually pass the hat to cover expenses which are usually minimal. If you are lucky Charity will make Coca Cola Cake when Charity cooks which will be weeknights I believe. The Saturday meetings are usually training sessions in a variety of topics and is usually a pot luck lunch. The weeknight meetings are usually less formal and we do training, Q and A sessions, or just show off what we have been working on. If you want to progress your display then TASL meetings are the place to come.

I'm just probing for rough dates now. I have to book Swift Creek Community Center to make sure we get the dates we want.
Al

[Al in Raleigh]

We could have the welding day at melissa's if needed. it is kinda in the middle of all of us.

In the middle of what? She lives in Bulgaria with Rupert.

[walter]

She lives right out side of Burlington, ood half way point for the Triad and the Triangle. Just an idea.

[TomD]

TomD and I talked about possibly holding the welding workshop where he works. TomD was looking out for us. The welders use 220 Volts at 20 amps (I think) and 120 volts at 20 amps.

Al, I know we don't have 220 volt receptacles at my warehouse. It is still a possibility though if we only need 120V
TomD

[Slacker]

Has a date been selected for February?