I know my posting this is probably going to amount to nothing (as most Halifax explorers are pretty dormant these days), but I'm really wondering if anyone would be interested in a legitimate Halifax meet. I would suggest a one-time event for local explorers to get together, get to know each other a bit, and possibly hit up a few locations together. The goal in mind would be to perhaps stimulate some new interest in some kind of sense of UE community in Halifax.

As far as I know, very few people ever go to the Sunday meets in Halifax (I myself am guilty of constantly putting them off), but I do know that there are the odd few who get together personally for explores.

So hopefully we can get some people's opinions, maybe times that you're available, places you'd be interested in visiting. Maybe we can make something out of this.. Maybe not... It's worth a shot...

sure I'd be up for this

I think the Sunday meetings have a lot of potential to be useful, but they don't do much for us right now. Having a one-time meeting as Jakob suggests is a good idea, but we could probably benefit from a discussion about how to make the Sunday meeting relevant enough to increase attendance.
I've changed jobs, and will have a lot more free time. I'm going to put my head into this topic a bit, hopefully we can all make some good things happen.

I'm always off sundays.

Before I get to far into this:

I'd like to initiate some structured discussion about the monthly meetings. Many of us have expressed an interest in making the meetings better, my goal here is to formalize the process a bit so that we can actually discuss and make improvements.
To be completely clear, I'm not trying to boss people around, I don't want to be the UrbEx 'leader' or anything of the sort, and I don't want to force changes that people don't want. It's about improving meetings, and improving UrbEx in our community.

I'm not totally out of my element here. I'm a trained facilitator (check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitator for exactly what that means), and though I've never done it online, I've led many discussion groups around topics similar to this.

So to put it to a question: Are you interested in a discussion over the structure of our monthly meetings, and are people okay with me leading the conversation?

Yeah, we should talk about bettering the monthly meets.

If I could get to sleep before the sun starts to rise on Sunday morning, I'd make it out to more meets.

Where the weather is getting more towards spring-like temperatures, I'm going to be doing more paintball, but I'd like to make it to more meets as well.

A quick disclaimer:

1 - I'm working from the assumption that you actually want to have regular meetings. I'm aware some of us on the forum are not interested in getting together and that's fine, their input is welcome too. But the topic is making the meetings better, not if we want to have them or not.
2 - No one is obligated to try or even seriously consider anything I'm going to bring up here. It's just ideas to start people talking.


I've been to a number of these monthly meetings over the last couple years. Attendance is poor, usually one or zero people showing up. And not much happens when we do have a meeting. We largely stare at each other for a bit, state how we like UrbEx, then go our separate ways.
I believe that effective monthly meetings would be a great benefit to the Halifax UrbEx community, but we need to seriously look at our existing structure and make meetings into something that people actively want to participate in. So I'm going to toss out a number of questions and ideas, and I'm hopeful that you will be willing to share your answers and any other ideas here for the group, so we can come up with something that will make meetings more relevant for everyone who wants to come.


As I see it, there's two broad topics to consider, which get broken down further as we go:
First: the logistics of the meeting - the time, date, and location. Second: what we actually do when we're having a meeting.

The first is the easier topic, and it's where I'd like to start discussion.


Meetings are presently held at the Just-us Cafe on Spring Garden Road, at 2:00pm on the first Sunday of every month.

A - How do people feel about the Just-us? Would a different location be better? Another coffee shop, or a restaurant, or something totally different (library, university, etc)? It gets crowded at the Just-us, would reserving a space in advance help? Is parking an issue on Spring Garden?

B - Is 2pm a good time? Would shifting the start time by an hour or two be better? Do people work on Sundays, making an earlier or later start time more desirable?

C - Is Sunday a good day for this? I assume most of us have jobs or school (and good for you if you don't have to do either haha), which is mostly Monday to Friday. So would a weeknight be more suitable for us, or should we stick to the weekend? Would Saturday be a better option?

D - Is the first Sunday of the month good for us? A lot of holidays are on the first Monday of the month, often making the meetings on a long weekend. Does that interfere with attending meetings?

I think the problem is there isn't really a very active ue scene in Halifax. We're all interested, but there's not a lot of locations near by. I think we've all exhosted York ReDoubt, the Radar, PPP, and the Rehab, TeleGlobe, Tibett's Paints and the Russian vessel are gone. Most of us are too paranoid about Shannon Park.

I'm not interested in the meetings I guess because I don't really know what I can bring to the table and it doesn't seem like anyone else really has anything to bring either, not for lack of trying but more so due to lack of locations. However I could totally be wrong.

Nootz and I go for random 6-8 drives about once a month, sometimes we'll find three houses sometimes we'll find nothing at all.

We can all meet and introduce ourselves, but I don't really know what else can be discussed at these meetings. Or an outing we can all go to. I don't really think anyone is hoarding locations or keeping anything secret. But I could be wrong.

This is just my opinion, I don't mean to be a negative nancy. If you guys think it's really beneficial we all meet, then cool. I'll show up some Sunday, but I'm not sure I have anything that I can offer the group. Time isn't an issue for me at all.

Posted by sonikgirl I think the problem is there isn't really a very active ue scene in Halifax. We're all interested, but there's not a lot of locations near by. I think we've all exhosted York ReDoubt, the Radar, PPP, and the Rehab, TeleGlobe, Tibett's Paints and the Russian vessel are gone. Most of us are too paranoid about Shannon Park. I'm not interested in the meetings I guess because I don't really know what I can bring to the table and it doesn't seem like anyone else really has anything to bring either, not for lack of trying but more so due to lack of locations. However I could totally be wrong. Nootz and I go for random 6-8 drives about once a month, sometimes we'll find three houses sometimes we'll find nothing at all. We can all meet and introduce ourselves, but I don't really know what else can be discussed at these meetings. Or an outing we can all go to. I don't really think anyone is hoarding locations or keeping anything secret. But I could be wrong. This is just my opinion, I don't mean to be a negative nancy. If you guys think it's really beneficial we all meet, then cool. I'll show up some Sunday, but I'm not sure I have anything that I can offer the group. Time isn't an issue for me at all.

Sonikgirl has raised some very good points about the meetings. The way meetings are now, everything stated above is completely true, and I think that sometime later we may need to seriously consider the overall value of having an organized meeting.
However, my perception from the various times this topic has come up on the forums is that people do want to meet and share ideas, but our existing format doesn't really do anything useful for us. My specific goal with trying to initiate discussion is to find things that we can change or add to meetings so that they do become useful to attend. What that's going to look like, or if it's even feasible, I don't know yet. But I do think people want to make the effort to improve meetings, and I'm hopeful that if we pool our thoughts and ideas we'll come up with something good.

I look at the scheduled meet as kind of a 'drop-in centre' for us on the first Sunday of every month.

Meets I've attended at the Second Cup and current spot, the Just Us!, are either a bust, ie. I'm there by myself, OR, on rare occasion, a handful or more will show up and with a laptop present, we've been able to have a pretty productive meet.

Those meets are few and far between.

I guess my point is, those well attended and productive meets, didn't require much structure. We didn't just sit there staring at each other awkwardly.

A - How do people feel about the Just-us? Would a different location be better? Another coffee shop, or a restaurant, or something totally different (library, university, etc)? It gets crowded at the Just-us, would reserving a space in advance help? Is parking an issue on Spring Garden?

I like the location. There was a meet at the Just Us a a few years back that was well attended, there may have been as many as 8 or 10 people. We moved from a table for four to one of the rooms upstairs and not only had enough room, but some privacy as well.

If we're expecting a turn-out, we should be grabbing space upstairs.

About "another coffee shop, or a restaurant, or something totally different (library, university, etc)." There are places that will permit this type of meet, and then there are places that won't. Just Us has never had an issue when group size gets big, not that it's happened more than once or twice. Any place that is serving food wants us to eat our meal and get out asap. So long as we've all got a cup of coffee in front of us at Just Us, there's never an issue.

I'm not meeting anywhere I can't get a cup of coffee and access to Wi-Fi is pretty much a must as well.

Not particularly opposed to library and university, I just feel more at home in a cafe, if that makes any sense.

B - Is 2pm a good time? Would shifting the start time by an hour or two be better? Do people work on Sundays, making an earlier or later start time more desirable?

Time works for me. Maybe a tad later because I am lazy.

C - Is Sunday a good day for this? Would Saturday be a better option?

I think Sunday is better. If I have something planned, its more likely to be a Saturday, than a Sunday. I'm more likely to be closer to home on Sunday.

D - Is the first Sunday of the month good for us? A lot of holidays are on the first Monday of the month, often making the meetings on a long weekend. Does that interfere with attending meetings?

The first Sunday was probably picked because it's easy to remember. It really makes no difference to me which Sunday of the month the meet falls on.

The only real problem I have is the drive time from my place to the location of the meeting. Twenty-five to thirty minutes is an awful long drive for a meeting. But then again, as Sonikgirl has said, we usually do a 6-8 hour drive on Sundays too. So it's worth my time to come the distance. For me, I just kind of wing it on the weekends, but I would definitely like to come to the next meet if it works out on my schedule.

I think the location is decent. It's central, on the main bus routes, and it's relatively easy to find parking on the side streets around there. The date and time too are probably better than other days of the week when people would be busier.

I've never gone to a meet partly because I often work Sundays (3-10pm lately, but often 8-3 in the past), and partly due to the scarcity of good UE spots that sonikgirl mentioned.

So I just noticed that this thread is not open to all members. Is it possible to get that changed?
I think the newer members should be part of this, since we're trying to get everyone's participation in meetings. As well, the more sets of eyes on the problem, the better.

Posted by tbeckerson So I just noticed that this thread is not open to all members. Is it possible to get that changed? I think the newer members should be part of this, since we're trying to get everyone's participation in meetings. As well, the more sets of eyes on the problem, the better.

Agree. I've opened it up.

So I haven't checked this thread in ages, didn't even know it ended up getting any replies... I tend to go on UER hiatus for long spans of time when my life gets busy or hectic. I'm currently living in the Valley, but come September I'll be back in the area...

Are people still serious about this idea?

(And I apologize for not having responded even once to my own thread).

Edit:

Also, ARE the Sunday meets still the same as they've been for a long time? Dead?

DID something cool/productive happen?

Posted by Jakob So I haven't checked this thread in ages, didn't even know it ended up getting any replies... I tend to go on UER hiatus for long spans of time when my life gets busy or hectic. I'm currently living in the Valley, but come September I'll be back in the area... Are people still serious about this idea? (And I apologize for not having responded even once to my own thread). Edit: Also, ARE the Sunday meets still the same as they've been for a long time? Dead? DID something cool/productive happen?

Nothing has happened in the last month, kind of my fault. I was soliciting opinions on improving the meetings, then I got a new job and disappeared for a while.
But I'm back now. In the next day or two I plan to push ahead with the real business of having a meeting. Hopefully we'll come up with some good ideas.

Why don't you guys pick a date, people RSVP, if it's another no show of people - then just drop the idea of a meet for awhile. If people aren't RSVPing for that date chosen, then choose another. I don't think monthly meets are useful for this area and that idea should be scrapped.

Posted by sonikgirl Why don't you guys pick a date, people RSVP, if it's another no show of people - then just drop the idea of a meet for awhile. If people aren't RSVPing for that date chosen, then choose another. I don't think monthly meets are useful for this area and that idea should be scrapped.

While I do appreciate your thoughts on this matter, and as stated previously I agree we may need to seriously consider the overall value of having an organized meeting. However, this discussion is about how to make the meetings interesting enough to attend. I think several of us would like to examine the problem and look for solutions before getting rid of it.

I think I'm going to post a new thread with a poll, asking what day people'd find best to have a meet on. (There'll also be an option for 'no, I can't/won't' or something along those lines). Then depending on what responses are received, possibly do as Sonikgirl suggested.