Comments on: Skeptics in the Park – Post Mortem

By: Andrew Sevrinsky

Andrew Sevrinsky — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:26:25 +0000

This was so much fun, albiet way too cold. I also need to get my coat dry-cleaned, as it still smells like I was in a house fire.

Maria’s right as far as the logistics of bringing food; you ALWAYS get too much.

As far as concerns the location, I had no problems with it, although it would be silly not to look around and see if we can find something better; certainly we have months to plan.

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:19:05 +0000

The ‘problem’ of too much food really isn’t one. Pretty much every party or outdoor event I’ve ever thrown ends up with that problem. Most people will just take their leftovers home. It’s a good problem to have, and certainly better than the trouble of not having enough.

I’d rather take up a collection to reserve a pavillion – taking up a collection to get food a) puts all the burden on one or two people to decide on a menu, get the right amount of food etc b) means we risk running out if people don’t RSVP etc and c) means we probably don’t get the variety of food we want.

I had a great time! It was a shame it was chilly but overall, a good start and a great turnout. I think when we do this again in the spring, we’ll have a bigger crowd for sure.

By: Stephen K

Stephen K — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:36:03 +0000

Yeah, I was worried that the directions might be confusing, but I did ask people to tell me if they were when I first put them out there. No one did.

We did have things assigned for certain people to bring, just not the meat or the buns, pretty much.

The reason we couldn’t have been closer to the playground is that the park only has two picnic pavilions, the one we were at and the one across the path. They’re the only free first come, first serve pavilions in the park. Every other pavilion/gazebo has a reservation rate and we could get kicked out unless we reserved the space. So, that’s more a problem with park layout.

By: James Severin

James Severin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:27:41 +0000

I didn’t have a problem with location, the weather wasn’t too bad for me or my girls. I suppose that for the future we could take a collection up and designate people to pick up certain items, of course this way is fraught with danger so I don’t know if really there is anything to change with the food.

Other than perhaps a recon of the area to see what exactly we have there I wouldn’t change too much. There was some comments about getting the bigger pavillion but I thought we had enough space. The directions were a little obscure, but the map was spot on and helped me to find the location quickly.

I would have liked to have been closer to the playground but I understand everyone would have had to walk further into the park with everything they brought. All in all, as a first attempt I think that it was a success.

Now if next time someone could bring some tasers for the people who walk up and try to sell stuff or ask for money we would be set!