Moved to chat so I could maunder: At 04:57 PM 3/16/05 -0800, Weronika Patena wrote:
> Don't schools/universities do that sort of thing in the US? That's how most > of > my workshops (non-lace) worked in Poland. I've been to six conventions in my life: three GEARs, two NSS Conventions, and an SF-fan convention. Genericon, the fan convention, was at (and, I think, sponsored by) RPI in -- drat, abbreviating the name of the Polytechnic Institute *doesn't* get me out of trying to spell Rennselaer. (Not to be confused with Rennselaerville, which is on the other side of the river and way up in the hills.) It's near Troy, New York. The first NSS (caver's society) convention I went to was at Indiana University in Bloomington, and we (DH and I both went) camped out on the football field. (An auxiliary back-up field used only for practice. We got the use of the shower room -- but it wasn't prepared for a mixed group . . . ) My second NSS convention was at The State University of New York at Cobleskill. I stayed in a dorm room; I don't recall whether camping was offered. The first Great Eastern America Rally I attended was at the State University of New York at New Palz. DH and I were appalled to discover that the students had defaced the *ceiling* of the room, and the best efforts of the maintenance staff weren't enough to make the room presentable. I was appalled to discover that bathing etc. facilities were provided for each small cluster of rooms, thereby eliminating all the advantages of a shared facility without gaining any of the advantages of a private facility. Every time I trotted down the hall when I was in college, I reflected on what a *convenient* arrangement it was -- there was always a stall or a shower available when I wanted one; there was only one bathtub, but the only time I ever saw the bath occupied, I was in it myself, steaming out a severe cold. When I washed my socks, I could use half a dozen sinks to save time and effort. And above all, I didn't have to scrub the pot myself! Skidmore College was too small to host GEAR '89 Saratoga, but Saratoga is the August place to be; in June, they were only too happy to rent us the entire town. This being a bike-rider's convention, widely-separated venues were no problem. I took the shuttle bus to the formal dinner, though. I was one of the lucky ones who got a dorm room. Once again, there were semi-private plumbing facilities. This *does* make it easier to rent out the dorms when the students aren't using them, and saves the school from paying a student to mop the floor and scrub the pots. Skidmore rebuilt the campus during the next ten years, and I don't recall leaving the college during Gear '99 except for bike tours. One of the tours stopped at the artist's retreat at Yaddo -- the artists allow any tom dick or harry to tour their elaborate rose garden. I thought this very gracious of them, but another tourist was absolutely frothing because there was a sign up asking us not to hike up to the house and peek in the windows. In pleasant weather, Yaddo would be a very nice place to sit and lace, but of course one wouldn't dare to schedule a class outdoors. After the convention, I packed a book in my panniers and rode back to Yaddo. >What's plonk? (A serious answer was given on Lace. The following is true, but not pertinent:) "Plonk" is what you say when someone has infuriated you so much that you want him to know that you have killfiled him. It is an extremely rude word, and any bystander who doesn't think the provocation was adequate is likely to add *you* to his killfile. -- Joy Beeson http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ http://home.earthlink.net/~dbeeson594/ROUGHSEW/ROUGH.HTM http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather) west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. where we had lovely spring weather for St. Paddy's day, but I'm not putting my winter coat back in the closet just yet. (And the earth is still too cold to plant the potatoes.) To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
