Planning the next San Diego Gathering Sun, Sept 11

[TonyWilliams]

Very nice suggestion, but might it be better for smaller Clusters?
Requires reservations?
Flexible seating for 20?

There's plenty of places here of similar stature, and convenience to cars that only go about 37 miles each way on a charge.

 

[Randy]

Hi Tony and Gary,
I think I'm ready to try somewhere different, mainly because the conversations inside are not as good as I think they could be....I'd love to find a place with a meeting room, etc. where we could have a presentation or two, along with a group discussion...The food part is secondary to me, although it's nice to have something to eat....I like having a large parking lot where all the cars can be next to each other....

Any other ideas? Upcoming dates that work?

Another idea I had is to collect email addresses from interested parties and do a mailing before upcoming meets so people can find about it without having to keep an eye on the forum....

Anyways, let have more discussion about our upcoming plans.....

Randy

 

[jcesare]

Hi Tony and Gary,
I think I'm ready to try somewhere different, mainly because the conversations inside are not as good as I think they could be....I'd love to find a place with a meeting room, etc. where we could have a presentation or two, along with a group discussion...The food part is secondary to me, although it's nice to have something to eat....I like having a large parking lot where all the cars can be next to each other....

Any other ideas? Upcoming dates that work?

Another idea I had is to collect email addresses from interested parties and do a mailing before upcoming meets so people can find about it without having to keep an eye on the forum....

Anyways, let have more discussion about our upcoming plans.....

Randy

If anyone is interested, there is a large multipurpose room at the Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park that I can look into reserving. It's used for private parties, meetings, and special events. We can configure it with tables and chairs. It has an attached kitchen and counter space so we can make coffee and bring in refreshments, pastries, etc. There is also a restaurant next door where people could go to lunch afterwards. It has plenty of parking and there are now Blink EVSEs located in the park. (The room actually exits onto a parking lot that is adjacent to the Space Theater lot where there are two Blink units.)

A few caveats:
1) The museums in the park open at 11:00 am so we would need to beat the traffic in the parking lot and start the meeting no later than 9:00 AM (the earlier, the better).
2) The room is booked on most weekends for kid's birthday parties and around the holidays it is reserved for a huge Lego model train display. It needs to be booked well in advance.

 

[davewill]

I LOVE the model railroad museum idea. That way the family can enjoy themselves at the park while Dad does the geeky EV thing...

 

[TonyWilliams]

Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park.

Two thumbs up from me !!!

I'll be having breakfast this Saturday at 10:30am in Rancho Santa Fe, if anybody cares to join me.

Tony

Randy, my email is:

[email protected]

 

[walterbays]

I hope I'll be able to make the next gathering at Hometown Buffet, whenever it is.

Occasionally someone suggests another location, but nothing has been generally agreed to be better. I wonder if folks might at some time consider a somewhat more formal group. Look at the SF Bay Area group's last meeting at a library conference room, http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=121675#p121675. Boardwalk Nissan even shuttled people over to the meeting; I suppose they had driven farther to the meeting and left their cars charging at Boardwalk.

It's possible that if we had a formal organization, that our voices might be heard. E.g., maybe we could persuade the San Diego city council that it is important that the city's only EV Project public charging stations (in Balboa Park) be accessible to EV's, and they need a parking/towing ordinance and serious enforcement. Maybe we could even persuade the EV Project that there needs to be a second public charging station sometime in this decade.

Several possibilities come to mind for a regular meeting place, mostly in the same general area as HTB.

• Hometown Buffet (the incumbent). Who knows, maybe with continued business they'd be willing to install a charging station or two and it would be easier for some of the more distant people to come.
  
• CCSE (an EV Project partner). This seems well within their charter and they provide meeting space for some other groups.
  
• SDG&E (an EV Project partner). They just opened their "Energy Innovation Center" with meeting space.
  
• Miramar College (an EV Project partner)
  
• Qualcomm (an EV Project partner). They host various community and technical groups.
  
• Cisco (an EV Project partner).
  
• University Towne Center - Forum Hall - (anchor stores Sears and Macys are both EV Project partners). This raises the possibility that a meeting host which was part of the EV Project might install charging stations, and might use that installation and the group meetings to get some good PR.
  
• city library meeting room, e.g. at Mira Mesa library, like the SF Bay Area group is doing
  
• Balboa Park. This could be "fun." There are lots of suitable meeting rooms. It would only work if park officials agreed that for our meetings park rangers would cone off the charging stations so members who don't live near the park could attend. And that might be the "thin end of the wedge" of realization that access to charging stations is just as important as building those stations.

As for organization of a formal group, I'll admit that I'm hoping that someone else will want to organize it. I'd kind of expect the leaders to be the same people who are now informal leaders. To me it would be fine if it were specifically a Nissan Leaf group, or if it were an EV group. I'd welcome our friends with Mitsubishi, RAV4, garage conversions, and yes even GM Volt and Prius PHEV. I suspect given the number of cars on the road, whatever the membership scope it would end up being overwhelmingly a Leaf group in any case. It would be fine with me if we organized under auspices of the San Diego EV Association, or if they were afraid of being overwhelmed by Leafs and wanted to stay far away from us.

So, if anyone agrees that a more formal organization might benefit us, maybe someone will start trying to lead in that direction. And if not, then I still look forward to breakfast and good conversation at HTB.

 

[TonyWilliams]

So, if anyone agrees that a more formal organization might benefit us, maybe someone will start trying to lead in that direction. And if not, then I still look forward to breakfast and good conversation at HTB.

Lots of good points there. I personally think that there are several groups here that are dedicated to furthering the EV movement, and that any group, however formal or informal, should keep to its core interest of the Nissan LEAF.

Here's some data that I got on Balboa Park. The park has two rooms that they have now, the Casa del Prado** and the Santa Fe Room*. The Santa Fe Room is very near to the 7 chargers at the Air and Space Museum and holds 75 people. This is about a fifteen minute walk from the 3 chargers behind the Reuben H. Fleet Science Museum. The Casa del Prado area is much closer to the Fleet chargers, perhaps a 5 minute walk.

The cost for a room is $219 for 3 hours, and $154 for each additional hour. If the renter is not from San Diego, the cost doubles.

The individual museums also have rooms, as Randy noted above.

1. Automotive Museum (near the 7 chargers); Hall of Fame Room; 619-231-2886

2. Balboa Park Club; Sante Fe Room*, Upstairs Conference Room (near the 7 chargers)

3. Casa de Balboa; Thornton Theater (across from Cafe in the Park)

4. Casa del Prado**; Barcelona, Granada, Madrid, Majorca, Salanca, Saragossa, Santiago, Seville, Valencia

5. Copley Auditorium

6. Everham Exhibit Hall

7. House of Hospitality; Alhambra, Grand Ballroom, Loggia, Requa Room, Sala del Ray Room

8. MOPA

9. Recital Hall (next to Automotive museum and the 7 chargers)

10. War Memorial Building

12. San Diego Zoo; Rondoval Room, Otto Center

 

[davewill]

The Balboa Park locations have the obvious advantage of charging. Traffic can be a big problem at times...witness the ICEing of the EVSEs. The other one that looks pretty good would be CCSE. It's almost more central than BP, plus charging possibly available at Mossy KM and the IBEW training center. If CCSE and Leon @ Mossy are game, I'd be tempted to try that one.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The Balboa Park locations have the obvious advantage of charging. Traffic can be a big problem at times...witness the ICEing of the EVSEs.

I think Balboa has more than just charging!!! There are ways to ensure that the charging spots are not ICE'd during the time we plan to be there. For the few chargers we have available, I sure hope we don't run from them because there's some issues!!

The San Diego Automotive museum is having a car gathering at Liberty Station (the old Naval Training Center) and it would be awesome if we could show up.

Cars start getting parked at 7am, and the show is 9am to 2pm. For those familiar with the area, this is near the east end by Corvette Diner.

Sunday, Sept 11, 2011

http://sdautomuseum.org/

 

[davewill]

I think Balboa has more than just charging!!! There are ways to ensure that the charging spots are not ICE'd during the time we plan to be there. For the few chargers we have available, I sure hope we don't run from them because there's some issues!!

Heaven's no, I like the Balboa Park locations. If we can meet fairly early, most of the parking and traffic issues are minimized. I just also like the Kearny Mesa locations.

 

[sdbonez]

I hope I'll be able to make the next gathering at Hometown Buffet, whenever it is.

Occasionally someone suggests another location, but nothing has been generally agreed to be better. I wonder if folks might at some time consider a somewhat more formal group. Look at the SF Bay Area group's last meeting at a library conference room, http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=121675#p121675. Boardwalk Nissan even shuttled people over to the meeting; I suppose they had driven farther to the meeting and left their cars charging at Boardwalk.

It's possible that if we had a formal organization, that our voices might be heard. E.g., maybe we could persuade the San Diego city council that it is important that the city's only EV Project public charging stations (in Balboa Park) be accessible to EV's, and they need a parking/towing ordinance and serious enforcement. Maybe we could even persuade the EV Project that there needs to be a second public charging station sometime in this decade.

Several possibilities come to mind for a regular meeting place, mostly in the same general area as HTB.

• Hometown Buffet (the incumbent). Who knows, maybe with continued business they'd be willing to install a charging station or two and it would be easier for some of the more distant people to come.
  
• CCSE (an EV Project partner). This seems well within their charter and they provide meeting space for some other groups.
  
• SDG&E (an EV Project partner). They just opened their "Energy Innovation Center" with meeting space.
  
• Miramar College (an EV Project partner)
  
• Qualcomm (an EV Project partner). They host various community and technical groups.
  
• Cisco (an EV Project partner).
  
• University Towne Center - Forum Hall - (anchor stores Sears and Macys are both EV Project partners). This raises the possibility that a meeting host which was part of the EV Project might install charging stations, and might use that installation and the group meetings to get some good PR.
  
• city library meeting room, e.g. at Mira Mesa library, like the SF Bay Area group is doing
  
• Balboa Park. This could be "fun." There are lots of suitable meeting rooms. It would only work if park officials agreed that for our meetings park rangers would cone off the charging stations so members who don't live near the park could attend. And that might be the "thin end of the wedge" of realization that access to charging stations is just as important as building those stations.

As for organization of a formal group, I'll admit that I'm hoping that someone else will want to organize it. I'd kind of expect the leaders to be the same people who are now informal leaders. To me it would be fine if it were specifically a Nissan Leaf group, or if it were an EV group. I'd welcome our friends with Mitsubishi, RAV4, garage conversions, and yes even GM Volt and Prius PHEV. I suspect given the number of cars on the road, whatever the membership scope it would end up being overwhelmingly a Leaf group in any case. It would be fine with me if we organized under auspices of the San Diego EV Association, or if they were afraid of being overwhelmed by Leafs and wanted to stay far away from us.

So, if anyone agrees that a more formal organization might benefit us, maybe someone will start trying to lead in that direction. And if not, then I still look forward to breakfast and good conversation at HTB.

Several of us work for one of the companies in the list above and I can say that there's a good chance of us being able to do something at some point in the future - just probably not right this instant. I'll start to look into it, though...and once more Level2 chargers go in, I think it could be ideal.

I can't make a liberty station run, unfortunately - from where I'm at in San Marcos, I have to turn around at about Washington St. to have enough juice to get home and unfortunately, I'm not going to spend time to roll the dice with likely ICE'd chargers at Balboa park or drive 50mph down the freeway for a user meet-up. I'm open to Balboa park, with some work to keep chargers available for us that need them..but outside of that, a central location in Mira Mesa/Sorrento Valley still works best for San Diego, I think - because it allows people from all over the county to attend.

 

[jcesare]

Sept 11 is the Chargers home opener and kickoff weekend of the NFL season.
I'll be at the game.

 

[rickbecker]

I do not yet know if I'll be able to make it, but if I can, I would be happy to get to Balboa Park early and save a charging spot for someone needing to charge.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Is anybody planning to attend this?

Tony

The San Diego Automotive museum is having a car gathering at Liberty Station (the old Naval Training Center) and it would be awesome if we could show up.

Cars start getting parked at 7am, and the show is 9am to 2pm. For those familiar with the area, this is near the east end by Corvette Diner.

Sunday, Sept 11, 2011

 

[kevin672]

Is anybody planning to attend this?

Tony

The San Diego Automotive museum is having a car gathering at Liberty Station (the old Naval Training Center) and it would be awesome if we could show up.

Cars start getting parked at 7am, and the show is 9am to 2pm. For those familiar with the area, this is near the east end by Corvette Diner.

Sunday, Sept 11, 2011

I'll be there with my 5 year old. I'll take the LEAF, but only as a spectator.

 

[ttweed]

Sounds like a fun event, Tony, but I'm previously committed for 9/11.

 

[walterbays]

I'll be there with my 5 year old. I'll take the LEAF, but only as a spectator.

The event web site talks about a fee. I couldn't tell from their description whether it's free as a spectator and you pay to exhibit, or whether you pay as a spectator. Do you know if there is an admission fee, and how much? Thanks.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The event web site talks about a fee. I couldn't tell from their description whether it's free as a spectator and you pay to exhibit, or whether you pay as a spectator. Do you know if there is an admission fee, and how much? Thanks.

When I contacted the museum, there was no mention of a fee. The intent of my call was to set up a LEAF meeting in Balboa Park, and the Auto Museum would let us use a room for that, which is mere steps from the 7 Blink chargers.

I will call Tuesday to confirm the details.

Tony

 

[ttweed]

The website is very sparse on details of the show. The best info seems to be on the PDF flyer: http://www.sdautomuseum.info/media/uploads/GreatestShowOnTurf_Flyer.pdf
There is definitely an entry fee for the cars on display, but there is usually no admission for spectators at such events. There are too many logistical problems with restricting access in a public space like that, and the people who enter actually want the number of people checking out their rides maximized. The one exception I can think of is the La Jolla car show where they have started putting up a fence around Scripps Park at the Cove and charging admission, after several years of it being free to the public, but the fence is low and you can just walk around the periphery and check out the cars. You only have to pay if you want to get close to them. If I was going, I would not be interested in displaying the Leaf in the show, anyway, just parking nearby and checking out the other cars. It's possible I may still free up that date and drive down there on 9/11.

TT

 

[derkraut]

Oops----I'll be out in the Pacific Ocean somewheres.