As many of you know, we no longer have use of the Raytheon/BBN facility in Cambridge for our meetings in odd-numbered months. The club is on the hunt, again, for another venue or two that could fill our needs and desires.
Our needs:
- availability on the first and third Tuesdays of the odd-numbered months
- a room with tables and chairs to comfortably fit up to twelve people (more would be good but generally meetings aren't a huge draw)
- adequate free parking with good access to the meeting space
Our desires:
- the ability to do work on building our rockets - anything from cutting and gluing parts to sanding balsa and primer. If the ability to apply paint and sanding sealer is possible, that would be a dream.
- being allowed to eat at the meeting. No CMASS gathering is complete without food and many people come to the meetings directly from work and would like to be able to bring something to eat.
- this one is a little selfish but also has tradition on its side - a location North of Boston. The even-numbered month meetings are held in Marlborough which is convenient for some but not others. North of Boston makes it easier for others to get to a meeting (sorry South of Boston folks)
We held one meeting in September at a Panera Bread in Wilmington. It fulfilled the stated needs and eating was not a problem (no outside food, though). We could likely continue with that type of place but the ability to build and have hands-on discussions and demonstrations about building were always a big part of the meetings when they were held at Bill's basement. We'll never recapture the charm of those meetings but it would be nice to get as close as possible.
I'd like to thank Ed Pattison-Gordon for getting us the BBN facility for the time we could use it.