Would you consider attending an aspie gathering?

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I don't consider meeting any group of people.

Yes, but only if the others are young and sexy.

I co-host one once a month, it's a lot of fun and we help Aspies connect with each other and with other local groups, since we have a lot of cross-over in membership. I actually just got back from our March meeting, we had about 25 people ranging in age from about 20 to 60, with around 5 new members that we'd never met before. My co-host and I both cook, so between the two of us we make enough food to feed everyone to fullness and still have leftovers, which we send home with some of our younger members who are between jobs and can use the free meal. I'd highly recommend attending any meeting you get the chance to, if nothing else a room full of Aspies is quite a sight.

Maybe, depends if I can get there. I wouldn't mind meeting other people with AS.

Well if there was one in Wollongong (1 1/2 hours away from me) in the afternoon I might go. If it's free and in Sydney at night around the CBD I may consider going.

A day. More than that and out comes grouchy anti-social Shanti. I'd prefer half a day.

If it's all ages I wouldn't want there to be beer. I'm not real sure about activities. If there were guest speakers maybe. Games that you can decide to play too. I hate getting forced into playing games that I don't want to play.

I'd like it to be small. So a dozen. 20 tops.

Additional requirements: That if there's a change in venue, date or time to be contacted about it ASAP, instead of 2 or 3 days before event or the morning of the event. I get overstimulated around crowds too.

Would I attend an aspie gathering?

Yeah if it was near my area and within walking distance. I would love to meet some ppl.

I already do attend an autism group, it's good, I have some friends there

Yes.
We have a Women and Girls with ASD's peer support group that is run by Asperger Services Australia. We had a meeting last week. I basically hung around the edges and felt as if a lot of the women and girls were better at group exchange than me. For instance, they all sat at a table without pacing and with more continuous exchange. I went off into a hallway to look at the art and also read the paper to escape from the social intensity. However, at the end I did spend time talking with two people on a one on one basis. But when we had some formal discussion, I was the "Blunt and comical and inappropriate" monologuer who has to work hard to refrain from butting in on others.
I must say however, the groups is really good.

What I most enjoyed is that i did not have to try to PRETEND or try to ADAPT to others around me. I did not feel as if I was walking on a social and communications tightrope, which is how i feel in normal life in other contexts. I was completely free to be my eccentric and active but odd self, WITHOUT judgment and without criticism.

I would very much like to go to something like this. I would travel a day's drive, if it were at least a 2-day event, to justify the travel time.

Would be nice if there were a breakout session for aspie women.

Hello Ken,

I think I would consider attending and AS gathering; I might not end up going though.

A good friend of mine attends 'formal' Downs Syndrome conferences (around the world).

I would certainly see value in attending an AS conference where there would be plenty of information available with topics of specific interest to me.

I'm not sure I'd be persuaded for something less formal and less informational.

WP seems to be my gathering place and I'm enjoying this.

Only if I was allowed to bring my pet bearded dragon. I need to be holding her if there are going to be lots of people around or else I have severe panic attacks. She is an unoffical "service lizard". I wish I could have her registered officaly. I would only attend an AS event if I was allowed to bring her; otherwise forget it.

I know not of a main WP gathering, but WP members are regularly having gatherings in several locations (London, Portland, Houston, etc.).
Most WP gatherings are planned and announced on the 'Social Skills and Making Friends' forum.
In addition, there are Autreat, Autscape and the Aspies e.V. gathering, which are organized outside of WP.

All my answers are purely hypothetical, because at this point in time, it would be impossible for me to attend such a function.


If there will be an aspie gathering, would you consider attending it?
Possibly, if I didn't have to go by myself (which I would)
If so, how close to where you live would it have to be in order for you to consider attending it?
Pretty close lol, since my only transportation is the bus.
How long would you like the aspie gathering to last? (a day? two days? more than that?)
I wouldn't be able to stay even one day, it would be too much for me.
What sort of activities would you like to have during the gathering? (presentations? games? discussions? beer drinking?)
I wouldn't participate, so i wouldn't really care. But I would leave much sooner if there was a lot of drinking going on.
How many participants would you like the gathering to have? (around a dozen? around a hundred? more than that?)
More than a dozen, but less than a hundred or a maximum of that amount, at least.
Do you have any additional requirements that need to be met in order for you to consider attending the gathering?
No one to be too "pushy" & kind of leave me to myself until I get used to the situation (which may very well never happen)
Do you have any additional things that you would like to say about the aspie gathering?
I wish that I were in the position to be able to attend, & enjoy, such an event.
Do you have any questions about the aspie gathering?
No.[/b]

My experience of the AS gatherings I have been to is they are far less terrifying or overwhelming than any other gatherings I have ever been to.
I actually look forward to them now. And i do know that I am making significant contact with other people who know what it is like to live behind an ASD glass screen, as I do.
This weekend there is a women and girl's retreat in Ormiston in Brisbane run by an AS woman called Rachael Harris. Rachael has AS, also has a son on the spectrum, and is a qualified counsellor who has a lot of insight into her own AS and ways to live meaningfully.
The retreat has a spiritual angle to it, and will be quiet and peaceful.
These kinds of activities are actually helping to make my life rich and meaningful - in a way I have never experienced with other people. As some know, I have spent years in 12 step programs (AA and NA) and that is about the most social contact I have had since school days- a face to face meeting once a week, although I did more meetings in my early recovery and early abstinence. I have found 12 step meetings to be somewhat helpful in terms of me implementing some structure into my life, but i never really fit in or belong completely. I always feel profoundly different and I know I have to mentally prepare and script my behaviour in such contexts out of fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. (and then there is the post meeting analysis and sifting through what people may have said or meant!)

The beauty of the AS groups that I am now attending is the sense of identification with others that I am getting. I find this so very important in my life. I really do. I am having one on one conversations with some of the other AS people I like, that are at the level of detail and intensity I seem to require. And I do not get that from NT people. NT people seem to want a different kind of relating to the one I need. And I do not do the same level of pre-scripting and post-event analysis with the AS gatherings and i think this is because I must feel a bit safer with my own kind.


I feel lucky to be in Northern NSW and near Qld because we have so much proactive and groundbreaking stuff happening for AS people who want it. (And not everyone does, and that is fine too. Even in my case, at 47 I am ready for this kind of thing. But if it had been offered to me when I was younger and in my twenties I could not have coped at all and would have balked at it with my youthful AS compensatory arrogance - which was quite pronounced back then.)

I would be happy to attend a gathering in the London area. It's only an hour's train journey away from me.

I second that. I've never met a female Aspie in person.

If there will be an aspie gathering, would you consider attending it? Yeah why not
If so, how close to where you live would it have to be in order for you to consider attending it? Same county, I can get there by bus then
How long would you like the aspie gathering to last? (a day? two days? more than that?) a long weekend so it's like a fun sleepover
What sort of activities would you like to have during the gathering? (presentations? games? discussions? beer drinking?) RAVE!! !! With glowsticks and everything . Or maybe camping and we could all have a deep discussion by the camp fire under the stars and drinking hot chocolate and looking for bats and stuff.
How many participants would you like the gathering to have? (around a dozen? around a hundred? more than that?) A nice cosy amount, like 6
Do you have any additional requirements that need to be met in order for you to consider attending the gathering? Not really
Do you have any additional things that you would like to say about the aspie gathering? I'd want it to be a weekend to remember
Do you have any questions about the aspie gathering? Not really

Ooh this is fun to think about. I shall be daydreaming about this all night now.
My imagination is having a field day.