Europe meet-up. Would you be interested?

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What would be wrong with a city meetup, may I ask?

Democratic decisions rarely end up being the best ones. Tbh, when you try to legitimise something by saying the decisions are democratic, it makes me think something is up. I am kind of interested as to how you are maintaining these regular contacts with these groups and what exactly is going wrong here. Have any of you visited in person (and yes maybe some of you may see this as anathema of sorts - but engaging the NT's running most of these groups would make things a whole lot easier)

Ah darn, you mean I have to cook??! While on holiday? I was hoping to be treated with a lovely gluten-casein free gourmet banquet...

Boring and expencive.

Me too, and low-starch at the same time!

In fact I'm not sure what the situation is about special diets because the organiser who posted info said that a mini-kitchen would be allocated, and also that so long as notify Autscape sufficiently in advance "they will be happy to cater for certain diets".

I hope you will be able to go, whatever turns out to be the case.

Edit. Apparently you can choose, between self-catering in a mini-kitchen or the venue's version of your special diet. But there is no reduction in event-price for self-catering, which seems a bit odd, particularly hard on people already probably paying more on general for their food.
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Last edited by ouinon on 10 Feb 2009, 5:05 am, edited 3 times in total.

Did anyone read this?

I think it sounds fun, interesting/enjoyable, ( even if not many rooms are en-suite, and there is no reduction in price for self-catering ) .

______________________________
Autscape 2009 http://www.autscape.org/

yes I read that blog.

Thanks! it was brillient, and what a fab sounding bolgger Im definately going, Ive booked babysitting with my mum already

Yesss! I'm so glad you can make it.

I'm definitely going too, but am dithering about whether to take my son with me. He will have just turned 10, is AS/PDD of some sort, ( never diagnosed because is homeschooling, and the two speech-therapists we went to when he was five/six were hopeless; "we can't diagnose because he won't respond to our card system" ), and belongs to Wrong Planet too !.

On the one hand I, like you, would love to be without responsibilities apart from myself, a totally no strings experience, and transport, ( from France, eek ! ), would be twice as expensive too, but on the other hand he really wants to go, and there is childcare, ( activities/play etc ), organised in the daytime, so I would have some time just for me.
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its a hard call.

make sure he would really like it as you dont want to go all that way and find he wont go in the childcare (mine wouldnt) as then you wont be able to go to the talks. You would still be able to hang out though

I wouldnt even be able to get mine on the train let alone in a childcare or different bed room.

Funny you should mention that; I was explaining about the childcare to him just now and he isn't keen. So it will probably just be me coming.
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Coming to this a little late - I really like the idea of a Euro-meetup. Although I'm in the UK, I'd prefer somewhere warmer and sunnier on the continent and to hell with the expense!

My main worries are a) having something to be occupied with. Chatting is OK for a while but I dread being in a situation with lots of strangers and nothing to do but chat. b) somewhere private to get away to if needed. The 'bolt hole'.

Neither of these may actually be a problem, with the 'right' kind of person, I'll happily chat all day and night! I'd guess these 2 factors are important to others here, too.

Autscape sounds like a good idea. I've considered going in the past, but social anxiety got the better of me. Although presentations may not be the most interesting thing, they at least provide a space where one can just sit down and escape worrying about not getting on with a bunch of strangers.

It doesn't look like the planning of event details has started yet. I'm thinking I may join up and suggest a couple of activities, such as some musical project. It sounds very informal and we could pretty much do as we want, so long as it's legal and/or we don't get caught.


Don't forget the English weather - you should never depend on spending time outdoors any month of the year here!



Exactly the same for me. Enough so that if it isn't available, then I would have to arrange my own palatial suite nearby I'd have thought the organisors would be aware of this as it is a huge factor for many of us.

If we have a Euro WP peoples meetup at Autscape in August, maybe we could arrange another one for ourselves sooner that that, but not in the UK as that would be unfair. Or is that getting too complicated?

On organising events in general, I've had a long time fantasy of just sending out a card with a map grid reference on it, the date of the meetup and the phrase "What you expect to find, bring"

Yes, that would be great, for those who can manage it financially and emotionally.

I like Erminea and Lotusblossom and others' idea of renting a big house/couple of cottages in France or Italy, or Spain, etc, but think, as I said earlier, that I would like to have met at least a couple of the people already at a public event first, to see if get on alright.

Perhaps we could find a B&B somewhere warm that isn't too expensive, for another date this summer, if enough people could agree on a place and date to make it a real meet-up.


I do hope you manage it this time. The more the merrier. And it would be nice to meet you in RL too! I feel happier already about going now I know Lotusblossom is, because it does make it less scary.


Yesss ! That would be wonderful; I'm not musical at all, but I love listening to people playing music, ( competently that is ), so I hope you do get some musical activity together.
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Yes, thats understandable. Something like Autscape is a good opportunity to see if anyone is unsufferable. Although according to the world at large, the whole thing is a gathering of the insufferables!!


You too! If anyone dares talk about "the importance of making AS children fit in with mainstream education", you can hold them down while I punch them

I think your idea about a musical project is brilliant. I am so looking forward to this. "Just" 6 months to go!
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Last edited by ouinon on 10 Feb 2009, 5:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah, it seems like the gluten free/dairy free thing should be common for many autistic people; therefore, it would be nice if they had it. (Hopefully- I´ll check that out).

I really hope I can go too, it sounds really interesting (I read that blog. Now I´m feeling less anxious about it, also). For me, the main deciding factors are money and timing. I hope it works out!

I'm a member of the Autscape management team.

There are some logistical issues with WrongPlanet using Autscape as the place to host the WrongPlanet European meetup.

For starters we are a small conference group. Last year we had 65 attendees. A large group from WrongPlanet coming for the sole purpose of meeting other WrongPlanet members would swamp us.

In fact we do not have physical space this year for both the WrongPlanet meetup and those of our members planning to come. Thus if you use our venue for your meet then other Autistics from our membership would not be able to come to Autscape.

(The 2009 venue is considerably smaller than the one we had in 2008 which unfortunately has building works this summer)

I know that finding somewhere affordable is difficult. I found places-to-be useful for finding this year's venue. They list a lot of reasonably priced venues. It is somewhat annoying that they don't always give the various venues' homepages but google easily provides those once you have the venue names. I can PM the webpage address to you if you ask (this site won't let me post it).


Debbie (Autscape Secretary)