The Coffee Shop - planning ahead

[whole diary]

[grahame]

The Coffee shop started off as a 12 month project ... and is still going nearly 12 years later. We seem to be here for good!

Over the months leading up to Christmas I will be working on a long overdue software upgrade - pulling our database of posts and members into the current decade, and making us fit for the next decade too.  Culmination of that work is planned for the period between Christmas and the New Year, though you'll see odd hints of code and ideas under test in the meantime.

Come the New Year, plans are to document and work out our permanent way forward - our constitution was the term I used in an earlier post, positioning the forum and working out ongoing operation and governance.  I would very much like interested members to be involved, and I'm proposing a real live meeting for those who wish to attend to launch the process next February - to be followed by the rest of that month and March for discussions and inputs, and the whole thing being drawn up by late April.  We have a successful and apparently popular and needed formula here, so I suspect that most of what we do will continue along very much the same lines, but we do need to consider scenarios "what happens to the forum if ..." and the moderator / admin team / webmaster wish to be guided by user and potential user inputs.

Anyway - poll - concerning the initial meeting(s) [may do one or several based on the response here]. Choose as many options as you like.  And I have set up this poll so that you can change your vote(s) if you wish.  The poll will remain open until the end of this month.

Voting (the way the software works) is for logged in members only, but I would welcome constructive comments by email from none-members too.

[eightf48544]

Would depend entirely where it was, day trip Off Peak travel, and possibly  not February

[grahame]

Would depend entirely where it was, day trip Off Peak travel, and possibly  not February

Judging by the interest already, we might end up with a couple of meetings - and if we do, logic would be to split them geographically and time-of-week wise to help maximise opportunities - people being able to choose if time of week was important, or if venue was.  Yes - being mindful of cost for people, of course.   Not at the extremes of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) territory, but not all dead centre either.

[JayMac]

I think the logical places would be Didcot and Exeter.

Didcot because it is a station with Off Peak Day Returns from east, west and north from Oxford/Cotswold Line.

Exeter to cover Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.

[grahame]

I think the logical places would be Didcot and Exeter.

Didcot because it is a station with Off Peak Day Returns from east, west and north from Oxford/Cotswold Line.

Exeter to cover Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.

Thanks ... the meeting we did at Didcot in January this year worked very well travel and venue wise.    With my TravelWatch SouthWest hat, I've also come across / got to know a number of venues in both Exeter and Taunton.    Suggestions noted - I have intentionally set a long period for the poll to garner a very full response set and won't come to any final venue decisions until I see a clear outcome.

[JayMac]

I thought about Taunton but didn't want to be seen favouring what I regard as my home town! 

Taunton can be a bit of a hike from deepest darkest Cornwall. Hence Exeter. 

[martyjon]

I could make Didcot, Exeter or taunton.

If Didcot is selected perhaps we could make it a visit to the railway centre there and visit the Swindon Panel project there and maybe have the meeting in their building itself with a silver collection to their funds.

[grahame]

I thought about Taunton but didn't want to be seen favouring what I regard as my home town! 

Taunton can be a bit of a hike from deepest darkest Cornwall. Hence Exeter. 

People who attend TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website) are used to Taunton and the Albermarle Centre is convenient.  In Exeter, venues tend to be near Central rather that St. David's.

I have broken an 'oliday in 'ayle to travel up to (and back from) a Taunton meeting.   

Options open - we may find massive interest and do Dickdot, Tinmouth and (Saturday, right?) The Plough.  Sorry - semi-kidding there unless we could persuade GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to make an extra drop-off stop as a one-off (or rather for a 25 off)

[Bmblbzzz]

I thought about Taunton but didn't want to be seen favouring what I regard as my home town! 

Taunton can be a bit of a hike from deepest darkest Cornwall. Hence Exeter. 

People who attend TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website) are used to Taunton and the Albermarle Centre is convenient.  In Exeter, venues tend to be near Central rather that St. David's.

I have broken an 'oliday in 'ayle to travel up to (and back from) a Taunton meeting.   

Options open - we may find massive interest and do Dickdot, Tinmouth and (Saturday, right?) The Plough.  Sorry - semi-kidding there unless we could persuade GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to make an extra drop-off stop as a one-off (or rather for a 25 off)

I'm not sure whether this is a famous Grahame typo or a deliberate joke – or just a Freudian slip! But I like it.

Taunton sounds like a decent venue. 

[CMRail]

I would love to attend although work is too much of an issue for me to be using my only day off to travel somewhere.

Suggesting places though, Didcot seems an easy link for the London, Swindon, Bristol, Worcester, Oxford and Cheltenham line connections, where as Worcester, Oxford, Swindon etc is not particularly an easy connection to Taunton.

Also am looking forward to the website improvements Grahame!

[grahame]

Suggesting places though, Didcot seems an easy link for the London, Swindon, Bristol, Worcester, Oxford and Cheltenham line connections, where as Worcester, Oxford, Swindon etc is not particularly an easy connection to Taunton.

I think we were perhaps looking to multiple meetings with the suggestion of Didcot and Taunton/Exeter;  seeing how the vote goes we may look to 0, 1, 2 or even 3 (2 or 1 being most likely; pretty sure we will be doing at least one ...)

[Adelante_CCT]

Hope a venue wouldn't be to near to Taunton Station,,, CfN would never find it!

[martyjon]

In Exeter, venues tend to be near Central rather that St. David's.

But there is a decent rail service between the two stations plus buses no doubt.

[CMRail]

Pilning platform shelter could be considered as a venue? May be too much to hire 

[grahame]

Pilning platform shelter could be considered as a venue? May be too much to hire 

A consideration would be https://theploughpilning.co.uk - but with the issue that the arrival train is too early from many places - 07:23 from Bristol Temple Meads, 40 minute change in the warm and pleasant station building at Severn Tunnel Junction (February, remember!) and an 08:34 arrival at Pilning.   A 15:34 return is spot on.

From Bristol Parkway, it would be 07:10, change at Newport (07:31 to 08:15) ... 06:51 from Yate via Filton Abbey Wood and Severn Tunnel Junction.

Timings almost feel designed to be unworkable, don't they?