Wikipedia:Meetup/St. Louis 2 (Wiknic)

Summary: We will be meeting on Saturday, June 25, at 12:00 noon at the Forest Park Visitors' Center[1] (map) (aka the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor & Education Center) near the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. Look for us near the door to the "Forest Perk" cafe inside the Center, or if it's busy, check the Information Desk for the Wiknic location. See you there!

Planning for second meetup

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Any thoughts on doing something on June 25 for the Wikipedia:Wiknic? I will be out of town.--Chaser (talk) 02:28, 3 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

  • I should be able to attend. --Elonka 20:11, 14 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I should also be able to attend. I like Marcus's suggestion; it's easy to get to, and has plenty of parking and some outdoor nice picnicky spaces nearby, and if the weather turns bad we can always take things indoors. (Just remember to watch out for marauding wedding parties outside the History Museum.) - Jredmond (talk) 21:14, 15 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm biding my time regarding whether to commit to attending a Wiknic in St. Louis (home), Cincy (family), or Chicago (big city, highest potential for attendees). I'm fine with Forest Park, but I want to let my fellow St. Louisians know that Marine Week St. Louis is being held from 20–26 June; their event schedule hasn't been posted, but it might be worth keeping an eye on. — Fourthords | =/\= | 22:39, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I had thought the Scott AFB airshow would be a good meeting place this September. Unfortunately the program apparently isn't funded this year. At least they are cutting events instead of personnel. Marcus Qwertyus 14:20, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Curiously, that weekend is also gay pride. (There's a "don't ask don't tell" joke hidden in there someplace.) The festival will be Saturday and Sunday in Tower Grove Park, and the parade on Sunday afternoon down South Grand, so if we're in Forest Park then there shouldn't be any issues with traffic etc. (We will, however, miss out on having drag queens. I'd love to see if Vicky Pedia showed up.) - Jredmond (talk) 16:20, 20 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I will be out of town on this weekend.--BirgitteSB 01:24, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I like the idea of the Lindell Pavillion mentioned above. Wifi, a roof... Do we need a reservation, and if so, who's making it? Mmurfin (talk) 03:48, 20 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • I'm guessing that we'll have a small enough group that we won't need a reservation, but it sounds like a pretty large place, so it'd be nice to have a specific location to meet, so we can find each other. I'm personally not familiar with the building, but unless someone has a better idea, we could plan to meet at Noon at the Visitor's Desk (as seen in the pic here),[3] and either find each other that way, or leave a "Wiknic" note and message with the staff there, to help direct Wikipedians on where to go? --Elonka 21:12, 20 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I like this Idea very much. Should be able to attend. {rathjepower} — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.130.181.239 (talkcontribs) 07:25, June 21, 2011
  • Followup. I went ahead and visited the Center today. Note that the sign out front does not say "Lindell Center" but says "Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor & Education Center". There's plenty of parking, as described. Inside the lobby, there's a door on the right leading to the "Forest Perk" (sic) cafe, a large visitors' desk right in the middle of the lobby, and some tables and chairs scattered around. We can't make a reservation for any space (at least not for free), so I recommend that we meet at the tables and chairs on the righthand side of the lobby at Noon, right next to the door to the Forest Perk coffee shop. Note also that it's certain to be *very* busy on Saturday: It's the Park's anniversary, they have lots of events planned, there's a marathon that will be running on the Forest Park trails, they'll have live bands, and a free "Ice cream social" in the Visitor Center starting at 1:30, so they are expecting thousands of visitors. We should be okay to meet in the lobby at Noon, but as a backup plan, we may have a "Wiknic" flyer on the information desk that directs folks on where to meet if the lobby is too crowded. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone! --Elonka 17:31, 21 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Sounds Good. see you all in "Dennis & Judith Jones Center" on Saturday. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.144.248.26 (talkcontribs) 18:55, June 21, 2011
  • This can be used for name tags if anyone is so inclined.--Chaser (talk) 19:53, 21 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • Good idea! Anyone got a printer and some sticker sheets, that could print up a bunch of blanks to bring? --Elonka 23:39, 21 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
      • FYI, I went ahead and printed up some simple namebadge stickers with the Wikipedia globe. Not as pretty as the image that Chaser came up with, but I couldn't figure out how to make that one fit on the stickers I had available. What I've got should work though! See you on Saturday, --Elonka 05:11, 25 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Hope to make it Saturday - having some work done on my place and have to talk to the workman. Good location! - Parkwells (talk) 02:20, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Other Ideas

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---I would be glad to host at my house, (Redacted); no wifi, but have desktop computer for access to wiki; idea would be pot-luck, bring a dish, I'll have some snacks, soda, inside (and outside if weather permits in back yard); any thoughts — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.97.214.202 (talkcontribs)

It's a generous offer, but someone suggested Forest Park (St. Louis, Missouri) before and I think that may be more wiknic-amenable, if anyone can suggest a good meeting location inside the park.--User:Pharos

NARA has WikiProject - WP:GLAM/NARA

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Not sure what people's interests are, but I've been notified that the National Archives and Records Administration has started a Wikiproject WP:GLAM/NARA and will have a Wikipedia-in-residence this summer in Washington, DC, working with them on ways to make more of their collection: photographs, documents, etc. widely available on Wikipedia, Wikimedia, Commons, etc. and uploaded to appropriate articles. People interested could work with the project online in a variety of tasks with differing time commitments.Parkwells (talk) 12:14, 28 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

NARA has a major regional center in St. Louis for personnel records - maybe we could figure out a way to work with them on local projects, on the model of the national one. They are also looking for project people to work on stuff online, as you can see from the project page. Just wanted to let you all know. There are similar projects going on with the Smithsonian in DC, as well as with the Indianapolis Children's Museum, among others.Parkwells (talk) 17:15, 24 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Post Meetup

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Attended

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  • Elonka
  • Marcus
  • James
  • Jim
  • Ken
  • Linda
  • Kumar
  • Joyce
  • Mike

Description

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On a day when Forest Park was celebrating its 135th birthday and 25 years of the citizen group "Forest Park Forever", the park was full of visitors, free ice cream, and great spirit, including a charity walk. The Wikipedia:Meetup was a social gathering with attendees introducing themselves and talking about how long they have used/worked on Wikipedia, and what areas they work in, etc. Jim and Elonka, volunteer administrators, talked about OTRS and a variety of topics, including dispute resolution, hot topics, conspiracy theories, research in databases, etc. Some thoughtful attendees also brought food to share, which was a treat. Overall, this meeting helped some Wikipedians in St. Louis to get to know each other. Joyce has been a volunteer at Project Gutenberg, and there was discussion about ensuring the projects get linked. Elonka encouraged St. Louis-area people to take photos of local places of interest and upload them to the Commons, and also to join the WP:Missouri project.

Past meetups

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