NELEM? New England meet?

[gabe]

Anyone want to do it?

Saw a post over a year ago about possibly doing one, but not sure if it ever happened. Just bringing it back to see if anyone wants to organize an event!

[Jimboy3625]

I think Brad needs to host one next year...

NEWLEM....New England, Wilmington - Laser Enthusiast Meetup

[krazer]

Just wanted to chime in and say that I would be interested in coming (will be at MIT for the next few years), although at the moment I don't have much in the means of projectors on the east coast so short of steeling one of the lasers from the lab (we do have a 70w 527nm...) I would probably just be watching. Could probably also scrounge a few people from MITERS. Alternatively, if people want to do it here at MIT I am sure we could find a way to make it happen, we have the entire month of January off for such shenanigans !warn

[Bradfo69]

I wouldn't exactly call "Wilmington"... New England, Jim but, it's still not an awful ride. I DO plan on hosting one someday. It's really just a matter of figuring out a workable date. And... hoping for no snow since, in all likelyhood it would have to be in that January-March timeframe.

[Jimboy3625]

Well, I thought Wilmington was better than using New England, Wilmington, DE Laser Enthusiast Meetup because then it would be NEWDELEM and I that's a whole different crowd....

[planters]

Just wanted to chime in and say that I would be interested in coming (will be at MIT for the next few years),

I would love an LEM at MIT. That's so sexy. The Boston environment also could also offer a lot of alternative activities despite a January date. There are a number of members in NY and CT. I have several powerful projectors and while not a 70W 527 I do have a 20W 575 and THIS IS driving distance. Auditorium? Lab space?

[planters]

Alternatively, if people want to do it here at MIT I am sure we could find a way to make it happen, we have the entire month of January off for such shenanigans !warn

I'm still interested. Would a Boston based LEM be popular? What would it take? A few serious participants, hopefully a lot more, a couple of ions, a few YAGs, maybe a CVL as well as a variety of optics,scanners, comps and of course shows. There could be tutorials in a machine shop, demos of techniques and some HIGH POWER displays. And as a backdrop there's Boston. The neighborhood around MIT has a lot to offer.

Anyone else interested?

[krazer]

I can almost certainly get us a 'generic' space, worst comes to worst there is a pretty large multipurpose room (holds about 100) in the dorm I am in which I think I can get without too much trouble.

I do not know how the process works to get a lecture hall, but that would not work all that well for our application since they larger ones have theater type seating built in so most of the space isn't usable. We do have some conference room type places which I could probably reserve through my professor, but at best they will have a few 110v circuits.

If we plan ahead, you can rent out the muddy charles pub for pretty cheep (I have heard rates sub $100 for the whole place, probably holds about 50). Either of these places will have a decent amount of 110v power, although getting 220v or 3 phase etc may be hard. I can ask, they do have bands and whatnot so they may be able to run us a service for cheap.

We could also go to the miters clubhouse (fairly large but very cluttered, filled with shop/electrical equipment), although I know that it has a decent amount of 3 phase power, and plenty of 110v circuits. on the plus side it is free/does not require advanced registration. We could potentially overflow into the space above it (very large breakroom type space, only 110v power most likely, could be used for smaller show type projectors) see http://www.flickr.com/photos/8504419...n/pool-miters/ to get an idea of what the space looks like, it is about twice the size of what is visible in that image. I would put this in the backup option type category...

[planters]

Based on only two exposures to SELEM, I think the miters clubhouse is perfect for a lot of hands on projects such as opening up and adjusting equipment. What about security, both for participant's stuff as well as the Institute opening access to a bunch of unregistered outsiders?

A small auditorium works well for shows and a lot of projectors will not need 3 phase or even 220V power.

Any potential interest from the laser department? This could lubricate things a lot.

Would the Institute be looking for some financial support?

I like the pub idea!

[krazer]

Sorry for the slow response, but I managed to talk with the people that needed to be talked with:
So- Morse hall (a pretty massive, very nice hall) has a 100A 3phase service, and can be rented by clubs (Ex, miters) for free (although we might need to pay for the power). We might be able to run it with ex $25 a head to get in and the extras go toward miters. It may be possible to get a grant from MIT, although it would be a hard sell. There is also a chance that our request as a club to rent the room gets denied (there have been problems in the past with a commercial company renting the room through a student to get it for free, which is not ok), in which case I have to go through the department, which gets trickier, I might be able to convince my professor to go in on it, not sure how that would work legally (ex, paying for it on grant money is probably against the rules...)

That said - the bigger issue is we need to get it approved by the MIT safety people, and we need our own liability coverage. This is out of my abilities, it sounds like there are some clubs on campus that may be able to help (Ex, there is a lighting club E33 http://web.mit.edu/e33/www/about.html ), but if this is going to happen I am going to need help from someone who does actual shows and knows how to work through the safety of the event. Is there anyone who can get a variance for the event? Does ILDA have a standard for a LEM type event with a mix varianced and non-compliant lasers?

I also need to see if there is a genuine interest in people coming (are we talking 10 people, 100?) and what kind of gear people want to bring.