Bob - In this age of smart phones and texting and e-mail, I still think we could get the word out to most folks who are interested.
It's a time suck. Some people don't understand why an event in a piece of grass takes any time at all to put together and I guess I understand their attitude, but the reality is quite different. From Monday morning to Wednesday, the phone rings pretty much nonstop with people wanting directions etc. And around 5 on Wednesday, I start getting calls from people who are lost and I end up going to pick them up. (Check out the Web site with the detailed instructions on how to find it. And yet people still got lost)
Usually a lot folks don't even know about this until Wednesday afternoon. They might've heard it from someone else and then they call asking if they can come and, oh by the way, where is it?
I'm not opposed to doing that, but that's what it's like even when we KNOW where we're going to be.
You're right of course, in this age of smartphones, communicating information is quicker than ever before, and many people would be able to find it. But because many don't, it does creates an additional task. And this year I've been asked to help train people working for EAA radio on how to recognize, get, and produce feature stories for the week, so there'll be less time to do some of these mundane things.
Oh, and there's another problem: I don't HAVE a smartphone and the big perk on my pay-as-you-go cellphone is a flashlight, if you push enough buttons. But I've never figured out how that works. (g)
But, again, until we see what the effect is of displacing so many people in the campground -- or see how many people are displaced -- it doesn't make a lot of sense to have it in Scholler. Theoretically, we might see a LOT of empty campsites (hookups) as you walk closer to the show, and full ones as you get farther back toward the highway. Which, I guess, is great news for the truckers who like to lean on their horns at 2 in the morning.
EAA has indicated this is one big experiment and if the hookups are a success, then there'll be even more next year. And I suspect it will be a success but the POG certainly can't afford to buy 4 or 5 $41-a-night/no-refunds-for-unused-nights spots, so it's as good a time as any to find a new location.
Usually after the event, a small crowd of invitees hangs around well into the night, sitting by the campfire and someone will remark, "Now, THIS is Oshkosh." That old-time campsite vibe was a really important part of this deal.
An RV-building pal has given me the lead on one that I'm pursuing. It also might make sense just to add an "after party" to the Van's dinner and just hang out in the grass down by the Nature Center. Or maybe we all go early to the Fly-in movie area.
Lots of ideas are possible.
