EBT-Meeting 2004

Mr Euro · Post by **Mr Euro** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 9:12 am

Hey y'all,

Since the start of Eurobilltracker, we have discussed the posibility to meet eachother. We talked and discussed and talked and discussed and the result is that we didn't meet at all...

As a good newyears resolution, I'm planning to organize a meeting. Since I be the organizer, I will set out the headlines and leave the filling in to everyone of you.

Here are the headlines:

Since the usersmap is showing that most users are located in the triangle Belgium-Holland-Germany. I will organize the meeting in Brussels. Why do I choose Brussels? Because it's located in that triangle, I live 100km from there AND it's easy to get to for Philippe our EBT-creator. I think it would be nice if he would be on our first EBT-meeting. I hope that Avij can come too, but Finland is not near the door...
It will be a weekend. Maybe some of you can make a citytrip out of it.

Ok, what is open for discussion?

1. Timing. When will we meet?
2. Planning. What will we do?
3. Rules. What will we do with hits that are created on that day. Believe me, it will happen.
4. Newsletter. The meeting should be open for everyone. Who wants to write a newsletter about announcing it. Offcourse only the general things can be mentioned in the draft version.
How will the discussion go on from here?

Untill the end of january, you can discuss, reply, and make suggestions on this thread. Make date suggestions, make planning suggestions, make rules suggestion, make newsletter suggestions.

In the month of february, for each point 1-4 we will have a seperate poll-thread which will close on the end of february. Normally, than we will have a plan, a date, some rules and hopefully a newsletter ready.

The month of march we have the time to finalise the newsletter and translate it and make some first arrangements for the meeting.

Ok, come on guys and girls... Let's talk and discuss!

Mr Euro

Fundamental · Post by **Fundamental** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 5:26 pm

It's quite easy and cheap to fly from Tampere to Frankfurt by Ryanair.. and then take a bus or train to Brussels.. hopefully we get lots of finnish billtrackers also to the meeting

Mr Euro · Post by **Mr Euro** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 5:53 pm

You also can fly from Tampere to stockholm (€15.99) and there take the plane to Brussels. Or fly to London and then to Brussels...

Elmo · Post by **Elmo** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 5:54 pm

I prefer the beginning of July, because then I have no college anymore and
no exams yet.

Fundamental · Post by **Fundamental** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:40 pm

Mr Euro wrote:You also can fly from Tampere to stockholm (€15.99) and there take the plane to Brussels. Or fly to London and then to Brussels...

Ryanair doesn't fly from Tampere to Stockholm anymore

Dakkus · Post by **Dakkus** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:42 pm

Fundamental wrote:
Mr Euro wrote:You also can fly from Tampere to stockholm (€15.99) and there take the plane to Brussels. Or fly to London and then to Brussels...
Ryanair doesn't fly from Tampere to Stockholm anymore :?

Fly TRE-London, then take a train to Brussels. Train is always better option than plane, if the time is even almost the same. Remember how awfully lot an airplane pollutes.

Fundamental · Post by **Fundamental** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:55 pm

Dakkus wrote:
Fundamental wrote:
Mr Euro wrote:You also can fly from Tampere to stockholm (€15.99) and there take the plane to Brussels. Or fly to London and then to Brussels...
Ryanair doesn't fly from Tampere to Stockholm anymore
Fly TRE-London, then take a train to Brussels. Train is always better option than plane, if the time is even almost the same. Remember how awfully lot an airplane pollutes.

I think it's more expensive to go through London.. not sure..

Dakkus · Post by **Dakkus** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 9:16 pm

Fundamental wrote:I think it's more expensive to go through London.. not sure..

Yup, UK is always quite a pain in the ass when trying to travel somewhere..

Ganymede · Post by **Ganymede** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 12:26 am

Dakkus wrote:
Fundamental wrote:I think it's more expensive to go through London.. not sure..
Yup, UK is always quite a pain in the ass when trying to travel somewhere..

Unlike the Germans...

I flew to Moscow the week after 9-11 on a Lufthansa flight and got metal cutlery!

ON TOPIC: I can probably make it, if it doesn't conflict with any football obligations, but I'm not quite sure I want to give up my anonymity...

Dakkus · Post by **Dakkus** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 10:33 am

Unfortunately I can't make it there. No money :(
I'm planning to go to Southwestern France by train in 2005, so I can meet some of you people personally then as the interrail global pass lasts a whole month :)
I'm going to work the next summer to get money for that :)

avij · Post by **avij** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 12:57 pm

Mr Euro wrote:I hope that Avij can come too, but Finland is not near the door

I'm probably going to be there anyway, unless the meeting time conflicts with my other activities. I'll start by listing some of the Finnish national holidays, it's unlikely that any Finn would be abroad during these weekends. First of all, the weekend 30.4.-2.5. is out because of the First of May celebrations. During the midsummer festival (or whatever the translation is) that occurs on the weekend 25.6. - 27.6. no Finn will be abroad, at least willingly. If the meeting is organized on that weekend, I can promise that nobody from Finland is going to attend. How about the other countries' national holidays?

Personally, I won't be available for a meeting for the weekends 4.6.-6.6. and 30.7.-1.8. In addition to those, I may be unavailable either 11.6.-13.6 OR 18.6.-20.6, I'll know for sure in late February at the latest. So the beginning of July as suggested by Elmo would be very good for me. However, I'm afraid that whatever weekend we choose, that weekend isn't suitable for some of us. So we'll just have to pick the weekend that is a good choice for most of us, thus voting about the weekend (when we have narrowed down to a few good choices) is a good idea.

As for activities in Brussels, here's how I'd see the weekend. Your views may be different, please share your thoughts if your plans are different. First of all, I'd probably come to Brussels so that I'd be there on Friday afternoon or so, spending the rest of the day in the city by myself or with a group of core EBT members and/or other Finnish EBTers. Saturday would be the actual meeting day, we'd gather somewhere and then start our tour around the city. Frankly I don't know what kind of places we should visit, some Belgian could enlighten us of the possibilities. I guess we could skip the museums, though. If we know in advance our planned destinations for Saturday, people wishing to visit those other places could do so on Friday or Sunday. At some point we might have lunch/dinner together in some nice restaurant. I'd probably leave Belgium on early Sunday.

One activity might be an auction of euronotes among us

I'll bring a stack of Finnish eurobills and ask who would like to swap those with some other notes. Nobody should have any notes from his own country in his wallet when he comes back. But would this be cheating?

I'd appreciate it if some Belgian writes a short "public transport for dummies" guide for the rest of us, so we wouldn't be totally lost when spending time in the city by ourselves.

Rules .. such hits are moderated, mmmkay? Register all the notes you get, unless you get the note from a fellow EBTer. Don't sweat the small stuff, we'll clean up the database afterwards. And I can write the newsletter.

Fundamental wrote:Ryanair doesn't fly from Tampere to Stockholm anymore

Really? At least they haven't updated their route map and it looks like I could book a flight from Tampere to Stockholm without problems.

Mr Euro · Post by **Mr Euro** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 1:42 pm

About the rules:
I was thinking that every EBT-member who will come to the meeting, should write that day(s) in the commentfield "EBTM04"+rest of comment. So we know afterwards that it was a meetinghit.

About the timing:
Only dates where you and philippe can come join us, should be up for voting. I hope Philippe will respond soon.

About the planning:
The planning should be clear so that people who only want to join the EBT-meeting know what they can expect.

About the staying in Belgium:
I hope fellow Belgian EBT-ers will let people stay at their place. I for one have place for some ebt-er to stay over

About activities:
Don't know if it's possible:
Go the Belgian National bank to have a guided tour to see where they create our beloved notes?
Speak to the Belgian gouvernor of the national bank?
Visit Landmarks... Manneke Pis, Atonium,...
Sixflags themeparc?

Come on guys and girls.... more suggestions and help needed!!!

!Pretfles! · Post by **!Pretfles!** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 1:57 pm

Visit the Atomium

as it is also one of the most known belgian buildings abroad.

Let me think of other things, and I will post them here also.

Donald · Post by **Donald** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 2:29 pm

I would like to convene on the 8th of May. This is probably the weekend when the royal greenhouses ("Serres") are open to the public. I am not sure abaout this date, it is always early in May.

thomas · Post by **thomas** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 2:45 pm

Mr Euro wrote:About activities:
Don't know if it's possible:
Go the Belgian National bank to have a guided tour to see where they create our beloved notes?

That would be cool, but impossible on a Saturday. Maybe on the Friday? Should be checked early!

Mr Euro wrote:Speak to the Belgian gouvernor of the national bank?

Better speak to someone of the not production department. No politician or PR-guy, please, but the production specialists