What Else?

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What else would you need to convince you to attend AutHaven[Because We Have a Dream, Too], February22 through 25 in the mountains of Colorado?

We already were able to finagle [and put ourselves in debt] the price down to $100 a person that does not even need to be paid until sign in. We have a brilliant autist luminary who will be speaking, Ian Ford will be talking about his book, We"ll be going to Denver Aquarium,[Monday, not crowded] provide interaction badges, encourage anyone attending to facillitate a workshop if they want, provide time and space for special interests, have access to great ammenities [pool table, ping pong, sauna, 10 miles of trails, rocks all over that are a geologists dream, opportunity to hang with outher auties, good food, and we will be happy to accomodate dietary restrictions.AND I am opening my ice cream shop to everyone.

The only 3 potential downsides [and we MIGHT be able to accomodate some of them] We are renting a lodge at a nudist resort but odds are that the only nudists you will probably see will be my husband, but he will be wearing clothing. it is possible that you might see a few wrinkled old naked people, though, no big deal. Also, we are going to need to share rooms. In addition, the food prepis in the same building as the bedrooms, so, if cooking smells bother you, that could be an issue which we might or might not be able to accommodate.

So People, please, jump on board. Attend and have a truly special time, then come back to WP and post about how it was and how it could be better and encourage duplicitation all over.

I suggest a different perspective for setting up these types of events in future:

When you first posted about the idear of autistic get twogether in Colorado to discuss autistic housing project that you wanted to do, I was quite interested, even though I have no time to go to Colorado, but I lost interest over the months and weeks as the housing project seemed to decrease in importance compared to the invitation of the speakers and the workshops and the planning of social outings, food, fun, etc etc etc.

I was primarily interested in the concrete project that would be hard to set up but potentially beneficial to autistic people in a practical way, and I didn't care what speakers or workshops or outings or food there were.

I am verry merry berry interested in autistic people working together on concrete projects to produce concrete results to benefit autistic people, so I would be most likely to attend an event in my area that focused on the project with few to no distractions away from the project.

Actually, much of the focus will be on the housing. if not for the housing I would not be putting the retreat together. It's just that my husband and I are the ones who have been working on this thus far. [initial realization is scheduled for 2016] we are both good at getting things done, but neither of us are good speakers, so I have been downplaying that part lately, because if someone is expecting a gifted speaker to be doing the presentation I fear they will be disapointed. We are still planning an autistic community within an already existing community in Thornton, Colorado. It is, in fact, my passion. I am throwing out as much tuna and catnip as possible [down to charging significantly less than cost for the retreat] in attempt to put together a clowder.
When I fantasize about people attending, there are about 20 here on WP I get super excited about. You are one of them. Not every hour of the retreat is scheduled[by any stretch] My husband and I, though, will be spending quite a bit of time cooking and cleaning and would love to discuss the project in depth during that time. Particularly if interested parties would grab a potato and start peeling it, or maybe chop a few carrots and celery.

I am glad that the event will be focused on the housing project.

I can't make it to Colorado, as I don't have the time or money for the plane tickets, but this type of event with focus on project can be duplicated in other places like big cities where more people may attend.

I suggest for advertising the event that it is clearly advertised and promoted as concrete project event, not social/speaker type event, as this will attract people who are passionate about project and more likely to be active on project and also not turn off these people like it turned me off over time, but now that I know clearly the focus, I think that it is good idear to duplicate these get togethers in many places.

I don't want to type words on anyone's keyboard.

I think Vicky is showing two things with this event, one, that there is a place for small-scale ASD-related events, and two, that they can be run on a fairly tiny budget and with a fairly low cost of attendance (after transportation). As I've written before, the "existing model" of ASD-related events does not seem to be working, and Vicky's event may help pave the way to a better format.

The other concept, the "intentional shared housing" concept, is most surely something that should be discussed, since it is a regular discussion topic here on WP, and in private conversations. I am hoping that at least part of the discussion will be held on a text-based Skype chat. Ian Ford has another project, I believe in the mountains of New Mexico, but I do not believe that is for a year-round community (not sure).

To answer the question posed in the first sentence of the OP, "what else would motivate you (to attend)", I think one step would be to encourage individuals on WP and any other relevant sites to contribute discussion topics. Another step could be to coordinate all of the WP threads that discuss the event, since there are quite a few and they are not all named in a way to be easily found by search engine.

i am into the housing. and everything else.