*If You Could Conjure up the Perfect Aspie/AS Gathering ...*

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If you could wave a magic wand and conjure up the perfect AS gathering, ( aspie and autie ), what would your dream look like?

I think mine would be like a big house-party.

It would be in a huge old building on a beautiful estate, with rooms for everybody to sleep in, ( and camping for some who preferred that ), and a room with a piano in for people to play music, and a library with lots of books and comfy chairs, and a big kitchen with a very long table with bowls of carrot and cucumber sticks and radishes and chicory, and garlicky yoghurt/sour cream and guacamole and tuna mayonnaise to dip them in, and nuts and olives, and roast lamb for lunch, and fresh fruit, ( melons and cherries and nectarines and ... ), to help yourself to, and another room with widescreen TV and lots of DVDs, and somewhere to play party games, ( like that one where everybody writes names of famous people on bits of paper and puts them in a hat and then you take it in turns to try and tell your team as fast as possible who it is without saying the name ), places to sit and dream, tall french windows overlooking the terrace, a maze to get lost in, and grand old trees, an entrance hall with window seats, and at least two staircases to perch/hide and watch from.

There would be a bar, and a brilliant selection of music to dance to, or not, and it would be warm enough to sit outdoors in the evening talking, or listening to the music. And there would be at least 30 of us, enough to take the pressure off.

So if you could have your dream AS gathering; what would it look like?

PS. The poll is just for fun!
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Last edited by ouinon on 25 Feb 2009, 3:57 pm, edited 3 times in total.

That sounds way to social for me...

Aspie+Gathering just doesn't link in my mind.

So would your idea of the perfect AS gathering be Wrong Planet?

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Funny, that.

Love Animal House.

I would have it at a house. It would be set up weird with a lot of places to hide. It would have lots of books,movies, and music. Some seats by the window over looking the ocean.

*get's creative*

Well, it would be a big house, near to a beach or anywhere with a nice view. The inside of the house will have posters up and banners etc
There will be different things in each room, one room will be like a party with music and a dancefloor so I can get my groove on , one room will be just to chat, one room will be to relax in when you've had enough chatting, and a room with food and stuff in. Computers, don't forget those!
The decor inside the house in each room will suit the theme, so the disco area would be bright and bold and sparkly, the social room would be a mixture of bold and neutral maybe one big orange wall and the rest white, the relaxing room would be calming colours like baby blue or green.
There would be plenty of room outside with maybe a BBQ and some music, and if it was near the beach you could have a stroll on it or go in the sea.
There could be a room where people have set discussions or meetings with certain themes etc. There will be rooms to sleep in, and you can choose if you want to share or go on your own, and you'd stay for 2 nights, maybe from friday evening to sunday afternoon. There will be showers in each room and a toilet. You could help yourself to what ever oin the kitchen. That party/disco area I mentioned earlier would be open at night and anyone is welcome, we would get a really good DJ and people could make song requests. There could also be a games room with pool tables and arcade games etc.

I could just imagine it now *goes off into fun daydream*

I think your AS dream gathering sounds good! I would just add a few things:

1) candlelight (I like candles), and no horrible bright lights

2) A beautiful garden to hang out in, walk through at night, or read a book in during the day (with comfy places to sit)

3) to add to the menu: chocolate for dessert

In Portmeirion village, where they filmed the Prisoner...it's a bizarre, mock italianate village constructed on the welsh coast. One cottage each, outdoor buffet/food fair, film screenings, speciality music tents and barbecue on the beach/fireworks display at night.

Don't forget to make sure the fridge has appropriate vegetarian, vegan, no-starch, GFCF, etc. etc. foods...

Good point. You could go for a white-noise wander along the surf, or watch the tide rise/fall, build an immense sandcastle, or collect shells and pebbles, ( for a few hours ).

Yes, totally essential equipment for an AS gathering.

I agree! Like a mini conference on a different special interest every two or three hours, or nothing scheduled, just what happens whenever a few AS sit down in the discussion room.

Candles is good!


That sounds astonishingly perfect. More space for more people, more outdoor things going on; the "micro-village" feel to it. And the sea too!

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Another thing I think would be really wonderful/inspiring, is if everybody who went to a big gathering like that was also involved in organising/facilitating it, ( had a role of some kind, however apparently "small ). The reason why I think this is because of some Personal Development courses I went on several years ago.

After the first weekend course you can volunteer to "work" on the teams which organise the events, and it's not some messy, unofficial heirarchical pecking-order sort of thing, but highly structured so that you know exactly what you're doing, have support from the rest of the team, and really feel useful, valued, important.

Even holding the mikes in the big hall was important. Even running notes between teams mattered. And everything was written down, on printed handouts, so you could consult it to know when which people were doing what and where. It meant there were meals cooked, resources always there when required, feedback, support/advice when needed, everything was covered.

And the "high" was amazing. Because of the careful and comprehensive structure it was possible to work with people you knew very little or not at all, and feel close to them because of the commitment we all made at the beginning to be "clear" with each other, and ourselves, to drop out if/when we had to, but not to pretend we were feeling ok when we weren't.

Overload and downtime-needs were specifically taken into account. When you started to feel freaked out/overwhelmed you told your sub-team, and took time off, either to talk it through with someone on the support/listening sub-team, or on your own.

It was intense, uplifting. Half of the enjoyment was that the whole structure was created and maintained by the team. And we managed to do that because overload/overwhelm was acknowledged, not suppressed. We were encouraged to be honest/direct with each other.

I "worked" on 4 teams over about a year, ( with between 40 and 75 people ), because it was such a wonderful experience.

Maybe the glow of participating in something structured, achieving something concrete, would be part of a perfect AS gathering. ( a bit like "The Blues Brothers", or "The Full Monty", but a tad more organised ! !! )

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i love portmerion, i go at least once a year ^.^

anyway, because i'm such an egomaniac it would be nice if i could play some music for teh aspies visiting...lol x

What do you play? ... edit: guitar I see according to your profile.

Wow, all these musicians on WP. It would make a great live music event!!

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iz there gonna be any porn

Is that your idea of a perfect AS gathering; porn availability? You don't need to go to an AS gathering for that.

It also seems more likely to disperse people, or isolate them, than bring them together.

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