Wow. Nothing like being called out, huh?
As EricBecky said, there are some good reasons why I'm focusing exclusively on the Prius.
- The problem is not really in setting up the meetings, but what to do if/when people show up. Reading the notes from Milwaukee's most recent meeting, I see that a good number of people showed up. My initial fear is that more people will show up than we have space for. Call me afraid, but I just don't want to have to turn people away or make them stand along the walls for a few hours.
- I love going to the Milwaukee Group meetings. Truly guys, I do. But sometimes I notice that when the talk turns to tricking the Insight/Civic to turn the engine off in the winter, the Prius drivers are confused. Likewise, when talking about Stealthing, the Honda drivers have no idea what we're talking about. I want to start with a monovehicular approach and be able to speak about things knowing that everyone in the room is following along.
- We will welcome everyone and turn no one away. I believe that diversity is a beautiful thing and it would be great to be able to discuss the differences between the various hybrid technologies.
With that being said, if I'm completely wrong and we get a small turn-out or if people really want to have all hybrids together then we will open it up and change our name.
Also, I have been working on a web presence. It's not finished yet but I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the year. Ideally, I would love to have our inaugural meeting in January to kick off the new year in style.
If you are so inclined, feel free to check out the work in progress. Please provide any feedback you want. Keep in mind that I'm keeping it pretty light. From the members on PriusChat (that's another online forum, Wayne
) it's becoming clear that an increasing number of hybrid owners are not technologically savvy. I want to maintain a friendly and non-threatening environment where newbies can learn the simple things but techies can also delve into the details. If this means break-out groups then that's fine.
Here's the site so far. I'm housing it on Geocities just while I build it. Eventually I'll register a site address.
http://www.geocities.com/chicagopriusgroup
Oh yeah, Geocities has a transfer limit. If you get the "exceeded transfer limit" warning you'll have to wait about an hour and then try again. Sorry, but I never intended on circulating the address.
Oh well. I guess us others will just have to drive up to milwuakee where we can find some love 
Hybrid Mode
