Crap. With moving and everything else going on I never even got around to voting.

Victor my dear. I have attended 5 annual F2F events and have yet to meet you and Lea. If this trend continues I'm going to have to show up unannouced at some reading to meet you two. I'll wear a jaunty purple hat. Brendon kinda stands out in a crowd.

Heh. Yeah, I've always felt a little chagrined that I can never make these things. Travelling gets hard, since so much of my time off gets allotted to going and reading poetry places, and going back to California when I can, not to mention Lea's school schedule. It all gets kind of complex.

I would have loved to have celebrated with you on the 9th. I was in the Adirondacks, which a thousand miles closer than usual. But we were heading back to Florida in a couple days, and there just aren't enough hours in the days, days in the week, weeks in the year, or years in this life for all the things I would like to experience. Damn it.

I voted for that weekend because the 16th is my birthday and it would be an awesome way to celebrate.

And mine's the 19th! So I could totally do the mental justification loop!

Should we do a run off vote between June 15-17 and June 8-10? No preference, just straight up A or B voting.

So are we saying that whichever weekend wins in that vote it is set in stone for the F2F? Or are we using that weekend as a guideline for getting hotel and city rates? Isn't that weekend late enough that it pretty much removed NC and Atlanta from the running due to it being too hot?

I have a suggestion that might fix this:

Isn't that weekend late enough that it pretty much removed NC and Atlanta from the running due to it being too hot?

Why not do a two-prong approach: these June dates will be if we select a city up North, but we'll have a secondary date vote for March or April to determine the dates we use if we select a city down South? That way people from both latitudes will be able to pimp their cities with impunity, and we'll know when it comes time to vote for the city we'll have a straight choice: early spring South or early summer North.

For example, let's say our first choice for North ends up being June 15th-17th, and our first choice for South ends up being March 23rd-25th (please note: I am completely making these dates up for the sake of illustration). Then the people in the South can do research for those March dates and the people in the North can do research for those June dates...because generally the North is gray and rainy and nasty in March, and the South is hot and humid and stifling in June, but the South in March and the North in June are gorgeous. Pimpage would follow, and people would be able to decide which options would work best for them when voting for a city in conjunction with the date we'd already decided on for that region.

Does that work as a good compromise? All it would take is one more poll for the South. Possible March/April weekends: March 9-11; March 16-19; March 23-25, April 6-8; April 13-15; April 20-22.

I'd also be totally fine with a runoff date vote for the top 2 for each region, as Aimee had suggested. Thoughts?

I'd also be totally fine with a runoff date vote for the top 2 for each region, as Aimee had suggested. Thoughts?

Works for me, especially as my dates flex a bit depending on what city it is for anyway.

Plus, for the March/April dates, one or more of them may coincide with spring break for some of the college/teaching folks. Opens up more possibilities of seeing new faces.