Yes, but sometimes it's Mountain time and sometimes Pacific.

Maybe that's an argument for Mountain being West.

I think organizing entails things like:

1) you either know the area the hotel your rec is in, so you know pretty well what transit is in the area, what atrractions are easy to get to via transit or walking or

2) You are willing to do the research, which for some things may involve going there personally, so that you can see that the transit that is a few blocks as the crow flies is miles away in practice because of closed areas.

That extrapolates to other stuff. You either know it or are willing to find out, and finding can sometimes involve going there in person.

Erin organized the first F2F long distance for a city she'd never been in.

Other Buffistas had and were able to answer on-the-ground questions she could not find out on the internets.

It was pretty swell.

For me, when I said I'd pimp KC, I meant be the F2F organizer main person for that city. Like, if people chose KC, I would be the point person. I don't think it means a person needs to be in the city; I did Chicago without ever having been there, but I must say, KC would be MUCH easier to org than a city I don't know since I live here.

When I did Chi, I didn't even own a cell phone! (wait, did I? what year was that? 2001?? 02? Maybe I did.)

I must say, though, I think it's easier for a F2F to happen in a city where there are localistas. There's connections, maybe for better prices, and localistas might have cars, crash pads if flights go AWOL or something. F'instance, I know I have connections for liquor. Ahem.

Up hill! Both ways! In winter!

If there is a place you really want to have an F2F, imho, you shouldn't let personal geography stop you from trying to do just that.

When I did Chi, I didn't even own a cell phone!

I actually got my first cell phone right before the first F2F, mostly because I was sure my mom would call my apartment all weekend and if she didn't get me, she'd call the police or my landlord or both.

I wish I were joking.

(And then I remember at the F2F, someone called and left me a message, and my phone was so new that I had no idea how to retrieve it, and we were all in a group about to go...somewhere, and I just stuck my hand with my phone up in the air and yelled, "Does anyone know how to access voice mail on this phone?!?" Someone did, of course.)

Andi, that's about the size of it.

Brenda, thanks for the reassurance.

Ha. We are the lone remaining continental time zone holdout state. All you people with your crazy time changing ways. Daylight savings, harumph. As if you could save time, you bunch of loony flibbertigibbets, messing up my teevee schedules. Thank goodness for tivo, or I would shake my fist in your general direction. Which from here is all the directions!
 
Ahem. Sorry, time curmudgeon kicking in there. Yeah, maybe Mountain time should be West coast, so long as Denver gets its chance sometime. So, right, midwest. And remember, there`s no rule that says we can`t repeat, so we can do cities like Chicago again. I mean, otherwise we will eventually get to all prohibitively expensive airline cities.

For me, West starts at the Continental Divide.

East is The Other Side of the Mississippi, but that doesn't work for F2F planning purposes.

In a Buffistas context, I think of Detroit as Central, even though it is farther east than Atlanta. Nashville and Mobile also Central. Toronto and Pittsburgh and Atlanta and Tallahassee are all East.