WORCESTER COUNTY MEETING:

The Tuesday October 27th meeting is scheduled for 7:30 PM at the Ocean Pines Community Center. Because this is our first meeting at that location, and because there is a group using the meeting room immediately before us, there may be a little confusion getting started. In the future - - once we get into a routine - - things will run smoothly.

If we had stayed at the library we risked that the meeting would be totally disrupted due to the branch manager counting heads and possibly shutting us down - - fire code allows 99, we had over one hundred and anticipate more for this meeting. The manager made it perfectly clear to us that she would do so if we exceeded the fire code capacity. It's not as simple as 'standing room only'.

Of course we could have taken a chance that attendance would drop, but if it didn't drop the branch manager would be required to turn people away at the library door. If folks come all the way from Pocomoke or Snow Hill and the library manager tells them "sorry, we are full", that would not be good.

So because we were worried about turning people away and felt it best to relocate to the larger facility, the next concern was that news releases and letters to the editor indicated the library as the meeting location and it was too late to publish changes - - that meant folks not on our e-mail list would be showing up at the library on the 27th. To address this concern, the logical thing to do was to have the meeting at the CC on the same night and assign someone to be at the library to direct folks to the new location.

But keeping the meeting date the 27th (for the reasons above) resulted in the need for another change - - we want our meetings to start at 6:30, but due to CC scheduling we had no choice but to take the 7:30 slot.

In any event, our meeting in November is already reserved for 6:30 (we have both the library and the CC reserved and which one we use will depend on the attendance at this meeting). Once we get settled in one spot all meetings will be at 6:30 and will be on a set day, such as the last Tuesday or Thursday of every month. From day one we wanted a 6:30 start but circumstances beyond our control kept that from happening.

As was the case with the library, the Community Center offers a top rate venue for our meetings. But ALL local meeting space venues - - other than the library - - charge a fee. In this case the fee is twenty five dollars an hour and we rent the room for two hours, including set up and tear down.

For this upcoming meeting, two of our board members - - John Pinnero and Brian Nygaard - - will pay the fee with money that they have left over from the 9-12 DC tea party.

If necessary to pay for future meeting space, we'd like to find sponsors, i.e. business people who will pay the fifty dollars and in return will get special mention in our monthly newsletter (Worcester e-mail circulation of more than 200), including business details and services offered.

Remember, the more concerned citizens at the meetings, the more power and influence we have. WE can make a difference.