ufojoe said:
I will also come to the event..........There are several blink chargers at the transportation center in nearby Oceanside....looks like a great place for breakfast!!
Solano Beach is another spot with some Blinks.
Since I was asked some questions, I thought I'd post a summary of my answers about these meetings for folks in the Rav4 community who aren't familiar.
This group has been having meetings since Oct 2010, and has used all kinds of locations. Gary G. (Orange County LEAF driver) and Randy S. (San Diego LEAF and Model S driver) amongst others, got things started, and I've continued to organize things since Oct 2011. Originally, it was only Nissan LEAF cars and meetings were done at Home Town Buffet in Mira Mesa (San Diego county).
We have met at:
1. Home Town Buffet in Mira Mesa (San Diego county). There is plenty of food, but no charging and no private room.
2. The San Diego Auto Museum private room. We made a $50-$100 donation to the museum for use of the room by "passing the hat". There was no food, so future meetings always included food and a private room. There are 7 of the original Ecotality/Blink charge stations installed in San Diego at this location.
3. In Poway, we have used three different rooms at the Old Poway Park location. The Hamburger Factory restaurant back room holds 45, but since we've overfilled that, then we used a room that held "50" (I think) and we overflowed that, so we rented the hall that holds about 75-100.
4. Almost forgot Santa Ysabel, in Nov 2012, where we inaugurated the first DC charger in San Diego. Plenty of charging stations, and a nice restaurant in the mountains with a semi-private eating area. Way too far from the beaten path for future meetings.
5. In February, we met at the KUSI studio and did a live TV presentation with the assembled EVs (Honda Fit EV, Volt, Rav4, Model S, LEAF, ActiveE) and ate at Studio Diner in San Diego in the back patio.
6. And now, we are meeting in Encinitas.
The issues with getting bigger become more difficult. Typically going over 50 bodies in a rented hall starts to require insurance and fire marshall permit and security, etc. I have already paid many city permits for our previous meetings. Even Encinitas requires a 20 page form for this event, plus prepaid (my personal guarantee) food at the restaurant in case folks don't show and eat. Since there are questions about price of the food and whether you could "brown bag" it, or not eat at all, just know that this stuff costs money nonetheless. It takes a large amount of organization and time that I'm glad I don't keep track of .
In the future, I have offered to co-locate these meetings with other EV car clubs. I have zero interest in bylaws, clubs, board members, minutes, etc. We will leave that to the respective clubs. I've done all that with other clubs, and our gatherings will be exactly that; Meet and Greets. Look at cars, talk about cars, eat food while talking about cars and go home. No newsletter, no website, etc.
Tesla and to some degree the Rav4 are unique in that the cars can generally drive to meetings and nobody should need to charge. That's not the case with all the other EV's, and since we attract folks from "up north" with all kinds of EVs, I intend that all our future meetings will be:
1. Any location north of Del Mar, near the coast, so that all San Diego EV drivers can easily attend, and the northerners can also attend.
2. They must have a private or semi-private room that can hold us.
3. There must be some charging nearby.
4. There must be exposure to the general public (that would exclude meetings at private locations with no exposure). We have had print reporters at our meetings, as well as the TV spot I mentioned. Next month, during the All EV Rally "BC2BC-2013" from Canada to Mexico, I expect we will get a good bunch of EV coverage. We all are a piece of the bigger solution to expose the public to EVs.
5. It must be "close and convenient", which means the charging, parking and eating all have to be at the same spot. This Encinitas location has that in buckets, since there are TONS of parking, lots of restaurant choices within walking distance, and charging stations. In the future, this parking lot location will be EVoasis's charging plaza.
6. Fun and informative. We have had many speakers over the years, typically with charging infrastructure providers like Ecotality, EVoasis, Car2Go, Andromeda Power, etc. We did a live DC charger demonstration hosted by Andromeda Power, charging 20-30 cars while we had our meeting (April 2012). I expect we will have plenty of show and tell, and perhaps a speaker or two at this June 8 meet as well.
Tony Williams
760) 753-2433 
