I've had mixed feelings about having brought up this thread earlier in the week. I've wavered between worrying that I may have made some of the Mudcatters feel unwelcomed to the Getaway and being pleased with the open discussion of the issues. I'm pretty firmly in the latter camp now. There has been a lot of intelligent, inciteful discussion here, and in fact I think probable solutions to the problems have been arrived at.

Allan - We used to have "ice-breakers" at the Getaway. They took various forms including a dance and taffy pulling. One that I thought was fun was a scavenger hunt. This one had the twist that what you were hunting for was people. For example, "Find someone who has been to Madagascar." There was such a person (Jerry Navratil for those who remember him). In fact we did this for a few years and those of us making up the questions thought of more and more ridiculous quests without knowing whether anyone would fit the bill. Amazingly, there was always someone there that was the answer to every question. We gave out silly prizes to the person who got the most answers. Ask my wife (Carly) about the mock apple pie some time. I think we stopped doing these ice-breakers because the Getaway got a bit stagnant in that the same people were coming year after year. We mostly knew each other, so these little games became superfluous. But I think we were wrong because we were, without bad intention, shutting out those few newcomers that were showing up. With the influx of new faces - welcomed new faces - in the last couple of years I think we should have and still should re-establish some kind of ice-breaking event. Thanks for reminding us!