Would you like a Gransnet trip?

Yes, I remember you saying so Elegran but those who were not Scottish were perhaps in the North of England?
Central means different things, if you are in Cornwall you’re
Unlikely to want to travel to the North.There’s the rub!
Possibility of an English (central) meet, a Welsh one,NI one and a Scottish one I wonder?

X posts Nonnie

Nonnie has had a good idea about having one in England, Scotland, NI and Wales but I suppose it would take a lot of organisation.

I've been to Edinburgh meetups from Essex. But I do have a staff rail discount.
Maybe a cheap flight to somewhere warmer would be more affordable.

I'd also be up for a short UK break but from experience with another forum meets, it can be difficult to make sure that meets are 'inclusive' and allow everyone to feel involved if the numbers are too big and the meets are unstructured.

I wonder whether something like a murder mystery weekend or similar might be an option?

Tartlet no thank you.

Why not independent holidays in the far and expensive north Yorkshire timed to cover the date of a conference? York is a very interesting venue for a stay. That is what happened at the Scottish one. Several people had a pleasant few days in Edinburgh before and after meeting up with Gransnet pals.

One of those who came to Edinburgh was from the far southwest peninsula. It is possible to do so - and it ^is possible that Scottish grans would come to an all-uk conference. Perhaps we are are more accustomed to travelling to meet our friends?

but the thought of being trapped on holiday with those I haven’t even met yet is a no-no.

I completely agree, and didn't realise it was your post lemon until now. I was about to add that most hotels tend to let out double rooms and there is a supplement for the few single rooms they have.

I am not sure sharing a bedroom and a bathroom with someone I hardly know is something I'd want to do.

I also think a large bash means that you may get to know the few people you are near but there'd be no full interaction, so we would go away not knowing which Grans we had been mingling with. Name labels are fine, but would people then make a beeline for the people/names they are familiar with? Could even (dare I say it?) be cliquey and some people might feel a bit isolated or sidelined.

Just thinking of worst case scenarios.

Just don't mention the B word! Imagine the headlines "Punchup at Grandmothers' Get Together"

Terribull

We'd have people wrapped in EU flags and others waving Union Jacks!

I think we're over thinking it. Tell the travel person to set something up and see who signs up for it.

Maybe that should be "Grandparents Get Together" In the words of Britney Spears "Whoops I've Done It Again" I'll have the Misandry and Equality Officer beating down on my slip of the keyboard Mea culpa.....Oh never mind he's probably still in the office anyway me thinks, someone's got to save us

Not sure what you mean Elegran by ‘perhaps we are more accustomed to travelling to meet our friends’ ??

Am sure that we all travel to meet our friends, and we go and stay with them ( husbands included) and they with us,
But you have to think of the time, travel and sheer expense of what is being touted here.How many would travel by any means to the North when they live say, on the South coast,
Or Kent or Devon or even London, and then the cost of the hotel for a few days to be with strangers?
A meet up in a central point for one night only is different, but would have to have several GN groups to be really central for all IMHO.

Hoi you southerners - just checked. Distance Edinburgh to York - 206 mls
Distance London to York - 208 mls!
York would be a good central location.

Terri

Not all are in London! The South is a pretty big place, not to mention the South West.Don’t think that we are over thinking it Jane, not enough thinking in fact.

It will become clear though when everyone has had their say.

I mean that people travel to the "ordinary" meetups here in Edinburgh from Glasgow, from the coast of Argyll (car to station, change trains in Glasgow) and from some distance north of Aberdeen. We have had lunch meets in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Inverary, not to mention those in St Andrews and Thornton. People came to those from all over Scotland, and indeed have come from the midlands of #England, not just from the north. If people want to meet, they will come.

By a holiday in the area where a "conference" takes place, I don't mean that they travel there just to see strangers. They could travel for a week in a place in the Uk that they have never visited before, and spend part of one day of it putting face to names and the other six and a half sight-seeing.

If travel abroad becomes fraught after Brexit/noBrexit, a holiday in the UK may become cheaper and easier to do that flying to faraway places!

Not all of Scotland is in Edinburgh either,
Edinburgh - Inverness = 155 miles.
Edinburgh - Inverary = 110 miles.

Not sure, when I was working I attended a similar event run by the company Women's Network, independent but funded.

I hated it, found it very isolating and with 90 people there it was too big to be friendly, just glaciers bumping into each other and then bumping off.

We learnt a lot at our 20-strong conference (well, I did, as I was the one who organised it and discovered the hard way what worked)

Mix people up and don't have large groups who all know each other sitting together all the time.
Have an ice-breaker to begin things. At one of our Christmas do's we had to find the answers to a list of questions, which involved milling around speaking to a lot of others and finding things out about them.
Have active participation in some things, sitting listening to presentations on others, space for blethering built in between fixed things.
Keep it moving!

I don't want to be a wet-blanket, but it is one thing to advocate several regional get-togethers, but who is invisaged as planning and organising them all? It is like drawing teeth to get volunteers, and GNHQ have plenty to do already. Adding one holiday (probably done by a travel agent!) is one thing, setting up one country-wide meetup would be a vast amount of work, let along half-a-dozen or so.

I think HQ were thinking more of a holiday organised by a travel company just for GNs.
It would be like joining a group trip where you don't know anyone. Sounds like fun. I've never met a GN that I really dislike....disagree maybe.

That was what I read, Pittcity, but the conversation seems to have become more about a monster meetup than a holiday.

What about Manchester? Birmingham?

What about a round Britain Bus Tour? People could book up for all or part of it and there could be lunch time get togethers for local Gransnetters at various stops along the route.