Share your ideas hear!
Attendees in the GOAT 2022 Northeast corner this morning:
Dorn Cox, @JeffPiestrak, @Paul-Harris, Jennifer Byrne, @nedhorning, @johnnybroadturn, @nat, @sezuco, @mstenta, @samuejao, @chrowe, @Aaron, Alex Jones, @brianwdavis
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Count me in! And one of us should kidnap @donblair for this as well!
I sadly missed this lil sesh, but what’s the general make-up of this group? Predominantly New England or Mid-Atlantic? More urban or rural? Coastal or high country?
I’m in NYC, and maybe it’s my bias, but I’m inclined to think the Hudson Valley provides easiest access by most means of transportation, particularly where major interstate corridors intersect. That includes Omega, of course, but there are many other options. The Albany/Rensaleer/Troy area could certainly accommodate, although that’s still pretty far north for folks coming from the Baltimore/DC region (unless they fly). A little further southeast and slightly less accessible to public transit is Hawthorne Valley Farm, which hosts a whole bunch of educational and research initiatives. Continuing downriver, Newburgh has a great brewery near the river that GrowNYC used to use for it’s big annual meetings (we’re not nearly that big, but we don’t need to rent the whole place out like they did). There are also a bunch of old industrial buildings in Newburg that sometimes give spaces to non-profits and sustainability groups to use for free. Then across the river is Beacon, or a little further out Glynwood, where I have some contacts, as does/did @mstenta, and is a lovely space. Then way down in Westchester Co. is Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow, with the Stone Barns Cetner, and likely other good sites closer to the train station.
I guess there are also more urban halfway points like New Haven, Philadelphia, Trenton, or dare I say, Gotham itself.
I think a big part of this is going to be how many people can come (we are at about 25 on this list) and what the cost will be.
Should we make a plan to meet up online at some point to discuss?
I put a map together so we could see where folk are coming from and the locations @jgaehring suggested. (Should be editable)
Adding a few more who might be interested.
@ircwaves @TomOpenTEAM @anna Momodou @Sarah Maria Lara-Cangiano @ljodom
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So cool! I am actually on the west coast but might borrow you map idea for the west coast goats 
Oh, more New Englanders than I realized, but I guess shouldn’t have been surprised. Maybe Boston/Portland/Providence or thereabouts makes more sense then?
Count me in! I would also be interested in the planning session, to get a feel for what sort of goat hoe down we’re cooking up. I’m going to review the postings from GOAT this week. Been so busy since.
Did I mention how robbed I felt by all that CoViD?
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Yes, let’s meet up virtually and discuss timing & location!
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Hey all, great to meet many of you at Omega! I’m up for a NE-GOAT gather, and fairly flexible as to where, as long as we have some options for outdoor frolicking and budget accommodations.
One thing discussed was possibly adding this on to the beginning or end of another event/conference… what is coming up that might overlap or dovetail with GOAT interests?
A virtual planning meet-up sounds good too.
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Hi all, just seeing this now and I love it! That map is really helpful and I would agree with Jamie that maybe Massachusetts is more central? Gathering virtually to plan makes the most sense.
In terms of what is coming up conference-wise… anyone participating in Pasa’s Sustainable Agriculture conference in Lancaster?? Myself, my colleague Alex from Wolfe’s Neck Center, and @gbathree will be there. Any others? Would love to meet up at some point!
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@sezuco, Thanks for reviving the thread! Won’t be at Pasa. @JeffPiestrak, good idea with the piggy backing. Most conferences that I am aware of are remote sensing or geospatial, but I’ll look around some lists for more ag-tech related ones.
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