DC/MD/VA area

[SUBJUGATOR]

I'd love to meet up with other lockpickers. I live in Fairfax Virginia. Unfortunately I can't make a meeting on the 18th. But if the date changes or you schedule a 2nd meeting please let me know.

I'm interested in both pin tumblers and combination locks. I've been trying to move up to more sophisticated locks, Medeco and S&G Combination locks.

[mfschantz]

Because no one has contacted me in any way associated with this meeting in College Park, I am postponing it until the following weekend. We will have the meeting in College Park on the 24th at 5PM. I will have a definite location by MONDAY 19 FEB. Please, please, please, please contact me via PM if you are going. If I have an idea of who is going to be there, I'll have a better idea on where to have it. Right now it looks like it's going to be in a restaurant in the College Park area.

[mfschantz]

The DC/MD/VA lockpickers meet and greet will be held at 6PM on the 24th of February. Since it looks like there will only be four of us, we will have it at the College Park Applebees on Baltimore Ave (Route 1) right off of UMD's campus, about a quarter of a mile from the Metro stop. Their address is 7242 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD; (301)864-6118. Bring some locks, bring some picks. They don't have a party room, so we won't have any privacy beyond the normal restaurant experience. PM me to confirm your attendence or if you have any questions.

[Gordon Airporte]

Okay, I talked to my friend at UMD and he suggested a nice spot on campus. The student union has plenty of space and he specifically said the 'Baltimore room' is usually empty and has tables. He also mentioned 75 cent coffee available in the area
So here's a link to the Stamp Student Union page, which has directions and visitor parking sites:
http://www.union.umd.edu/building/info.html

And here are his directions, quoted:
'''
The best way to get to the Stamp from Route 1 is to make a right onto Campus
Drive, also called Paint Branch Road, then continue through to a traffic
circle (with a big "M" in it) and go straight (180 degrees) through. The
Stamp should be impossible to miss on your right, just after the Hornbake
Library and a Quad with the Bio-Psych building in it. Having just given you
driving directions I have no idea where you should park, because I walk to
campus. Sorry.

Once you enter the student union, go straight, past the information desk, and
down the central flight of stairs into the eating area. If you keep going
straight back, you will come to a balcony of sorts, which overlooks the
basement floor where the Co-Op is and has a bay window behind it. Directly
to your right is the Baltimore Room.
'''

So I vote for there.

[mfschantz]

Good call. We'll have it there. Same time though: 6PM on Saturday the 24th. I've PM'd Roger E. No one else expressed interest. Hopefully the three of us picking locks for a couple of hours will get some students interested. Hopefully we don't get kicked out by the campus police.

[Gordon Airporte]

Aw, come on people. I know there are more of us in the area.
I was thinking about what would happen if passing students got interested. That would be a good thing. At the very least we could get them to join the site. I know my friend and his girlfriend are supposed to stop by, so maybe we can get them hooked
Technically the campus police can probably kick us out for any reason they want and just call it trespassing. I don't think it will be a problem though, as long as nobody tries grinding picks or anything. It might be a bad idea to have an i-core lock like the kind used on campus sitting around, too, come to think of it.

[Gordon Airporte]

Okay, well the meeting was a success in that we found a good place to hold any future meetings. The room itself had the lights off and we didn't want to disturb it, but the eating area outside worked fine. Plenty of people walked past us, but alas nobody took an interest.
If we schedule next time for after 4pm then parking is free in most of the large lots around campus, which makes things a little easier. The lot next to the filed house seems to be the closest.

[mfschantz]

Aside from the fact that only Gordon_Airporte and I were present, the first meeting of DC Area lockpickers went quite well. The venue was perfect for meetings of this sort, extremely public with plenty of food options. Gordon_Airporte had a lever lock that I learned how to pick, and he got a chance to pick my Schlage LFIC. All and all I felt it was a productive meeting. We will get together again in March, probably sometime around the 24th. It would be nice to get a few more people there next time.

[mfschantz]

I'm looking at setting up the next meeting three weeks from this weekend. I will say that Friday nights are no good for me because I work until 10:30PM during the week. I want to know from the other people in the area, which day works better for you, Saturday or Sunday? Keep in mind that the meetings are currently being held at the University of Maryland campus in College Park, MD.

[biscuitwagon]

Checking in from Takoma Park, MD. Keep me in the loop.

[SUBJUGATOR]

Well I'm dissapointed I missed the meeting. I was diving on a wreck off the coast of Florida that day, so I shouldn't complain. Hopefully I can make the next one. Among other interesting things I've got an S&G combination lock mounted on a piece of wood I can let people play with. I have an electric lockpick I can bring too. If anyone has a manual pickgun I'd like to see it. I might purchase one but the Peterson cylindrical lock pick is next on my list. Anyone have one of those? I've got a few books I can bring too.

-S

[mfschantz]

By all means, bring whatever you can carry. The area where we set up is a general study area for the college with plenty of tables and eateries. I'm working on nailing down a date. How does Sunday the 25th sound?

[mfschantz]

The next meeting for the DC area Lockpickers (soon to be D.C. L.I... hopefully) will be held at the University of Maryland on Sunday 25 MAR 07 at 4:00PM EDT. Directions can be found several posts above this one. Bring your locks, picks, books, cutaways, training boards, and any single females over the age of 18 PM me if you plan to come, so I have a rough idea of how many people will be there. If we get one more than we had last time, we're on our way to becoming a Locksport International chapter!

[digital_blue]

w00t!

[biscuitwagon]

Very cool, I hope to make it. Also I don't know what the residential distribution of potential attendees is, but I can recommend some university meeting space in Arlington, VA. Ample parking (free), 2 blocks from the metro, but no food court. There is a nice Salvadoran chicken joint across the street.

I'm fine with UMD as well, just want to put it on the table.