Actually that was intentional. I'd been planning on setting up most of these things anyway, but I figured, "This is the time that people will be most open to try out new stuff."

I don't think there's anything wrong with translating some of the feelings that people have of rejection into momentum for something positive. Quite the contrary, this is exactly the time to bring up these ideas. They'd get nowhere near the participation were they brought up randomly and independently at other times of the year.

Edit: Oh, and for the record, you're like a one hour flight from us. :-)