Tag: venue

New Board Meeting Venue

February 23, 2019

We have selected a new meeting venue – and it starts next week! From our web’s Board and Committee Meeting page:

Meetings are now held at the Pine Valley Community Center near Litchfield Road and Palm Valley Blvd.  Drive south on Litchfield Road, turn right on Palm Valley Blvd.  Go west along Pine Valley for about half a mile; the community center is on your left (south side of Palm Valley Blvd).  The facility isn’t that large, so come in the front door and look for signs.

From the Board and Committee Meetings page

Address

There’s a caveat to the address: Some GPS systems have reportedly given a route to the Palm Valley Blvd intersection with McDowell Road. This is incorrect!

Go to the intersection of Palm Valley and Litchfield, and turn to the west. The community center is about half a mile, on the left/south side of the street.

Palm Valley Community Center
14145 W Palm Valley Blvd
Goodyear, AZ 85395

Here is a PDF route map from Rio Crossing to Palm Valley Community Center.

History of Meeting Venues

We met at the Barbara Robey Elementary School for some time. Unfortunately, we had numerous issues of trying to schedule around school closures and working around their special events, not to mention that they frequently failed to unlock entry access to the courtyard to facilitate people getting to the meeting.

We have, on a couple of occasions, even met at the deli patio at the local Basha’s store.

The Mojave Room at the City of Avondale’s Civic Center was a nice facility, and while not unreasonably far, it was a 12-15 minute drive. The other main issue was the cost, since the city charges a premium rate for night meetings.

We had one meeting at the Estrella Mountain Community College campus, but parking was definitely an issue, and the facility, while “nice enough” once we got in, had issues with security access problems, and lack of cell and/or WiFi coverage.

Help Us Find a Meeting Venue!

January 27, 2019

Update: We’ve booked a meeting room at the Palm Valley Community Center for the February meeting. Assuming all goes well, we’ll meet there for the foreseeable future!

We’d like to find space near Rio Crossing to accommodate 10-20 people one night a month — typically the fourth Thursday from 6:30pm to 9:30pm — for a reasonable price.

Usually there’s under 10 of us: 5 board members, our community manager, a recording secretary, and maybe 2-3 homeowners or guests. Occasionally if there’s a hot topic being discussed, we’ll have 5-10 guests, and we’d like to be able to easily accommodate a “crowd” of up to 20 for the rare occasion that something really interesting comes up.

If you have any experience with places nearby, please use the contact form to send us some details.

Background/Experience

We’ve had problems so far with every recent meeting venue for board and annual member meetings:

  • Barbara Robey Elementary School was inconsistent in getting the room and gates unlocked, and occasionally moved us to other rooms without notice; plus, as a school, they’re generally not available during summer months.
  • City of Avondale Civic Complex has nice space with WiFi and overhead projection – but they’re a far distance, and the most expensive (higher rates at night), running just over $200/meeting.
  • Estrella Mountain Community College – which we just met at this month – didn’t have the doors unlocked to the Conference Center, no lights in the foyer. There’s no WiFi (only for students/faculty), and the cell coverage inside is spotty/weak.