[Chicago] next meeting

[Atul Varma]

On 2/27/07, sheila miguez <shekay at gmail.com> wrote:
> Chris's(?) idea: offer volunteer guides to accompany people
>
> But, believe me, when we put together conference wiki pages, I'll
> populate information on Chicago. I am obsessive about wiki pages and
> eating out/walking around etc.
>
> Btw, The Chicago Architecture Foundation gives classes on being a
> guide on their walking tours, which I've thought would be really neat
> to do when I first heard about it, but it is a few weeks, iirc. I
> don't know if I have time to do that. It might easier for someone with
> a student schedule to pull off.
>
> Anyway, the prices for the guided tours aren't heinous, and I wonder
> if we could wrangle a group discount to offer to people?

I signed up for becoming a docent for the CAF back in 2005, but I had
to sign out because I realized I was going to be too busy to do the
25+ hours per week of homework outside of class (the class provides
the equivalent of a graduate-level survey of architecture course).
I'd still like to do it at some point.

The prices for guided tours aren't bad, though.  I'd highly recommend
their Historic Skyscrapers walking tour over their more popular River
Cruise because it's a lot more interactive and you actually get to go
inside buildings.  I'm normally not a big fan of guided tours, but the
Historic Skyscrapers tour is a notable exception and provides a great
multi-disciplinary introduction to the city from historical,
engineering, and artistic perspectives.  From their Group Tours page
on the Historic/Modern Skyscrapers tours [1]:

"Each tour lasts two hours and accommodates 10-60 people. Cost is $15
per person ($12 for students and seniors). Both tours may be taken for
$26 per person ($22 for students and seniors). In addition, all group
walking tours incur a $50 private tour surcharge. Tours in languages
other than English may be possible with advance notice."

Perhaps it'd be useful to poll the Python/PyCon community to see if
there would be interest in this?  Maybe it could be an optional part
of the PyCon registration process, as with the tutorials?

- Atul

[1] http://www.architecture.org/tours_groups.html