Fall Semester Potluck

Ari: "Also, I would like to talk about that Fall Potluck that Crystal (aka G-ma) brought up. It usually takes place in December, right?...Or...was it October?"
Anna: "In the past we've had 3 a year--fall, winter (pre-build), and spring. The fall and winter tend to get redundant though, so we cut it back to two a year (1 per semester)."

A potluck early in fall semester is nice because it's an introduction for new parents, and it's nice to get them involved early / let them see what we're up to.

A potluck later in the semester is nice because we can talk about what we've done up till then, so it's not a solely introductory event (gets redundant for veteran parents). If we want to do this though, it should wait until build project is done or at least well underway, because that'll be erm...a big talking point.

Potluck date should also accompany/follow a newsletter publication date.

The last potluck of fall semester (or if 2 per year, the only one) is also when we break the news about build season--"hey so uhh...next semester is robotics 18 hours a week; wanna bring us food? " And having that fresh-er in peoples minds can be nice.

With all of this in mind, I suggest that we schedule it for Nov/Dec.

I would love to comment more on this, but I feel like I do not have too much of a strong opinion. With the amount of newbies this year, I feel that if we can get parents understanding Robotics and the commitment it is earlier, they will not protest and even support things such as the Team Bonding events, Calgames, FTC, and various training sessions.
Of course, as you say, it should be aligned with the newsletter, so I do not want to put too much pressure on Media, but having one would be nice to show the parents and show off our awesomeness legitness.