Thank you for the insight John. I didn't intend to be critical and I hope it didn't come off that way. I can certainly understand and appreciate that there are certain elements of the Association's business that are best kept at the membership level. In the end, my only real concern would be, I wouldn't want people to get the impression that I was attempting to crash their activity or force my way in...because that's definitely not a way to ingratiate one's self to those whose approval and acceptance you hope to gain. But also, it seems irresponsible to say "hey, I really wanna be a part of this association" without having a reasonably broad even if only basic understanding of what "this association" entails.

So... the plan right now is that I'm gonna come bearing a couple of items for the raffle, as was suggested by two of the inviters. And we'll be there with the understanding that we are only prospective members and our participation may be limited to reflect that. Frankly, at this point, if all we're able to do is to briefly introduce ourselves to folks and hopefully secure an invitation to another future event, I think we'll be happy with that.