Yes, the Seattle robotics society put together Robothon. I attended one of their meetings and wasn't impressed, they dragged on for a hour before the actual presentation which was about reprap discussing their policies!
I think arduino club like this should just be a small thing where a few people get together at a coffee shop in each city and discuss their projects. We could also host workshops and other special events.
Our only problem is that so far we have people in Seattle, Arlington, and Tacoma, that is an hour to three hour drive apart. A long drive was one of the reasons I didn't just attend the Seattle Robotics Society.
Now, we have Rob, Paul, Jeff and myself. Let us start talking about where and when to meet. Or even what we expect from the meetings.
Myself is a Sr. Software Developer, with a couple of years experience in embedded programming back many years ago. I recently became interested in Arduino/Robot stuff.
I was thinking that the basic idea would be to meet a coffeehouse or something and show off what we have been working on, once in a while we could have a guest speaker talking about something cool (Reprap for example).
Anyway I am in 98418, and am a student/freelance PCB designer/Client side web developer/sound tech.
What parts are you looking for specifically? Sparkfun sells a UAV autopilot board for $25. I have a few Dorkboards around if you want the keep the Arduino small/light. What type of motors are you going to run? Saving weight/cost/complexity on the motors and their control would be a cool place to start.
Really we should get together to figure out what we want from the meetings, I think that Saturday works for me(As long as it is before 4:00 PM). I would love to see what you have in regards to the copter!
Jeff, a coffeehouse would be great for me.
It looks like only you, Rob and me are in the Tacoma area.
Consider the zip code locations for three of us, I would suggest to meet at a coffee house near Tacoma mall. However I am open to any suggestion such as from the Freighthouse near Tacoma dome to Parkland.
Anyway, let us get the ball rolling.