So we have a good start on the discussion for a date for the meetup. Now we need to figure out a place, it will probably effect the date/time.
I am using the Drupal Meetup Organizing Guide as a starting point.
I think some important things to think about are:
Price: It would nice to find a free/cheap venue. I would be nice not to have to tell people they have to donate
Consistency: Find a venue that we can return to over and over again. Consistency is highly effective in growing a community as people become familiar to the location and can plan their day/evenings around it.
It sounds like we will be doing the meeting either on a weekday evening or Saturday morning so parking shouldn't be an issue most places.
I originally was thinking of the public library but I checked it out and it probably won't be a great fit. To reserve a room would be a minimum of $100. There 2 rooms that you can can just claim if they are free but that wouldn't be great in case they were in use.
I have been in Ithaca less than a year so I don't know a lot of resources yet. I would be willing to do the leg work of checking things out if people come up with suggestions though.
Other places that come to mind: coffee/book stores, community buildings?
Maybe people belong to other local meetups that have good meeting places?