so far it looks like the following ideas are in general agreement:
1) July, August or Sept 2014 would be a good target time frame
2) small regional meetings interconnected with skype or other multi-user video chat program would greatly increase the number of participants
3) European participants may be able to access the multi-user video conference remotely, and/or have their own regional get-together
4) Atlanta works as the South Eastern meeting place
5 to be determined:
a) meeting places for other parts of the country and Europe
b) a more specific date
c) software to be used for video conferencing
d) person(s) to assume responsibility of coordinating the details for each location (preferably someone local to the site)