Sorry, I just meant instead of for example me sending 3 separate packages to each of you, I send one package of 9 beers to one of you since you're all so close together. Sorry if I worded it improperly earlier. I didn't mean sending you all the beers in the entire thing, just 9 since there's 3 of you so close.
There is still plenty of time but I see it going something like this:
1) We will decide sometime towards the end of the year if it is feasible for us to meet up package our beer together and ship.
2) If we decide to do that we would extend an offer for anyone who is ready to ship to ship to whoever is closest to where we meet.
3) The three of us then distribute what was received, you all get three beers at once, and everyone is happy.
Another note, sending 3 in one box will probably save you about $20. For us however, it saves on shipping between ourselves and we split a pretty large cost. Oh, and I'm sure we'll drink some tasty beers.
Now, I've never been out to the Midwest/east coast but on a map a lot of places look pretty close, relatively speaking, so putting something together near where you live might be the best way to save on shipping costs, get to know some new people, and drink some new beers. As much as I can tell from being a life long Californian and knowing people from across the country there's a pretty good consensus that we have an insane concept of what we are willing to drive to, so maybe this is a poor option. Although, you might be surprised who would be willing to drive 2-4 hours, how long it would take me to get to L.A., for a meet up.
Just food for thought.