[Wylug-discuss] Fortnightly socials/BOFs?

[Louisa Parry]

Hi all,

I mentioned this idea to a few people last night and generally had
positive feedback so I thought I would push the idea out there.

So then .. fortnightly social events/BOFs.

My partner in crime John Leach and I have noted recently how much fun we
have at WYLUG meetings - we get to hear a talk about something
interesting then chat about a variety of just as interesting geeky (and
not so geeky) topics with a broad range of people in the pub afterwards.
We come away on a FOSS high .. then have to wait a month until the next
one.

I know there is HudLug on the first Monday of the month and that kind of
fills this role but I wonder if there still a space in the calendar for
another meet up.

== What I'm proposing

An informal meet up in a pub (or similar) around a fortnight after the
WYLUG talk/pub each month.

Each meet up would have a theme to get people coming together to discuss
that particular issue but because it's informal and social, that might
just be a starting point to other topics of conversation - or the whole
evening might stay tightly focused on that one issue.  The emphasis
would be very much on the social aspect - building the WYLUG community -
people wouldn't need to do talks or anything and everyone with even an
vague interest and/or bit of knowledge could contribute.

These themes could alternate between being geeky and being not-so-geeky,
to include those interested in Linux/FOSS but not particularly
interested/experienced in the techy side of things.  I believe there is
plenty of scope for both.  Some ideas completely off the top of my head:

Geeky - nights on specific programming languages; Functional
programming; Network management; Power management; Xen/virtualisation;
File systems; emacs versus vi... ;)

Not so geeky - Advocacy; Using the $distro desktop; Creating art/music
in Linux; FOSS in Education; FOSS for SMEs; Accessibility.

Depending on the subject, people could chat generally, troubleshoot
specifically, get help from more experienced users, discuss
resources/programs etc.


Would people be interested in this sort of thing?  I might be naive in
saying this but I wouldn't have thought it would take *too* much
organisation so could be planned well in advance to give people time to
get it in their diaries.

(A related point: I made the suggestion last night that the venue could
move around West Yorkshire and also possibly to different nights of the
week - for those that can't make Leeds on a Monday night.  This,
obviously, would need to be discussed but as I said, it could be
planned/publicised well in advance.)

Thoughts?

-Louisa