Group: Manchester/2008-06-09/Minutes

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Manchester Free Software Minutes

19:00, Monday 9th June 2008

Attendance: Simon, Dave, Lucy, Dave, Matt Morten, Tim
Apologies: Paul

Last Meeting

The minutes of the last meeting on 20th May 2008 were read and approved.

Announcements

Manchester Free Software have been given publicity by the Loiterers Resistance Movement, who blogged about our next talk on OpenStreetMap at http://nowhere-fest.blogspot.com/2008/06/open-street-map-at-manchester-free.html.

Aims

Discussion continued about creating a mission statement/aims for the group. No feedback was received after they were published as part of the minutes for the last meeting.

It was decided that the aims were not required and that the text of the mission statement was sufficient. A few minor changes to the mission statement were agreed upon and the revised text is now as follows:

Mission Statement

Manchester Free Software was formed in response to a growing apparent need for a group based in the Manchester area that focuses on free software and GNU/Linux primarily, but also on topics such as Digital Restrictions Management and other issues which impact on the freedoms of computer users.

The purpose of this group is to:

  • Increase awareness and promote the use of free software within Manchester.
  • Provide a friendly and accessible community for individuals in Manchester to learn about and discuss free software, with particular emphasis on ethical considerations.
  • Be a source of information regarding free software to individuals and organisations in Manchester.

ACTION: Lucy to mail the list to get final feedback from members.

Responsibilities

As Simon had not had the chance to review the responsibilities after the previous meeting, a list of current responsibilities was drawn up during the meeting along with the person currently in charge of each. The list is as follows:

  • Chairperson (general coordinator, leader of meetings and responsible for most announcements – Simon
  • Mailing list moderator – Simon, Paul, Matt Lee
  • Minute taker – Various
  • Talk organiser – Various, mainly Dave and Simon
  • Web admin – Paul, Simon (with Tim also having an account)

It was also agreed that we should have someone responsible for finding speakers and for contacting special interest groups for particular talks. It was agreed that the person(s) responsible for this will vary depending on the speaker, although it was emphasized that everyone can and should try to find new speakers.

ACTION: Simon will add Dave as a website admin.
ACTION: Tim agreed to create a wiki page with a list of places to promote talks regularly. This will include mailing lists, Indymedia and other local groups.
ACTION: Tim agreed to get Manchester Free Software listed on the Free Software Foundation website as a free software group.
ACTION: Tim to submit an article about the upcoming talk to Indymedia, with Dave's help.

Speakers

No further speakers were confirmed and Dave was unable to contact Mick Fuzz about a potential talk. So, it was decided to assign members present a the meeting speakers to contact from the list of possible speakers on the wiki.

ACTION: Dave to email Mick Fuzz, Jason Clifford (who runs the UKFSN ISP), John Pugh (Lib Dem MP) and Steve Durrant (Green Party).
Tim to contact Alan Burlinson, Stephen Fry and a representative of Moodle.
Simon to contact Howard Welte, Tim Fletcher and Ian Forrester.
Lucy to contact Ben Green from Bristol Wireless.

Venue

No change. We are booked until September and further bookings will be made once July's talk is confirmed.

Web Site

No time was available for discussion on this.

Any Other Business

ACTION: Simon to contact Matt Lee to arrange an IRC meeting for discussion of the future and planned direction of FSUK.

LUG Radio Live: Simon, Lucy and possibly Tim are planning on attending this event and it was felt that it would be a good idea for Manchester Free Software to have a presence. Suggestions included having a stall or working with the planned FSF stall.

Software Freedom Day: Dave suggested creating a LTSP cluster in central library to promote free software.

ACTION: Matt to pass on contact details for the appropriate people at the library to Dave, and Dave to contact to them.

Next Meeting

Everyone was happy with the Waterhouse as the location for the meeting and so it was decided that the next meeting should take place at the Waterhouse, on Monday 14th July at 7pm.

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