Group: Manchester/2009-04-06/Minutes

Manchester Free Software Minutes

19.00, Monday 6th April 2009

Present: Lucy, Matt M, Michael, Jonathan D, Dave, Simon, Tim, Matthew L (later).

Apologies: none

Announcements

A party to celebrate the release of Ubuntu 9.04 is being held at the BBC on Oxford Road, on Friday 24th April. See the mailing list post for more details.

This week it became law for ISPs in the UK to start holding communications data (phone calls, email headers and HTTP requests) about their customers.

Last Meeting

The minutes of 9th March 2009 were read and approved as correct.

Room Booking

The group has speakers for April, May, June & July but no rooms booked. In the recent poll, the majority of votes were to leave the MDDA.
Jonathan had heard of a group called Community Foundation who he thought may be able to offer rooms.
Dave suggested Nexus Art cafe as a potential venue. Revolution (Deansgate Locks) was also suggested.
Tim suggested the BBC.
Simon suggested vacant offices at his place of employment with the possibility of hiring the board room at a cost of £50. The Group would need to source a projector if the chosen venue is not able to provide one.
Dave suggested that if the Group were to meet at the University, a student society could book the rooms for free on its behalf.

ACTION: Lucy to investigate room options further.
ACTION: Lucy to send poll to list.
ACTION: Dave to talk to Openmedia Student Society.

Speakers

Tim chased Glyn Wintle of the Open Rights Group, who previously has tentatively agreed to do talk.
Lucy has chased John Adams and Dan Lynch.

ACTION: Michael to confirm Chris Warburton talk date.

ACTION: Dave to arrange for student society to book a University room for October talk.

ACTION: Tim to talk to Microsoft guy.

Books

The group discussed setting up an online store, but decided against it as being unnecessary.

Lucy mentioned that she started to advertise the books to the mailing list and at the University.

ACTION: Michael to divide up books for distribution amongst group members.

ACTION: Matthew L to email a listing of books to University students at the beginning of next term.

Banking

No progress on Banking.

ACTION: Matt M to write business plan and continue with plans to open bank account.

Marbella Cafe

The group awaits instructions from Janey of MCC (formerley Marbella Cafe).

ACTION: Michael to speak to Janey about the Marbella cafre computers.

The Arcspace Project

The launch date of Arcspace is the 18th April, a number of members of the group plan to attend.

ACTION: Lucy to arrange workshops (recycling, GNU Linux) materials and poster.

ACTION: Lucy to send details of the launch event and Futuresonic fringe festival to the list. ACTION: Michael to speak to Arcspace about increasing their use of the term free software, rather than open source, and about linking to the FSF.

Oekonux Conference

The Group sold £100 of merchandise. Members agreed that the conference was an enjoyable day.

Chairperson Elections

The chairperson elections are proceeding as agreed in the last meeting, with an announcement going out to the mailing list.

Any Other Business

ACTION: Dave to write a letter addressed to MEPs arguing against software patents for members to sign.

ACTION: Lucy agreed to email the list suggesting members email their local councillors to encourage the council to use more free software, in light of the recent government report on the subject.

ACTION: Matt Larsen volunteered to try to arrange a stall for freshers' fair.