Group: Manchester/2008-10-13/Minutes

Manchester Free Software Minutes

19:00, Monday 13th October 2008

Attendance: Simon, Dave, Tim, Steffi, Lucy, Michael, Matt M
Apologies: None

Last Meeting

The minutes of the last meeting on 8th September 2008 were read and approved.

Announcements

None

Speakers

October's speakers were confirmed as Michael, Tim and Enrico talking about the new OpenMoko phone. It was also suggested that Simon give a review of the Manchester OSM mapping party.

It was announced that November's talk will be given by Elmar Geese, CEO of the .. company in Germany.

No talk has been planned for December and it was agreed that we should use the opportunity to have a social event and celebrate our first birthday.

It was announced that Ian Lynch has agreed to give a talk for January's meeting.

A discussion was held about whether we should continue to hold monthly talks or whether we should use some meetings for more informal and more social events. The general feeling was that we should reduce the number of speakers, particularly due to the time required for organising such events. It was agreed to continue the discussion on the mailing list.

Lucy mentioned that she updated the wiki with the list of contacted speakers and a whole list of new potential speakers to contact. She also added a publicity page, linked to from the main page, bringing together a number of resources containing materials, groups to contact etc.

From last month's actions:
Lucy contacted John Pinner, (Mr) Ben Thorpe, Ian Lynch, Axiom Tech.
Simon forgot to contact Harald Welte.
Dave spoke to someone else from Bristol Wireless who was interested in giving a talk at a future date.

ACTION: Dave to make cupcakes for the November meeting to celebrate MFS first birthday, as a precursor to the party in December. ACTION: Dave to email the list to find out how people feel about having fewer talks and more social events in future. ACTION: Tim to contact a primary school that runs LTSP and a co-op (plings?) for potential speakers.

Books

Lucy emailed Matt Lee asking for clarification and providing information about who can look after them but had no reply.

Lucy looked into creating a community group account with the co-op to store this money (and any other money from selling badges, etc). The account provides free day-to-day banking and requires a minimum of two named account holders (plus additional signatories if required), who are over 18. It was agreed that the account should NOT have a debit card with it and that any two signatures should be required to withdraw money. Matt agreed to take on some of the treasurer responsibilities.

ACTION: Lucy to contact Matt Lee/FSF again.
ACTION: Lucy to speak to Paul about setting up a request tracker (i.e trac or RT) on the web server.
ACTION: Matt to look into creating a business plan and constitution for the banking application.

Software Freedom Day Review

MFS successfully invaded the Marbella Cafe [1], Newton St on Saturday 20th September to celebrate SFD. The full details were sent to the list.

Things we could have done differently:
Better, earlier planning, particularly with regards the venue. This would have also improved the publicity, allowing us to advertise the event earlier.
Printing also needed to be arranged further in advance. It was pointed out that single sided printing could be photocopied instead if we get stuck.

ACTION: Dave to contact the central library to discuss why the event couldn't take place there and to find out if it could in future.
ACTION: Dave to update the software freedom day website with a write up.

Linux World Expo

Simon contacted the FSF, asking if they were planning to have a stall, but received no reply.

It was found that no one present at the meeting is able to go to Linux World Expo.

ACTION: Simon to chase up the FSF.
ACTION: Dave to organise getting some leaflets to the Expo, if Simon finds that the FSF will allow us to put some leaflets on their stall.

Any other business

Dave suggested trying to raise awareness with students, by contacting the Campaigns Collective and the Open Media Society (both at University of Manchester SU). Possible events could include the screening of RevolutionOS.

ACTION: Dave to contact Robbie Gillet and Andy Bowman, from the Campaigns Collective/Open Media Society.
ACTION: Lucy to contact the University of Manchester Computer Users' Society (if it still exists).

ACTION: Matt to set up a facebook group to promote Manchester Free Software

Next Meeting

It was agreed that the next meeting should take place at the Marbella Cafe again, on Monday 10th November, 7pm.