ORG Stoke: Summer Open Rights Night 2026 (YES, we know - WE KNOW)
by Steven Maddox
Hello!
This is just a quick message to tell you the friendly people over at ORG
Stoke are running their second annual social in August OCTOBER! Yes
yes, we know it's hardly summer - but there were a bunch of people not
free this year in August... just go with it.
Where? China Gardens (the Toby Carvery pub in Festival Park)
When? Tuesday 6th October from 6pm onwards
The event is purposefully designed to welcome anyone from the local
area, including from other groups. So you don’t need to be a member to
come along.
Please see their official Meetup event here…
https://www.meetup.com/org-stoke-on-trent/events/316722151/
If you don’t fancy RSVP’ing on that page… just reply to this (or email
stoke(a)openrightsgroup.org) if you could please, to get an idea of
numbers of people coming.
Here is the summary from that page…
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Join us for our second annual Summer Open Rights Night!
Yes, yes… October probably isn’t summer… but lots of people didn’t seem
like they were going to be free in August this year! So it is a bit
delayed, but sod it we’re keeping the name!
This is a relaxed social gathering, both for ORG Stoke members
(including those of you who are just on the mailing list) and also for
anyone else from other local groups that have an interest in digital
rights, free speech, and privacy.
We'll be meeting at the China Gardens pub (the To-B-y Carvery) in
Festival Park, and hopefully it’ll be sunny so we can all sit outside in
the beer garden… that is right on the canal! A couple of years back this
pub had £600k spent on it, so hopefully it’ll be a great venue again
that is fairly central to Stoke-on-Trent. It’s easy to get to by both
car, bus, and I guess barge too!
Officially we’re not providing any food or drinks at this event, but you
can get whatever you need from the bar… and if you’re a student or
something I’m sure we can donate a pint or two!
Mostly this will be a social with conversation occasionally (but it’s
not mandatory!) being related to current worries or ideas you have about
the ever changing digital rights landscape in the UK.
We’ll also be running a team-based, multiple-choice quiz! (possibly some
prizes too!) Perhaps some other games and activities as well… but yeah
we’ll have stuff to do reason to get to know each other.
Hope to see you there! Bring as many people along as you like!
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1 week, 6 days
Hack:Keele 1st social of the new 2026/2027 year
by Steven Maddox
Hello StaffsLUG and FSFE Potteries people!
Hack:Keele <https://keelesu.com/activities/society/hackkeele/> are
having their 1st social of the new academic year TONIGHT from 6pm onwards.
I'd normally get better notice of this sooner they only sent a Discord
announcement 9pm last night and it seems I'm not on the newsletter any more!
The event is open to non-students and there is no need to join either...
a few of us are already going too (so you'll see some friendly faces).
Anyone familiar with our old meetings in Keele at IC1 will be familiar
with the area... but in this case park on the main campus car park and
walk over to Colin Reeves which is on this map
<https://www.keele.ac.uk/about/howtofindus/maps/keele-campus-map.pdf>
listed as building 24 (which is north-west of where the sports centre
is). Anyone struggling to find it (or get in) just ring 01782 444525
which will go through to my mobile and I can help.
*I've put the original event information below.*
Also... If you *did* want to join (no obligation to) then it's done via
the keelesu.com <https://keelesu.com> website (but it's having issues
doing this currently) where you'd pay £10 for the year to be an
"Affiliate" of the Societies of Keele... and then you can join any
society allowing "Associate" (i.e. non-student) memberships... like
Hack:Keele for free for the year.
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*Location:* Colin Reeves, CR0.10 OR CR0.12
*When:* TODAY (Wednesday 30th September) 6pm to 6pm
Greetings all, welcome and welcome back to Keele.
Hack's first social will be in *Colin Reeves, CR0.10* from 6pm 'til 9pm
on Wednesday 30th September. There's no particular aim here, just mess
around with tech, talk about nerdy stuff, and we should have some
practice locks and tools out if you're interested in picking them at
all. We'll also have the society's computer running along with a couple
other bits and bobs. This is also a good session to talk to us committee
members about any potential things you'd like to see later in the year.
As with all of our socials, you don't necessarily need to be a society
member on https://keelesu.com/ to join us, although it does help our
numbers if you do join for the low cost of £0.00 and your time. As with
all societies, this also signs you up to our mailing list.
n.b. if you were unable to join prior to the Freshers Fair this issue
has now been solved
*If you're locked out of the building, please @ any online Committee
member and we'll let you in. Feel free to turn up and go whenever you want.*
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Steven Maddox
Lantizia
2 weeks, 5 days