[StaffsLUG General] Re: ORG Stoke: Summer Open Rights Night 2026 (YES, we know - WE KNOW)

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… ——————————————— 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! ———————————————